June 1887.] 



A^D OOLOGIST. 



93 



The plumage of this bii-d is bright bhie, in 

 the male, with the wings, tail and the feathers 

 round the bill black, and wing with chestnut 

 wing bars. Males in full pluuiage, however, 

 are rather scarce; the blue of the under parts 

 often being more or less mixed or replaced by 

 white, and there is often a good deal of brown 

 on the back; the head, however, is always 

 bright blue. The female is olive brown, more 

 yellowish below, wing bars somewhat paler 

 than in the male, the second one sometimes 

 whitish. The tail in both sexes has the two 

 outer tail feathers slightly tipped with white 

 or whitish. Young of the year are like the fe- 

 male both in size and color. 



Measurements are as follows : male, l. 6.70, 

 w. 3.38, T. 2.70, E. 10.75; female, a young of 

 the year, l. 6.50, w. 3.19, t. 2.51, E. 10..54. 



The Catbird of the West. 



I invite a close inspection of this bird as he 

 seems to be a much ditierent fellow from the 

 noisy bird of the East. I have never found it 

 at this elevation (8513 feet) but in the Missouri 

 Kiver region I had ample opportunity to 

 study the bird. 



At Fort Laramie, W3'omiug, it is perhaps 

 the most abundant, but if you do not look for 

 him he will not be seen ; frequenting the dense 

 undergrowth along the streams and building- 

 its nest in the darkest and most secluded places, 

 it silently leaves its nest and is seen no more 

 until the intruder is well out of the way. No 

 noisy, cat-like cry is heard at any time, it is 

 only at sunrise and sunset that he is heard 

 singing a song that is surpassed bj^ none of 

 the thrushes except the mockingbird. In fact, 

 he is a fine mimic himself and unless you can 

 see and catch your bird you will think the 

 thicket is full of song birds. The difterent 

 notes follow so closely that you cannot dis- 

 tinguish where one begins or the other leaves 

 oft', and it is diftcult to make up your mind but 

 that several birds are singing at once. 



When the nest is robbed the bird makes the 

 best of his lot; not a grumble is heard, but 

 stifling his silent grief he seeks a still more 

 secluded spot and again builds, and this time 

 his nest is safe, for it will be placed in the 

 midst of bushes where perhaps the nest may be 

 in full sight. No man will care to try and 

 reach it, unless he wishes to lose his clothes 

 and several pounds of skin and flesh. Bul- 

 berry bushes have long sharp thorns, and in 

 the midst of these is generally the second nest. 



The birds seem to be on intimate terms with 

 the Shrike, as I have seen them breeding in the 

 same bush, but each seemed to hold undisputed 

 possession of his particular side of the bush. 

 Perhaps the Shrike is fond of music and lets 

 the Catbird build near him that his mate may 

 enjoy the evening concert. At any rate, the 

 last named is not much of a warbler during 

 the breeding season, although he can sing 

 beautifully and does in the cold winter even- 

 ings, and strange to say when he is all alone, 

 with snow, ice and leafless trees to set off his 

 song. Perhaps this is what makes it so beau- 

 tiful. 



Nesting of the White-tailed Kite. 



BY SAMUEL C. EVANS, SAN JOSE, CAL, 



The White-tailed Kite (Ehttms glancus) is a 

 bird which I have never found singly, but al- 

 ways in paiis, at all times of the year. I no- 

 ticed this especially on the Russian Kiver from 

 June to August, 1885, when I saw several pairs, 

 each pair separated from the others by several 

 miles. Never did I see one bird by itself, but 

 always two together and never more. 



In the Santa CJlara Valley they are more 

 abundant than in the Russian River Valley, and 

 in the former place they breed near each other. 

 Several nests were found within a radius of 

 half a mile. 



All of the nests of this bird that I have ever 

 seen were near a body of water, and were gen- 

 erally placed in oak or sycamore trees. The 

 nests are invariably very shallow and slight, 

 being built of dry sticks, and sometimes lined 

 with grass. The average height of eight nests 

 was about forty feet, and it is to be noticed that 

 they are almost alwaj^s placed in the slenderest 

 branches. 



When their nest is approached the bii'ds some- 

 times fly away quickly, but again others will 

 hover over the nest and utter sharp, jjiercing 

 cries from time to time. 



They are very unsuspecting birds, and will 

 not desert their nests, no matter how much 

 they are disturbed. During the season of 1886 

 I tried the following experiment with great 

 success. I found several nests which I visited 

 fi-equently in order to watch the birds, and 

 substituted small eggs of the domestic hen, 

 painted the color of tliose of the Kite. I con- 

 tinued doing this until the birds ceased laying, 

 and thus obtained full sets. They did not seem 



