THE OOLOGIST 



209 



Interesting Nests and Eggs of Some 



Western Birds 



By R. W. Shufeldt 



With four photographs by the author 



Mr. Edward J. Court, of Washington, 

 D. C, lias very recently received, 

 from collectors in California and Ari- 

 zona, an elegant series of nests and 

 eggs of a variety of species of western 

 birds, and, with his purposes of 

 photography and description. After 

 carefully going over this material, I 

 chose the following, with the view of 

 preparing the present article about 

 them: 



1. Nest and eggs of Coues's Fly- 

 catcher (Myiochanes pertinax 

 pallidiventris). 



2. Nest and eggs of Thick-billed Fox 

 Sparrow (Passerella i megarhyn- 

 cha. 



3. Nest and eggs of Phainopepla 

 (Phaninopepla nitens). 



4. Nest and eggs of Plumbeous 

 Gnatcatcher (Polioptila plum- 



Early in December (1916) I photo- 

 graphed the four nests and the eggs 

 each contained, making my negatives 

 exactly natural size. The first two in 

 the above list could be accommodated 

 upon a 5 by 8 plate, while the remain- 

 ing two required an 8 by 10, in order 

 to avoid any reduction in size. 



Fig. 1. 1. Myiochanes pertinax pal- 

 lidventris Coues's Fly- 

 catcher. 



Contopus p. pallidiventris 

 (Chapman), Auk, XIV., 

 July, 1897, 319. (Pima 

 County, Arizona.) 

 Range. — Mountains of Cen- 

 tral Arizona south through 

 Chihuahua, Sonora and 

 Durango to Tepic; acci- 

 dental in Colorado. 

 Mr. F. C. Willard collected the nest 

 and four eggs of the bird here to be 



described on the fifth of June, 1913. 

 He was positive of the identification, 

 as the flushed the female from the 

 nest, and the four eggs were perfect- 

 ly fresh. The nesting site was in a 

 as he flushed the female from the 

 ground, and the locality Ramsay Can- 

 yon, Huachuca Mountains, Arizona, 

 which has an altitude of 6500 feet at 

 the point where the nest was dis- 

 covered. Mr. Willard observed that 

 the birds were building on the 27th of 

 May, or rather more than a week be- 

 fore he collected the nest and eggs. 

 No additional field notes were made, 

 and both nest and eggs are before me 

 at this writing. 



When the bird commenced to build 

 in the maple tree where the nest was 

 found, it selected a strong fork, with a 

 small lateral fork to support the nest 

 on the right hand side. The limb from 

 which the main was given off had an 

 average diameter of three centi- 

 meters; and from all appearances the 

 tree was in fine condition. The nest 

 is saddled on to the upper side of the 

 fork, and carried inwards on to the 

 main limb for a distance of fully three 

 centimeters. 



For a Flycatcher, the nest is rather 

 a tidy affair, quite compactly woven, 

 and firmly attached to the limb 

 through an extension on all sides of 

 the common, overlying lichens that 

 cover the greater part of the struc- 

 ture. Mingled with these lichens, 

 there is interwoven a sparse lot of 

 cobwebby-looking vegetable hair or 

 fiber of a very delicate kind, which 

 material assists in having the nest 

 maintain its form. The lining is all 

 of one kind, being a medium tan- 

 colored, fine grass, skillfully woven 

 to form a rather shallow concavity, 

 the free margin of which is all in the 

 same plane. 



In form, this nest is nearly circular, 

 having an average diameter of ten 



