380 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [YolY. 



It is exceedingly difficult, if at all possible, to learn the liabits of a bird 

 no larger than a man's thumb, which affects such inaccessible places as 

 it does. It makes its home upon ridges, dryer and less fertile than the 

 alluvial bottoms, and where chaparral and grasses will not grow, but 

 where numerous varieties of cactus and thorny bushes flourish, with 

 occasional stunted, thorny trees, all together forming immense labyrinths, 

 wherein occur occasionally tempting bare places, which seem to be paths, 

 but yet on trial lead nowhere except to confusion, and spread over, top, 

 with trailing cactuses, whose thorns will pierce an army boot. The 

 greatest caution is necessary in leaving the roadways or trails through 

 these thickets, for fear of losing the way ; and a broiling, vertical sun, 

 and a clear view above the lower growth of at very most a few yards, 

 add still more to the difficulty of studying the bird. The nest is not so 

 difficult of sight, but access to it is often exceedingly tedious. When 

 reached, no bird is to be seen and not a note is heard. A wad of cotton 

 stuffed into the small opening on the lower side of the nest secures the 

 bird, if one is in it, and some work with the pocket pruning-shears, 

 which are almost indispensable for obtaining nests in this section, will 

 secure the branch with its thorny nest, the contents of which may be 

 examined at the working-table, when the day's collecting is over. A 

 nest, if left, would hardly be found again ; or if examination were made 

 of its contents upon the next visit, it would, in all probability, have its 

 eggs destroyed by the parent. Although we took all the specimens of 

 the bird that came in our way, yet many more could have been secured 

 had we made it a special object. Those that were shot were in low 

 bushes. In similar localities are also found Black-throated Finches, 

 White-eyed Vireos, and occasionally a Warbler. 



The nest is a marvel of bird- architecture, and consists of a hollow 

 ball composed of a triple wall of three distinct styles of structure. The 

 outside one is made of thorny twigs, and a few flower-stems, openly but 

 securely intertwined among the twigs of the living branch ; the middle 

 one is a firm plaiting half an inch thick, made of flowers, flower-stems, 

 and mosses; the inner one is a lining of feathers, matted together, suf- 

 ficiently secured to the middle wall so as to line the hollow ball through- 

 out. How different are these elaborate structures from those found by 

 Mr. Xantus at Cape St. Lucas, as described by Professor Baird in his 

 ''Eeview of American Birds," p. 85: "The single known species of the 

 genus builds a covered nest of stiff, short pieces of grass, with a hole in 

 the side, in bushes." 



The shape of the nests varies from perfectly round to retort-shape, 

 the neck of the nest being at one side and below. The size varies from 

 four to eight or ten inches in outside diameter; the inside diameter is 

 about three inches, and the opening of the neck about an inch. 



The eggs are rich pea-green of various shades, covered with irregular 

 small spots and splashes of brown, sparsely at the small end, but at the 

 other sometimes covering the entire end, though generally massed into a 



