DUSKY, GRAY, AND SLATE-COLORED 357 



leaves and in the crevices of bark. Of the first few 

 nests I saw being built none were finally occupied on 

 their original sites. One pair near my camping place 

 moved their nest and made it over three times before 

 being satisfied to deposit eggs in it. Each time that 

 the nest was nearly complete, the birds would discover 

 a more suitable site, and then the work of tearing down 

 would begin, and it would be moved piecemeal to the 

 new place. Very thin strips of vegetable vellum and 

 rotten bark-fibre made up the bulk of the nest. The 

 edges at the top were drawn in, making the diameter of 

 the opening less than that of the centre of the cavity. 

 The outside was laced over with cobwebs and spangled 

 over with lichens from the oaks, which were bound on 

 with webs also. The selection of lichens varied consid- 

 erably with the pairs of birds, some choosing dark brown 

 ones with black backs, while others were paler or brighter, 

 — the usual nest being pale green or silver-gray in color." 

 Mr. Chamberlin does not record the incubation or de- 

 velopment of the broods, so I turn to my own records 

 and find that a nest discovered in a low tree near San 

 Jose\ California, contained four eggs on May 3. The 

 mother was observed on the nest at every visit, and the 

 male near by the tree. She was fearless and let me ap- 

 proach very near, almost near enough to put my hand on 

 her. On May 10 the eggs had hatched and four skinny 

 pink nestlings, no larger than small grasshoppers, lay in 

 the nest, — a helpless mass of wriggling legs, wings, and 

 necks, ending in funny knoblike heads. They were fed 

 by regurgitation until the feathers were well started, and 



