414 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [Voir. 



loud, deep tone. This bird feeds upon berries as well as insects and 

 small reptiles. 



From the impenetrable nature of the chaparral, in which it loves to 

 dwell, it is one of the most difficult birds to follow with the gun or for 

 daily observation. Hence the meagre and conflicting information here- 

 tofore given of its breeding habits, although it is pretty widely distrib- 

 uted over the southwestern United States. In the spring of 1877, at 

 Hidalgo, Texas, I found one of its nests containing nine eggs, and in 

 my notes stated the full complement of eggs to be from eight to twelve, — 

 fully double the number heretofore recorded. I received letters from 

 several noted field ornithologists who have taken the eggs of this bird, 

 stating that in all probability I would not be able to find another clutch 

 numbering more than six. 



Having the good fortune to repeat my trip the following spring, and 

 pushing a few miles further into heavier timber and chaparral, where 

 this bird was abundant, I gave especial attention to it during my stay 

 of over six weeks in the locality. Although an accident laid me up for 

 nearly half of my stay, yet I found a score of nests of the Paisano, as 

 the bird is called there, all containing eggs, young, or both. The largest 

 clutches taken this season are one set of nine, two sets of eight each, 

 and two sets of seven each. Dissection of the parent of one of the sets 

 of seven showed another egg ready for laying. Of the rest of the nests 

 found all contained fcom one to six eggs each, all fresh or nearly so. 

 The full complement of eggs will stand as eight, occasionally nine. 

 The laying is irregular, often two or three days intervening between 

 the depositing of the eggs. Incubation begins soon after the first egg 

 is laid, and often by the time four eggs are laid an euibryo will have 

 started. In the set of nine a young bird had made an opening in one 

 egg, while two of the set were fresh. Incubation and growth of young 

 must be very rapid, for, in a nest containing six young and one egg, 

 which would have hatched in another day, the chicks were graded regu- 

 larly up to more than half the size of adult. The iDarent birds are with 

 difficulty found on the nest, owing to their quick sight and rajnd move- 

 ments. When alarmed upon the nest, they utter no cry. The half- 

 fledged young have no fear, and utter no cry when handled or killed. 



Their nests were found in all sorts of places, at heights varying from 

 four to eight feet. The junco was not more in favor than the mesquite-, 

 ebony-, or brazil-tree; a large i3rickl5^-pear cactus or a thick clump of 

 thorny bushes is often chosen. One nest was near the main gateway; 

 another in a small ebony, quite alone and exposed, close by a footpath, 

 a lack of caution to be accounted for by their being little disturbed in 

 the vicinity of Lomita. 



The nests vary in size according to location, being sometimes bulky 

 and again very fragile, but composed always of twigs, with a lining of 

 grasses, and having a depression of about the thickness of the egg. 

 Most of the eggs were found in Aj)ril; yet with thiy, as with most birds 

 of this semi-tropical climate, there is much irregularity in the season for 



