SORTU AMERICA}! BIRUS. 469 



The nesting and eggs of this bird, which is named in honor of Mr. Walter B. 

 Bryant, are in every respect the same as those o( the Cactus Wren, n. hrunneicapillus. 



7136. ST. LUCAS CACTUS WHEN. Heleodytes hitiiineicapillus offlnis Xantus. 

 Geog. Dist.— Southern Lower California. ' . 



The habits, nesting and eggs of this species are identical with those of the last. 



715. BOCK WKEN. Salriinctes ubsoletus (Say.) Geog. Dist.— Arid regions of 

 Western United States from the Great Plains to the Pacific, south through Mexico to 

 Northern Central America. 



This is a more or less common species in the dry, rocky regions of Western 

 United States. Mr. Scott says that in the Catalina Mountains of Arizona they be- 

 gin to breed about the middle of March; six or eight young are the common inmates 

 of the nest, and two broods are reared. Mr. Emerson found this species to be quite 

 common on the Farallone Islands, and it is the only land bird which is resident. Theiy 

 were found all over the South Farallone, building in suitable crevices a nest of 

 Farallone weed, lining it with chicken feathers and hair shed from the island mule. 

 The nest is usually built in a rift of rocks, or on the ground beneath some shelving 

 rock. It is composed of a mass of material, very miscellaneous in character, some- 

 times a single substance, but a variety of materials are more generally used, such as 

 sticks, bark-strips, weeds, grasses, moss, hair, wool, etc. A curious habit of the Rock 

 Wren is that of paving the ground about the entrance of the nest with pebbles, or bits 

 of rock and glass. On the Farallones small pieces of coal, niussel shells, and small 

 bones of sea-birds and rabbits are used for this purpose. Mr. Fred Corey, of Santa 

 Paula, California, informs me that he found a nest with four eggs of this bird under 

 the rafters of a house. Five and six eggs constitute an average set, and seven, eight, 

 or nine are sometimes deposited. Mr. Emerson found one nest with ten eggs, two 

 of which were fresh and the others in various stages of incubation. The eggs are 

 pure glossy white, finely and sparsely speckled with reddish-brown, chiefly at the 

 larger end. The average size is .72x.54 inches. 



716. GUADALUPE BOCK WBEN. Salpiiwtes guadeloupensis Ridgw. Geog. 

 Dist. — Guadalupe Island, Lower California. 



Mr. Walter B. Bryant states that this is undoubtedly the most common of th« 

 birds on Guadalupe Islana, distributed from the beach to the summit, but found most 

 numerous on the upper and central portions. They are first to begin nesting. A few 

 birds began the construction of their nests in December, and one had her work nearly 

 completed on the 25th of December, 1885. Four fresh eggs were found in it on Janu- 

 ary 17. The breeding season, strictly speaking, Mr. Bryant says, extends from the 

 middle of January through the month of March. "Nests were found in cavities of 

 immense boulders, under rocks, in fallen and decayfed trunks of cypress trees, the 

 latter location being apparently a favorite one. But wherever the nests were located 

 the passages leading to them were, with one or two exceptions, paved with flat peb- 

 bles ranging in size from a Lima bean to a half dollar. Fully a quart of .these jiebbles 

 were removed from the entrance to a nest built in a boulder at a height of four feet, 

 where, at some previous time, other birds had evidently built* and accumulated 

 their share of the pavement. As a rule, scarcely an ordinary handful of stones is 

 used." The nest is built to conform to the size and shape of the cavity which it 

 occupies; it is made of fine dry grasses and lined with goat hair. The eggs are usually 

 four, though sometimes five in number, and resemble, both in color and shape, those 



