106 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA No. 9 



Pigmy Nuthatch. Sitta pygmaea pygmaea Vigors. , 



I have only one record of this handsome little nuthatch, and that is of a 

 single silent individual that I chanced to find on the afternoon of November i, 

 T903. A large cottonwood tree growing on the bank of the Gould ditch some 

 two miles south of Clovis seemed to ofifer great possibilities in the way of food 

 for the nuthatch worked head downward from the highest branches to the base, 

 and then flew up near the top several times to begin a more thorough search 

 for some morsel overlooked on the previous round. What a num.ber of insect 

 eggs this one bird must have gleaned from even a single tree ! The occurrence of 

 this bird was recorded in The Condor (xi, 1909, p. 81). 



Calif'ornia Bush-tit. Psaltriparus minimus californicus Ridgway. 



Over the greater part of the floor of the valley there is an entire absence 

 of these little mouse-like birds, due, no doubt, to the lack of brush suitable for 

 the characteristic foraging expeditions, such an essential to every well ordered 

 flock of bush-tits. The species is very common all through the foothills, but 

 so far as I have been able to observe, it occurs within the limits of this paper 

 at only two or three points. It is resident in the brush and willows along the San 

 Joaquin River below Friant, and doubtless follows down the Kings River bottom 

 for some distance, at times. 



A small flock of bush-tits that have often been encountered along Dry Creek, 

 six miles east of Clovis, proved to be less noisy than is usual with this species, 

 and uttered their lisping "tsit," "tsit," at rather infrequent intervals, even when 

 the little flock was scattered over considerable area. They always appeared to be 

 in a hurry, and hardly paused in any tree long enough to make a thorough search 

 for the minute insects they sought. 



Nest building with the members of this species begins very early in the spring 

 as was shown by a nest found on the first day of April, 1906, in which were three 

 tiny birds and three eggs on the point of hatching. This was a bulky, thick- 

 walled pouch, suspended from a bunch of dead mistletoe just twelve feet from 

 the ground, in a large cottonwood tree growing in the creek bed. In spite of 

 the size of the nest it was not at all conspicuous, owing to the fact that it was 

 composed almost entirely of willow blossoms and lichens, exactly the color of 

 dead bark. 



Two other nests examined May 9, 1908, near the same place, were very 

 similar to the one described, and I was impressed with the thickness of the 

 lining, especially in one of them. There was a solid mass of material almost as 

 large as a base ball, composed of small feathers, many of them being a bright 

 yellow color, evidently from a yellow warbler. In each of these nests a brood of 

 young had been reared some weeks previously. 



Ruby-crowne;d Kincle;t. Regulus calendula calendula (Linnaeus). 



The subdued scolding notes of the kinglets are sometimes heard in the shade 

 trees about the city as early as October 15th. But not until a week or more has 

 been spent in the higher treetops does this little creature become sufficiently 

 accustomed to its winter home to allow us more than a glimpse of his tiny 

 greenish form as the bird flits about from branch to branch in a most restless 

 manner. When once its shyness has been overcome, however, this is one of the 



