Oct. 1885.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



149 



residence by the male, while the female was sit- 

 ting on her eggs, for it evidently belonged to the 

 same pair of birds, and wlicther the nests first 

 mentioned were built as residences to protect the 

 birds from the storms of Winter or for breeding 

 pvirposes, perhaps some one better acquainted 

 with the habits ot this Wren can inform me. 



Another very common denizen of the cactus 

 is the House Finch, one of our most abundant 

 birds. A large variety of material enters into 

 tlie composition of their nests, fine grass, leaves, 

 wool, string, nags, newspaper, anything in fact 

 lliat is most easily obtained, and the nests are 

 often very pretty and dainty structures. Tlie 

 eggs are from three to five in number, of a bluish- 

 white, marked with blackish spots and lines, 

 thickest upon the large end. I have occasionally 

 found in a set one egg entirely unmarked. The 

 House Finches are of a more sociable nature 

 than the majority of our birds, collecting in large 

 numbers in the towns and about dwellings. In 

 Santa Fe, where they are numbered by thousands, 

 their favorite nesting place is upon the beams of 

 the portals, or covered ways, in front of the 

 houses. Here they are looked upon by the fruit 

 growers as fully as great a nuisance as the Eng- 

 lish Sparrow at the East from their fondness for 

 the flower buds of the peach and other fruit 

 trees. They are very prolific, two and e^en 

 three broods being raised in a season. 



At Santa Fe, too, the Rocky Mountain Blue- 

 bird build.s its nest about the adobe buildings and 

 corrals. The inner bark of the Cedar enters 

 largely into the composition of their homes, with 

 a lining of .soft feathers, gathered from the cor- 

 ral yards. Upon this soft nesting place are laid 

 from four to si.x eggs of a beautiful light blue, 

 measuring .B.'J.v.OS. 



Entering my favorite cactus patch April 8, I 

 saw a pair of Road-runners leap from one of the 

 bushes. One, a male, fell before my gun, but the 

 other was too swift for me and escaped to the 

 neighboring mesa. On examination of the cac- 

 tus from which they came, I found a nest con- 

 taining four pure white eggs, I.SO.kI.ST. They 

 differed from any eggs that I have ever seen in 

 having a curious outside covering very much like 

 enamel. This had been scratched off in many 

 places, evidently by the claws of the bird com- 

 ing in contact with the shell. The nest was a 

 rather bulky structure of coarse sticks mingled 

 with grass and roots, lined with a few feathers of 

 the Road-runner. It rested upon the almost hor- 

 izontal branches ^of the cactus, some eighteen 

 inches from the ground. Not having the means 

 of carrying the nest home I left it to be taken at 

 some future day. About a fortnight later I fright- 



ened another Road-runner from a cactus, only 

 a few rods from the one in which I had found my 

 first nest, and on investigating found a second, 

 also with four eggs, some three feet from the 

 ground. M.ay 13, on going to secure my first 

 nest, I was surprised to find a Road-runner upon 

 it, and a curious spectacle it presented, its head 

 laid flat upon the edge of the nest, its bright yel- 

 low eyes regarding me attentively, and its long 

 tail elevated at an angle of some forty-five de- 

 grees. For a minute or two I watched the bird, 

 when, at a slight movement on my part, it sprang 

 from the nest, but as it ran across the flat dropped 

 at the discharge of my gun. Returning to my 

 nest my surprise was increased to find it contained 

 five fresh eggs. The bird I had shot, on dissec- 

 tion, proved to be a male, giving evidence that 

 he shares with the female in the duties of incu- 

 bation. It has been a question with me whether 

 the female in the first instance deprived of her con- 

 sort, had secured another mate, built and fur- 

 nished the second nest and when despoiled of this 

 had returned to the first and there laid a third and 

 larger set, or had a second pair, searching for a 

 suitable place in which to build chanced upon the 

 nest, ready for occupancy, and taken possession 

 of it. The former seems tome, taking everything 

 into consideration, to be the more probable solu- 

 tion of the case. I secured during the season 

 several other sets, in one case the nest being built 

 in an old Alder bush on a hillside. 

 {Condunion lu.rt in')„th) 



A Catalogue of the Birds of Kalama- 

 zoo County, Mich. 



nv DR. MORRIS GIBBS. — r.\RT VIIT. 



l.'il. [432.] Acapiter fuscus (Gmcl.) Bp. 

 Sharp-shinned Hawk. With us only a transient, 

 or at least never taken at a time to prove their 

 summering here. My latest date of capture in 

 Spring is April 29th, and my earliest Fall speci- 

 men is Sept. l.'jth. Never common, and so small 

 and unobtrusive as to be rarely taken. 



152. [433.] Asttn- ntricapillus (Wills.) Bp. 

 American Goshawk. A rare species, taken once 

 in the county in Winter. 



153. [43G.] Buteo borenlis (Gm.) Vieill. Red- 

 tailed Hawk. Arrives from Feb. 20th to March 

 1st, as a rule, but occasionally much earlier. In 

 open seasons this Hawk may be found straggling 

 in this neighborhood any month of Winter. We 

 m.ay consider it as not yet departed for the south 

 when seen in December, and as an early arrival 

 when observed in January. Nests abundantly, 

 usually preferring high lands, always in woods. 



