152 THE CONDOR Vol. IX 



and thicker brush and buckthorn on the steeper ridges of the rugged mountains. 

 These birds are not like the Western Mockingbird and some of our other birds 

 which are silent for several months during the year, for their call can be heard at 

 intervals by the bird student on a calm cloudy day in winter as well as on a bright 

 warm sunlit morning in spring, but not with such frequency. 



But to return to the nesting habits, of which I feel that I really know very 

 little as I have never found many of their nests. The few that I have discovered 

 were back in the mountains north of here. The notes that I have of one found 

 last year are interesting. On May 15, while on a fishing trip near Dell's Camp 

 (altitude about 4500 feet) in San Antonio Canyon (and I might say that I caught 

 thirty-five beauties that day), I came across a nest of this little bird. It was sit- 

 uated among thick branches and near the top of a scrub oak bush perhaps two and 

 a half feet up, and is a gem of bird workmanship, composed, as it is, of bleached 

 weed fibres such as fine grasses, an abundance of soft plant down, a little weed 

 bark, and fine hairy threads of bark of the yucca plant, with a few wider blades of 

 grass intermixed and woven about thru the whole thick-walled structure. A thick 

 mat of horse hair makes the lining. To more firmly bind and hold together the 

 nest, which even without would have been unusually strong and serviceable, these 

 ingenious little birds used cobwebs as an outer covering to make their house 

 doubly strong. The dimensions of the nest are: Depth, outside, five inches; 

 inside, two inches. Diameter, outside, four inches; inside, two inches. 



As the bird flushed from her three fresh eggs she fell to the ground where she 

 remained for a few moments fluttering about and uttering a hissing sound inter- 

 mingled with sharp croaks. Then seeing that I could not be enticed from her 

 home she flew up into a small bush and gave forth her whistle call, and very soon 

 Mr. Wren-tit joined his mate in her song. Since on the next morning when I ap- 

 proached the nest again the bird went thru these same actions I feel that I am safe 

 in saying that they are very characteristic of the nesting Wren-Tit. 



On every spring day that I have been in the haunts of this bird, I have been 

 looking for a chance to observe more of its home life; but, so far, I have not been 

 very successful in locating the nests, probably because of the skill with which the 

 birds conceal them among the thick bushes. But as I wander about, even tho I do 

 not find any of the Pallid Wren-Tit's nests, I am able to observe and study one or 

 another of the numerous nature subjects which are found so abundantly in our 

 Southern California fields — the sweet voiced birds, with their peculiar habits and 

 different songs, the many colored and shaped insects, and the brill'iant and sweet- 

 scented flowers; so that for any time that I spend in such pursuits I always feel well 

 repaid. 



Claremont, Calif oi'uia. 



SOME BIRDS OF SOUTHWEST COI.ORADO 

 By M. FRENCH OILMAN 



HAVING spent a little more than a year in southwest Colorado — to be exact, 

 from December 23, 1905, to January 31, 1907—1 contribute to The Condor 

 what few bird observations I was able to make. My base of operations was 

 Fort Dewis, an Indian school located in I^a Plata County at an altitude of about 

 7,500 feet. Unless otherwise stated, all records refer to this place. 



Mr. E. R. Warren of Colorado Springs kindly furnished me with some data 



