Mar., 1907 NESTING WAYvS OF THE WESTERN GNATCATCHER 49 



bird whose plumage was rather mussed, and as the female would naturally not look 

 quite so slick, after her setting, as the male, we put this bird down as the female. 

 Then, too, she seemed to be not quite so' matter-of-fact and business-like in her 

 habits, there being more femininity about her which expressed itself in the way she 

 loitered by the nest, often flying past just above the nestlings' heads, a thing the 

 slick bird never did. Several things in our subsequent watching proved, to our own 

 satisfaction, that this was, indeed, the female bird, one being that the well-kept bird 

 was the singer. 



In the three hours that I first watched at the nest the birds fed fifty-four times, 

 an average of three and one-half minutes apart. The shortest interval was one-half 

 minute, the longest nine minutes. The male fed about twice as often as the female. 

 Several times they both came at once with their offerings. It was amusing to see 

 them hurry at these times. The bird that came first always shortened its prelimi- 

 naries when it saw its mate coming, and the last bird arriving, seeming to fear it 

 would be left behind in the feeding, did not stop for any extra flitting about, but in 

 a grand scramble both birds made a rush for the nest, arriving, usually, at about the 

 same time and feeding at once. Tho we could see the wabbly heads stretched up 

 and the big mouths opened to receive the food, we could not tell whether there was 

 any method or regularity pursued by the parents in feeding. 



At ten o'clock the sun beat down upon my shoulders relentlessly. I had been 

 slipping along on the big stone on which I rested, striving to keep out of its pitiless 

 rays, but only successful for a few minutes. The nest at this time was also in the 

 sun and I knew how to sympathize with the helpless nestlings who were unable to 

 slip away from its hot rays. At four minutes past ten, the father came to feed. He 

 seemed to take in the situation for, having fed, he slipped onto the nest and sat 

 lightly above his skinny babies. For five minutes he shielded them l^efore the 

 mother came, when he slipped off and was away while the female took her place on 

 the nest and shielded the young with out-stretched wings. One little fellow showed 

 from my side of the nest as he stretched up to reach the shadow made by his mother. 



The female stayed eleven minutes on the nest this time and three times the male 

 brought her food which she in turn fed to the nestlings beneath her. At the expira- 

 tion of the eleven minutes she left the nest and did not come back for ten minutes. 

 During her absence the male fed four times, but did not attempt to shelter the 

 nestlings at this time. However, in the hour that I watched in the sun the male 

 took the nest four times, remaining, with the exception of the first time, not more 

 than two minutes, and generally leaving when the female came. Once, however, 

 he sat on the nest and she fed a young bird beneath him. It was interesting to 

 note that when the female was on the nest the male always gave the food that he 

 brought, to her, while the female did not give hers to the male but directly to 

 the young. 



The call note of these gnatcatchers is a twanging one: a nasal "tzee" given 

 sometimes once, sometimes several times in rapid succession. This nasal note is 

 usually kept up while the little sprites are foraging for food, but we noticed that 

 they were rather quiet about the nest. Quite often, but not always, the male gave 

 the single "tzee" just before feeding the young; on the contrary the female gave it, 

 if at all, after feeding, as she left the nest. Twice in the course of my watching, I 

 heard the male's song. It was a low warble with something of the nasal twanging 

 about it; still, on the whole, it was very pretty. 



On the morning of July 11, as I climbed the hill that led to the nest shortly 

 after six o'clock, I heard the gnatcatchers making a great commotion, and coming 

 in sight of a small tree I saw that some large bird was making all this trouble. 



