138 



THE OOLOGIST 



and early morning naps and who will 

 not be denied. 



Isaac E. Hess, 



Philo, Ills. 



A Pair of Cactus Wrens. 



On the seventh of March, 1899, I 

 found a Cactus Wren's nest containing 

 four egg?. Now there is nothing re- 

 markable about this, save that it pre- 

 faces the taking of a remarkable series 

 of eggs from one pair of these interest- 

 ing little birds. I left the set two days, 

 and then, on the 9th, as no more eggs 

 had been laid, I took the set, which 

 proved to be about four days incubat- 

 ed. The nest was, by actual measure- 

 ment three and one-half feet from the 

 ground and was the only nest in this 

 particular group of cacti clumps, which 

 cover about two acres of the hillsides 

 near my home here in the heart of the 

 Southern California Oil Field. In this 

 case then, no decoy nest had as yet 

 been built, probably for the reason that 

 no collector had ever disturbed their 

 retreat before. 



Three or four days later they com- 

 menced operations on a second nest, 

 from which, on the 22d of the same 

 month, I took four egrs, incubation one 

 day. This nest was built four feet from 

 the ground in a clump of cacti about 

 fifty feet from the first nest. 



They then selected one of the decoy 

 nests (I neglected to state that three or 

 four very poor nests were built, though 

 not lined with the usual heavy lining of 

 feathers, at varying distances from the 

 second nest) and on the 4th of April i 

 took my third set, this time of five eggs 

 from the nest placed three and one-half 

 feet up in cactus. It will be noticed 

 that the differences between the first 

 and second sets, and the second and 

 third sets were equal, viz: thirteen 

 days. So when thirteen days elapsed, 

 I, after some searching, located their 

 fourth nest only two and one-Lalf feet 



up in low cactus. This time it held 

 four eggs, but in taking them from the 

 nest 1 succeeded in breaking two I 

 thoroughly cleant-d the nest from bits 

 of shell and blood-soaked feathers, 

 leaving the two whole eggs She laid a 

 third the next night (evidently the full 

 set would have been ^we ) Then after 

 the lapse of another day and night I 

 took the three egg^. One decoy nest 

 was built in this case, but seemed to 

 differ from usual decoy nests in t hat it 

 was but a few feet from the home nest 

 and was warmly built and lined 

 throughout. Heavy rains came on 

 about this time and 1 think the male 

 bird used this extra nest for his roost- 

 iag place at right. At any rate I have 

 often flushed him (or her (?)) from it on 

 my daily trips to the nest. 



After I took this set the pair were 

 idle for two days and then roofed over a 

 deserted Mockingbird's nest in an elder 

 tree near by. In this the female laid 

 one egg. I left it three days, and as 

 the birds were never seen, notwith- 

 standing the fact that I went to the 

 nest on three different nigats, I took 

 the one egg. This nest was about ten 

 feet from the ground and no decoy 

 nests were built. Now it happened 

 th'?t (this I learned afterward) a neigh- 

 bor had found this nest a day or two 

 before I went to it and took from it 

 four eggs. Thus her fifth set was of 

 five eggs. My data for the one egg 

 was May 3d. 



Just eight days later, May 11, I took 

 my sixth set, consistinsc of five egga, 

 from the nest which I mentioned above 

 as the probable roosting place of the 

 male bird at night. 



Thirteen da^^s afterward they had 

 built an entirely new nest and laid their 

 seventh set, this time of four eggs. The 

 nest was placed ten feet from the 

 ground in the same elder tree menlion- 

 ed before. No decoys were built, and 

 on May 24th I took this set. 

 Next time they moved to anolher 



