1889.]_ Brnprre on the Nest and Eggs of Clarke’s Nutcracker. 227 
utes, when another call-note was exchanged between them, some- 
what similar to the first which had arrested my attention. This 
second note seemed to me to indicate less alarm; there was more 
of chuckle or derision in it. The twigs the birds had in their 
bills were dropped nearly simultaneously, and the pair swooped 
down the mountain side, and were lost to view almost imme- 
diately. 
“I determined to follow up this clew, and day after day I 
closely examined every tree and bush within a radius of half a 
mile of where I first saw the birds. This close scrutiny resulted 
in the discovery of three skeletons of old nests, which I assigned 
to this species. Several entire days were spent at this work with- 
out once seeing a bird, and I began to despair. 
‘¢ On March 5, I tried in a new direction, and when about one 
third of the mountain had been climbed, about a mile distant from 
my previous operations, I observed a Nutcracker flying high over 
my head, and this manceuvre was within an hour repeated a sec- 
ond and a third time, the bird seemingly each time coming from 
the same quarter. This, I felt assured, meant something, and 
somewhat renewed my hopes of success. I went on steadily with 
the search, which, to be effectual, I had arranged in this way: I 
worked up the mountain side, right and left, upon a swath half a 
mile wide, taking in from thirty to fifty feet of ascent each time. 
Eventually I came upon the object of my search, about three 
hundred yards distant from my second starting point, and about 
two hundred yards higher than the locality where I had first 
noticed the bird flying over my head. While doing this, he evi- 
dently was reconnoitring, and each time, upon making his rounds. 
passed near the nest, assuring his mate thereby of his watchful- 
ness. As I worked gradually nearer the nest he was not to be 
seen, and this seeming indifference of the male, and the pertinacity 
of the female in covering her nest until almost forcibly dislodged, 
are great odds against even the most energetic collector. 
‘¢ The nest was placed eight feet from the ground, in a bushy 
black pine (Pixzus ponderosa?) which branched out from the 
ground with a probable spread of fifteen feet. The tree was about 
twenty feet high. The nest was situated about thirty inches from 
the main stem, near a bunch of scrub, and firmly saddled on a 
three-pronged fork of a stout limb three inches in diameter, with 
smaller ones growing about and around it, so that nothing save 
