THE PHAINOPEPLA 175 



It is the most natural thing that the phaino- 

 peplas would choose as sites for their nests 

 these trees where they find so much of their 

 food. Generally the bird-home is built on a 

 horizontal branch of a mesquite tree just un- 

 der the mistletoe clump, where it will be well 

 screened from the eye of gazers by the myriads 

 of down-hanging, blossoming stems. The rather 

 small nest in many ways resembles that of the 

 wood pewee. It is made entirely of fine mate- 

 rials bound together with pieces of spider web 

 and is lined with wool from tomentose plants 

 found in the vicinity. The eggs are an ashy- 

 blue color, thickly covered with bluish and 

 black spots, and generally number two to the 

 nest: occasionally there are three. The ques- 

 tion here arises: Why so few eggs? Reasoning 

 by inference it may be said that it is probably 

 because the phainopeplas have few natural 

 enemies. Generally Nature provides that ani- 

 mals with many natural enemies should rear 

 many young. Thus the quail which nests on 

 the ground lays from eight to fourteen eggs for 

 each setting. The almost universally hunted 

 hares are very prolific. But the band-tailed 



