THE NIDIOLOGIST 



Cooper Ornithological Club. 



THE Club met in regular session at the 

 residence of W. H. Osgood in San 

 Jose, Cal., August 3. An amendment 

 to Article H, Section i, of the Constitution was 

 adopted. The Annex reported having met at 

 Mr. Shields's residence in Los Angeles July 29. 

 Mr. G. F. Morcom was present, and exhibited 

 the recently taken egg of the California Condor. 

 The Annex will meet in Pasadena August 26. 



H. B. Kaeding, of Drytown, contributed a 

 paper on 



Curious Nesting Sites. 



On Jane 10 a double nest was found, the orig- 

 inal having been one of Bullock's Oriole, placed 

 in a slender poplar twenty feet up, which con- 

 tained three dead fledglings. A pair of House 

 Finches had built their nests over this, which 

 caused the Orioles to desert their young, or else 

 the young had been walled up alive. Another 

 nest of tile House Finch was built seventy-five 

 feet up in a giant pine not four feet away from 

 aiiest of the Western Red-tailed Hawk contain- 

 ing four young. 



A curious nest of a pair of Ash-throated Fly- 

 catchers was that built inside of a piece of four- 

 inch pipe which was lying on the ground, and 

 another pair took up their residence in a spout 

 made by nailing four boards in the form of a 

 square, which was in a vertical position by the 

 side of a, house. The birds had filled it with 

 grass and leaves for about six feet before lining 

 a place for the eggs about eight inches from 

 the top. A pretty nest of the House Finch was 

 built in the frame of an old lantern; it was 

 made of grass, string, and cotton, and filled the 

 space between the wires. Another was built 

 in the handle of a pair of sheep shears, lying 

 half over the edge of a shelf. Still another pair 

 put to rout a pair of Black Phoebes and used 

 the nest without alterations. Several nests of 

 the House Finch were found in nests of Bul- 

 lock's Oriole, and one ambitious pair preempted 

 a hole which had been bored by a California 

 Woodpecker in a telegraph pole two feet 

 from the top, and in which they reared five 

 young. Twenty-seven eggs were taken from a 

 single Flicker, after which the bird laid a set of 

 seven eggs and raised a brood. A " set " of 

 four eggs of the Mourning Dove [product of 

 two females?] was also found. 

 A paper on 



Black-thro.ated Gray Warbler, 



by Corydon Chamberlin, was read. The paper 

 was in substance as follows : " I first met this 

 bird under conditions peculiarly favorable to its 

 study. We were camped on a finely wooded 



hillside overlooking the splendid hop fields of 

 Scott's Valley near Lakeport, in Lake County, 

 Cal. Our tent was pitched among beautiful 

 black oaks and large manzanita bushes, which 

 latter reach a high development in this section 

 of the country. In favored locations the growth 

 of vines, bushes, and smaller trees is luxuriant. 

 While eating lunch near the tent on April 20 I 

 saw a Black-throated Gray Warbler fly to a 

 woodpile near by and rapidly gather a great 

 mass of soft, fibrous material from among the 

 decaying pieces of wood. It left the woodpile 

 and flew to the lower limbs of a tree near by. 

 It then began to fly from limb to limb, gradually 

 encircling and ascending the tree. Having 

 reached the top of this tree it flew to the top of 

 another near by and began reverse tactics. After 

 getting into the lower branches, it flew with great 

 rapidity in a zigzag course among the manza- 

 nita bushes and was lost to view for a second, but 

 I caught a glimpse of it as it wheeled around 

 and settled in a small bush. It was in this bush 

 that I found the half-made nest. It was placed 

 near the top of the bush, and I could just reach it 

 by standing on tiptoe. The bird worked very 

 rapidly as though it had an egg ready to deposit. 

 A pair of C^assin's Vireos began the construction 

 of a nest and worked very slowly, and during 

 the absence of these birds the Warblers would 

 steal the material from the nest to build their 

 own. Seeing they had made no progress in 

 three days, the Vireos ceased their work. They 

 nested some weeks later near this spot. The 

 Warblers soon completed their nest, and then 

 they disappeared for a week. I thought they 

 had deserted it, and made an examination to 

 find the cause. I climbed into the bush so as 

 to see into the nest. I found that the birds 

 had built it up around a manzanita leaf, and 

 this leaf was now projecting from the bottom 

 in such a way as to form a rather uncomfortable 

 spine for the mother bird to rest her breast on 

 while setting. From the worn edges of this leaf 

 and the marks on it, I should judge that the 

 birds tried to remove it. I removed the leaf, 

 and a few days later was surprised to find an 

 egg in the nest. 



" On the second day after this egg was found 

 I saw the Warbler setting. Both birds had kept 

 strictly away from the nest while the eggs were 

 ° being deposited, except, of course, the female 

 at such times as the eggs were laid. This is, 

 however, merely a matter of surmise. Howbeit, 

 the number of eggs kept increasing, though I 

 never found the birds near the nest till setting 

 began. I even went there at night several times, 

 but could find neither of them. I permitted 

 the bird to set one day, and then went to steal 

 her treasures. To my surprise the bird was not 

 on the nest. I pulled it down gently and felt 



