WRIGHT'S FLTOATCHEE. 319 



Mr. F. Stephens informs me that he considers this species only as a migrant 

 in southern CaUfornia, but possibly a few may breed in the pine regions. 



In Calaveras County, California, Messrs. L. Belding and J. Clarence Sperry 

 found it common and breeding in the fir forests of the Sierra Nevada Moun- 

 tains, the nests usually being placed in nianzanita, hazel, dogwood, and other 

 shrubs; and both have sent nests and eggs to the National Museum. Mr. Robert 

 Ridgway collected several nests and eggs in the East Humboldt Mountains, and 

 near Austin, Nevada, as well as in Parley's Park, in the Wasatch Mountains, 

 Utah, where this species was very common. The nests were all placed in aspens, 

 excepting one taken near Austin, Nevada, on July 3, 1868, which was found in 

 a mountain mahogany bush on the extreme summit of a hill, at an altitude of 

 about 9,000 feet, and another in Parley's Park, on June 28, 1869, in a service- 

 berry bush. In New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado it appears' to be somewhat 

 rarer during the breeding season. 



Mr. Denis Gale found a nest and four eggs, on July 22, 1888, in Boulder 

 County, Colorado, at an altitude of about 10,000 feet; these he presented to the 

 United States National Museum collection. The nest was placed about 30 inches 

 from the ground, against the trunk of a spruce bush, at the edge of a small clump 

 of these trees. Mr. A. W. Anthony took one near Silverton, San Juan County, 

 Colorado, on Jiine 27, which also contained four fresh eggs, and describes the 

 nest as composed of silvery -white strips of the inner bark of a willow, lined 

 with fine grass stems and cattle hair. The nest looked like an inverted cone, 

 and was fully 8 inches in length by 4 in diameter at the largest part. It was 

 fastened about 4 feet from the ground to an almost upright willow, apparently 

 tied on with spiders' silk alone, but was partly supported by a fork at the top. 



I found my first nest of this species near the banks of the Des Chutes River, 

 Oregon, on June 12, 1882 ; it was placed close to the trunk of a small pine sapling, 

 about 5 feet from the ground. It contained three eggs, in which incubation had 

 commenced. The female remained on the nest until I almost touched her with 

 my hand, she then flew off and alighted in another small pine a few feet away, 

 and uttered a few low notes like "tweer-tweer." Subsequently, during this and 

 the season of 1883, I found some twenty-five nests, which were nearly all placed 

 in similar situations, against the trunks of small saplings, such as pine, aspen, 

 alder, or willow, the first two being seemingly preferred, or in upright forks in 

 bushes, such as laurel or service berry, and from 2 to 18 feet from the ground. 

 It also nests occasionally in wild-plum bushes and in buck brush. 



One of the neatest nests I have seen of this species was taken by me July 

 5, 1882, on the side of the mountain east of Fort Klamath, Oregon, this being 

 the only one I did not find in the valley. It was placed in a good-sized laurel 

 bush {Kalmia), in a stout three-pronged fork, about 2 feet from the ground. It 

 measures 3^^ inches in outer diameter by 2^ inches in depth; the inner cup is 1| 

 inches wide by IJ inches deep. Exteriorly it was composed entirely of decayed 

 plant fibers, which were compactly interwoven with each other, and the inside 

 was warmly lined with feathers of the Sooty Grouse, Yellow Warbler, and other 



