GREEN, GREENISH GRAY, AND OLIVE 4,43 



soon as spring fever stirs in his veins, he seeks his 

 favorite haunts and flits about, a gay bachelor, among 

 the buckbush and willows for a week or so before his 

 sweetheart appears on the scene. After her arrival fully 

 two weeks are squandered in the frivolities of courting 

 before the more serious business of housekeeping is be- 

 gun, but you may be sure he has had his eye on a special 

 cosy fork of a branch, and that he will not allow any 

 other householder to "jump his claim." Then one 

 sunny day about the tenth of June, you will see him 

 bring a bunch of plant fibre and, placing it in the chosen 

 crotch, jump on it and pack it into place with feet and 

 bill. He has worked hard to get it, tugging with all 

 his little strength to loosen some of it, which is the in- 

 ner bark of the willows, and chewing it back and forth 

 in his beak to render it fine and pliable. After the first 

 bit has been put in place the female does the shaping 

 and weaving, while the male brings the material. When 

 the foundations and walls are completed, a warm lining 

 of feathers is tucked and wadded carefully inside the 

 small structure, and the cradle is ready. The thickness 

 of this lining varies with the altitude and location, being 

 thicker in higher or more exposed localities, while in 

 some instances I have found nests with scarcely any 

 lining and comparatively thin walls, on the sunny side of 

 a canon. These thinly built nests were invariably in 

 pines and close to the trunk, and further from the ground 

 than the heavier ones. Of the latter, several particularly 

 warm ones were in willows and aspens and were lined 

 with both wool and short hair from cattle or deer. Of 



