Mar., 1908 OBSERVATIONS ON THE NESTING HABITS OF THE PHAINOPEPLA 



73 



alwa5''S the low song that the male so often sings, but generally it was loud enough 

 for me to plainly hear it at my home across the street. 



On the morning of June 4th, when I visited the nest the female was brooding, 

 the male nowhere in sight. This morning the female was unusually shy. She 

 moved about in the nest giving her call note with much twitching of the tail and 

 bobbing of her head. It was sixteen days since I first found the male on the nest, 

 but tho I had been watching the birds closely of late, I had seen no evidence of 

 young. At four p. m. I found the female on the nest. At 4:53 she left the nest 

 and with the mate was about in the tree. In a few minutes the male flew away 

 and the female went to catching insects near the tree. At just five o'clock she 

 came to the nest and fed once. For a moment she stood on the edge of the nest, 

 then slipped onto it without feeding again, tho she had swallowed once or twice 

 and her throat had swelled as tho she were going to do so. At 5:12 the male came 

 to the tree and the female left. In his mouth he carried a round, dark substance 

 which I believe was a nightshade berry. As he reached the nest I saw this dis- 

 appear into his throat, come up into his bill, disappear and come up again. 

 This was repeated four times, when it was fed to something in the nest in one 



feeding. Then the male took the nest. 



In half an hour the female came into the 

 tree. She was met by her mate who drove 

 her away. He twitched and called, and 

 acted so distressed that I went back out of 

 sight when he allowed his mate to come back, 

 feed, and take the nest. In five minutes the 

 male came to the nest and the female left. 

 This time the male fed several times, then for 

 one minute sat and just looked at the young 

 before taking the nest. At 5:46 he left the 

 tree; at 5:47 the female came but was driven 

 away by her mate who went to the nest twice 

 and looked at the young. At 5:50 the male 

 took the nest. At six o'clock when I left 

 he was still there. 



The next day I watched at the nest one hour and nineteen minutes commenc- 

 ing at 9:07 o'clock. During that time the male fed twice and the female three 

 times, the longest interval being twenty-two minutes, the shortest four. The 

 manner of feeding the young seemed not to change from the beginning until they 

 left the nest. As near as I could tell, berries and tiny insects formed the chief part 

 of the diet. When the birds fed pepper berries, or nightshade, the berries were 

 taken from the mouth down into the neck, and back several times before feeding. 

 In the case of the insects they seemed to be carried in the throat, extending down 

 into the neck, from which they were brought up by a sort of pumping motion, not 

 violent, however, like the finches. 



Three days after feeding commenced, at 2:30, I found the young alone. In 

 nine minutes both birds came and fed several times, and the female took the nest. 

 In the two hours and twenty minutes that I watched this day the old birds each fed 

 twice, the longest interval being forty minutes, the shortest eleven. 



On June 15th, eleven days after I first was sure that there were young in the 

 nest, for the first time I caught a glimpse of them. Two gray heads, from which 

 stuck up stiff bristling feathers that would some day be crests, were visible above 



FEMALE PARENT AND YOUNG OE 

 PHAINOPEPI/A 



