WBEN-TIT 585 



either side of the bill; but still she failed to go to her nest. The other 

 member of the pair (presumed to be the male) came near once or twice 

 but soon went off again and called in usual wren-tit manner fifty yards 

 or more away. The bird with worms in the bill called occasionally in 

 slower cadence, but with the same distinctive quality to the utterance, it 

 being in no wise muffled by her mouthful. Every bit of the ground 

 adjacent was searched carefully and then the observer turned and gave 

 similar attention to the canopy of brush above him, which showed many 

 small dark masses against the sky. Finally the nest was located, merely 

 a dark spot in the uppermost Adenostoma foliage, 7 feet above the ground, 

 much higher than is usual for the nest of this species. 



The nest was of globular form, thin-walled but deeply cupped, made 

 of fine grayish vegetable substances which were bound together with cobweb. 

 It rested in the spray of terminal foliage of a slanting greasewood stalk. 

 There were three unfeathered young, and it was for these that the female 

 had been gathering food and showing such cautious concern. 



Through the nesting season and until late June or early July all of 

 the wren-tits keep to their foothill haunts. But as soon as the young are 

 fully fledged some of the birds commence to wander and a few range well 

 beyond the limits of their home precincts. In all probability these strays 

 are young-of-the-year as is the case with most other species given to vagrant 

 travel in the late summer months. Our earliest record for a wren-tit above 

 the Upper Sonoran Zone is for July 21 (1915) when one bird was heard 

 near Cascades. On July 30 (the same year) 2 were heard near Rocky 

 Point in Yosemite Valley; on August 17 one was noted near the same 

 place; while on September 1 at least 2 were in evidence near the head of 

 Nevada Falls. This last-named station and the walls of Tenaya Canon 

 at about the same altitude (6000 feet) seem to mark the eastern limit of 

 the ' wander ' zone ; at least no wren-tit was seen by us beyond these places. 

 The birds continue to occupy the brush thickets on the Valley wall through 

 September and even to the end of October, two being noted October 30, 

 1915, high on the Yosemite Falls trail. And even on December 30, 1914, 

 one or more wren-tits were noted close to 'old' Inspiration Point (4943 

 feet altitude) on the Big Oak Flat road. By spring if not earlier, the 

 species has entirely withdrawn to the foothills. 



The aggregate wren-tit population of the whole foothill country with 

 its thousands of acres of chaparral is very large. Yet the birds are so 

 spaced that their numbers are not so impressive as are those of a flocking 

 species. Every little eaiion has its pair or more of the birds. At Pleasant 

 Valley in May, before the appearance of the annual broods, it was esti- 

 mated that there was a pair of wren-tits to every 4 acres of greasewood. 

 In early winter on the south-facing slope above El Portal 6 to 9 wren-tits 



