1917 BIRDS OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ISLANDS 99 
to make them show themselves again. If it is in a low thorn bush that they dis- 
appear, no amount of trampling will bring a bird forth, but as soon as one steps 
off the bush, out he pops and away to another one. I shot a juvenal with fully 
grown tail, April 2, 1915, and from then on the youngsters were not rare. The 
eggs have evidently never been discovered, but I believe that the nest is invari- 
ably built in the center of a dense patch of cactus. While I was trying to remove 
a dead bird from such a place, on March 29, and smashing the cactus as I went, 
I uncovered an unfinished nest, probably pertaining to this species. It was 
wedged under and between cactus leaves some eight inches above the ground, a 
three inch ball formed of soft fiber, and with the entrance on one side. Two 
days later when I returned, some little lining had been added, but the situation 
had been so disturbed that it was deserted before eggs were laid. 
183. Troglodytes aedon parkmani Audubon 
WESTERN House WREN 
J. Grinnell (MS) secured an immature male on Santa Cruz Island, Septem- 
ber 3, 1903. 
184. Nannus hiemalis pacificus (Baird) 
WESTERN WINTER WREN 
Nannus hiemalis pacificus (1) Willett, Pac. Coast Avif., 7, 1912, p. 102. (2) Grinnell, 
Pac. Coast Avif., 11, 1915, p. 159. 
The single record is that of a female taken by C. B. Linton (7) on Santa 
Cruz Island, October 23, 1908. 
185. Telmatodytes palustris paludicola (Baird) 
TULE WREN 
On San Nicolas Island, during January, 1911, C. B. Linton (MS) found a 
pair of these birds about a spring. As he noted them at the same spot for sey- 
eral weeks, there is small chance that the identity was incorrect. Many speci- 
mens of marsh wrens taken in the lowlands of Los Angeles County during the 
winter months, however, are referable to 7. p. plesius, so it is not impossible that 
the birds which Linton observed were of the latter race. 
186. Sitta canadensis Linnaeus 
ReEpD-BREASTED NuTHATCH 
Sitta canadensis (1) Howell and van Rossem, Condor, xi, 1911, p. 210. (2) Willett, 
Pac. Coast Avif., 7, 1912, p. 104. (3) Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avif., 11, 1915, p. 161. 
During four or five trips to the wooded top of Santa Cruz Island during the 
latter part of April, 1911, A. van Rossem and I (7) saw a couple of dozen of 
these birds, and took six specimens. These average a very little smaller than 
birds from the mainland and the east, but are otherwise indistinguishable. On 
May 1 I watched an individual excavating a nesting site in a dead stub, so they 
evidently remain during the entire year. C,. B. Linton (2) shot three October 
3 and 4, 1908. 
