50 



THE CONDOR Vol. IX 



Stoicalh' and unflinchingly he sat on a limb among the leaves, while the two blue- 

 drab midgets were attacking him vigorously. Coming closer to the tree I saw that 

 it was a California shrike that these little birds were fighting, and tho he seemed 

 to be minding his own business, the small birds resented his presence in their 

 vicinity and kept up the attack until he left their neighborhood. 



On this same morning from 7:25 to 8:25, the birds fed thirty-five times, less 

 than two minutes apart; the male twenty-seven times, the female fourteen. The 

 next morning, in the hour from 6:37 to 7:37, the birds fed forty-six times, the male 

 thirty-six and the female twenty-four times. In looking over my notes I find that 

 the birds fed more often early in the morning than later in the day. 



In five hours, 6:30 to 11:30, they fed one hundred and fifty-two times, or an 

 average of thirty-eight times an hour. Allowing sixteen hours to their day, we can 

 estimate that they fed six hundred and eight times. The word "gnatcatcher" 

 proved to be a misnomer, the food brought so often being small white worms. 



On the night before our departure for the city, my companion returned to camp 

 and announced that she had found another gnatcatcher's nest. It was built on the 

 south side of a tall, straight eucalyptus tree about twenty feet from the ground, its 

 only supports being the tiny twigs that grew out from the side of the tree. Like 

 the other nest it was small across, but deep, and so exactly matched the gray of the 

 tree that it was hard to locate, even when one knew where it was. The tree grew 

 near the road and tho we had passed it many times every day, it remained unknown 

 to us until the vociferous calling of the 3'oung revealed their whereabouts. 



There were three birds in the nest and we were more than pleased to see that 

 they were much larger than the others we were watching. These little fellows were 

 fully feathered and looked just like their parents except that their tails were shorter. 

 They were ver}^ uneasy in the nest and it seemed evident that they would not sta^^ 

 there long. They noticed the old birds when they came near the tree and called 

 loudly to be fed. We had never heard the other nest of j'oung make any noise or 

 take an3' notice except as the old birds put the food in their mouth. 



An oak tree grew so near the nest tree that its branches almost touched the 

 latter. This tree was used b^^ the gnatcatchers for their preliminary jumping 

 ground when they did not go directly to the nest; but quite often they came right 

 to the nest, or approached it by way of a lower twig, leaving by one of the 

 upper ones. These birds fed oftener than the others, one hundred and five times 

 being the record for two hours that we watched them. Little wonder that they had 

 no time to waste in unnecessary movements with such vigorous youngsters making 

 demands upon them! 



At 7:37 A. M., as we watched at the nest, we believed our dearest hopes were 

 to be realized, and that we were to see these youngsters make their debut into the 

 world; for suddenly one fluff}' ball came fluttering forth from its gray home, land- 

 ing on one of the twig supports. But, alas, all too quickly our hopes were crushed, 

 for no sooner had the nestling stopped himself than he turned about and scrambled 

 post-haste, back into the nest. It was really very funny to see him. He cuddled 

 down into the nest after this exertion as if he were glad to rest. Again in the 

 afternoon about 1:30 a young bird left the nest. Standing on the edge he fluttered 

 his wings twice as if trying to get up courage, and then the third time he flew out 

 onto a twig, perhaps six inches from his home. This time as before, the stay on 

 the twig was a short one, the bird hurrying back to the nest as in the case of the 

 morning trial. 



We watched at this nest until 4:30 p. m., when it was time for qs to start for 



