TUOCIIILID.E — Till-: IirMMlN(J-lJIlU)S. 455 



all tlie coast cnuntiy <>t' California, tVoiu the slojx's uf tlio Sierra t(» tlie 

 ocean. It was lirst taken in Mexico, and named in honor of Anna, Duchess 

 of llivoli. Mr. Xuttall was tlie iii'st of our own naturalists to take it within 

 our territory. He captured a female on its nest near Santa l»arl)ara. This 

 was described and fiufuri'd l)y Audubon. The nest was attached to a small 

 burnt twig of l*Jiofini((, and was small for the bird, being only l:2o inches in 

 breadth. It was somewhat conic in shape, made of the down of "villow cat- 

 kins, intermixed with tlieir scales, and a few featiiers, tlie latter forming the 

 lining. It had none of t le neatness of the nests of our connnon s]»ecies, 

 and was so roui^h on tlie outside that Mr. Xuttall waited several davs in 

 expectation of its being completed, and found the female sitting on two 

 eggs when he caught her. J)r. Cooper, however, thinks this description 

 aj)plies much better to the nest of T. (ih-.mndri, as all that he has seen of 

 this species are twice as large, and covered externally with lichens, even 

 when on brandies not covered with these parasites. 



Dr. Gambell, in his paper published in 18-4G on the birds of California, 

 describes this as a very abundant species, numbers of which i)ass the entire 

 winter in California. At such times he found them inhabiting sheltered 

 liillsides and ])lains, where, at all seasons, a few bushy jdants were in Hower 

 and furnished them with a scanty subsistence. In the latter part of Febru- 

 ary and during March they appeared in greater numbers. About the Pueblo 

 the vineyards and the gardens were tlieir favorite resort, where they build a 

 delicate downy nest in small flowering bushes, or in a concealed s|)ot about 

 a fence. In Aiiril and ^fav thev niav be seen in almost every garden. 



In the wilder portions of the country Dr. (lambel found tliom attaching 

 tlieir nest almost exclusively to low horizontal branches of the Qacirus cf/ri- 

 foliOy or evergreen oak, so common in that region. The nest he describes 

 as small, only about an inch in depth, and 1.25 inches in diameter, formed in 

 the most delicate manner of pappus and down of various jdants matted into 

 a soft felt, with sj)ider s-webs, which he frejpiently observed them collecting 

 for the purpose, in the spring, ahuig hedges and fence-rows. The l»ase of 

 the nest is formed of a few dried male aments of the oak, which, with the 

 adjoining felt-like matting of i»a})pus, are agglutinated and bound around 

 the twig with a thick layer of s])ider's-webs. The note of this bird, he 

 states, is a slender r/zc/), fre([uently re]»eated. During the breeding-season 

 they are very juignacious, darting like meteors among the trees, uttering a 

 loud and repeated twittering scold. They also have the habit of ascending 

 to a considerable height, and then of descending with great rapidity, uttering 

 at the same time a ])eculiar cry. The glutinous pollen of a tubular Hower 

 upon which these birds feed often adheres to the rigid feathers of the crown, 

 and causes the bird to seem to have a bright yellow head. Xuttall, who 

 never obtained the male of this species, but saw them in this condition, sup- 

 })osed this to be a yellow spot in the crown, and hence his supposed species 

 of irtcroccphdas. 



