110 NOKTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Mr. Nuttall first observed their arrival on the banks of the Walilamet Iliver 

 about the niiddle ol' Mny. They were very industriously engaged in quest 

 of insects, and were by no means shy, but kept always in the low bushes in 

 the skirts of the %\ oods. On one occasion the male bird was so solicitous in 

 regard to the safety of the nest as to attract him to the place where, sus- 

 pended from a low bush, about four feet I'roni the ground, hung tlieir curious 

 home. It was i'ormed like a long purse, with a round hole for entrance near 

 tlie top, and made of nios.s, down, lint of plants, and lined with feathers. 

 The eggs were six in number, pui'e white, and already far gone toward hatch- 

 ing. In the following June, in a dark wood near Fort Vancouver, he saw 

 a tiock of about twelve, which, by imitating tlieir cliirjiing, he was able to 

 call around him, and whicli kejit up an incessant and (pierulous chirping. 



A nest of this bird presented Ijy j\Ir. Xuttall to Audubon was cylindrical in 

 form, nine inches in length and tln-ee and a half in diameter. It was sus- 

 pended from the fork of a small twig, and was composed exterucilly of hypnum, 

 lichens, and fibrous roots so interwoven as to present a smooth surface, with 

 a few stems of grasses and feathers intermingled. The aperture was at the 

 top, and did not exceed seven eighths of an inch in diameter. The diameter 

 of the internal passage for two thirds of its length was two inches. This 

 was lined with the cottony down of willows and a vast quantity of soft 

 feathers. The eggs were nine in number, pure white, .56 of an inch by .44 

 in their measurement. 



Dr. Cooper found them throughout the year near San Francisco. He 

 found one of their nests at San Diego as early as the first of !March. The 

 nest is so large, compai'ed with the size of the birds, as to suggest the idea 

 that tlie Hock unite to build it. He gives the measurements as eiglit inches 

 in length and three in diameter, outside ; the cavity five inches long, one 

 and a half in diameter. It was cylindrical, and suspendetl by one end from 

 a low branch. 



When one of these birds is killed, Dr. Cooper says that the others come 

 round it with great show of an.xiety, and call plaintively until tliey find it 

 A\ ill not follow tliem, becoming so fearless as almost to allow of their being 

 taken by the hand. 



Fsaltriparus minimus, var. plumbeus, Bmrp. 



lEAD-COLOBED BTTSH-TITMOVBE. 



Psallnn phimhrn, Yi\\VA\ V\: A. N. S. VII, Juno, 18.'i4, 118 (Little Colorado). rsnIMpnrm 

 phniiheiin, Haiui), IJinls N. Am. ISfiS, 3i»8, pi. x.vxiii, iig. 2 ; Review, 84. — Sclater, 

 Catal. 1861, 398, no. 77. — Cooi-EK, Birds Cal. I, 49. 



Sp. Char. Tail loii^, feather.^ p;ni(liiato(l. Al)ove rather liffht olivacoon.'^-cincroous. 

 Top of head rather clearer: forehead, chin, and ,«idcs of liead, pale smoky-hrowii. Be- 

 neath brownish-white, scarcely darker on the sides. Length about 4.20 inches; wing, 

 2.15; tail, 2.50. 



