BLUB GROSBEAK. 211 



When I visited this locaUty again in May, 1880, I found these birds still more 

 numerous than the year before. May 18th I discovered the first nest on a road-side 

 only a fevc steps from a much frequented wagon track. It was built in a very thorny 

 blackberry bush, about two feet above the ground, and was so \<fell hidden in the dense 

 foliage that it could only be seen when the twigs were bent aside. This nest was a 

 very pretty and compact structure, entirely different from what I had read about it. 

 Externally it was constructed of corn-leaves mixed with long fibrous rootlets, large 

 pieces of snake-skin and small dry leaves. The rim was made of catkins of the oak, 

 intermingled with spider's nests and caterpillar's silk. A little cotton also entered into 

 the composition. The cavity was lined with fine brown rootlets. The eggs, three in 

 number, were of a uniform bluish-white, without spots. All other nests found sub- 

 sequently were built in the same manner, and all were discovered near dwellings. 

 Several domiciles found in gardens in rose-bushes, and one in a dense sweet myrtle 

 {Myrtus communis), displayed, in their construction also a few pieces of paper, parts of 

 strings and muslin and in the lining- a few horse hairs. Snake-skins, with the Blue Gros- 

 beak, always are a favorite and characteristic nest-building material, forming sometimes 

 almost the entire exterior of the nest. For what purpose this is used I am unable to 

 say, but very probably it forms a protection against different animals, if not against 

 the hideous nest-robbing snakes themselves. All the nests, of which I found about 

 tw^enty, in 1880, were built from two to eight feet above the ground. 



In the spring of 1881 I discovered many more nests in the peach orchards near the 

 West Yegua Creek, Lee County, Tex. These nests were situated from three to twelve 

 feet from the ground, and all were constructed materially of a very soft whitish wooly 

 plant (probably a species of Gaapbalium), fine plant-stems, snake-skin, strings, spider's 

 nests, and the cavity w^as lined with fine rootlets. In the following year I discovered 

 the first nest on May 13, in a peach orchard. It was built between the trunk and a 

 sapling of a peach tree about six inches above the ground. Weeds in great luxuriance 

 grew all around, screening the nest from observation. It was a very peculiar, though 

 beautiful and artistic structure, built externally of broad shreds of corn-husks, a few 

 plant-stems, and mostly of sna.ke-skin, the latter arranged in a turban-like way. All 

 over it w^as decorated with cinnamon-brown eater-pillar nests, w^hich gave the domicile 

 a very odd appearance. A few days later I found another peculiar nest, which was 

 placed in a half-pendulous way in a horizontal branch of a black-jack oak, about 

 twelve feet from the ground. Above and below it, was protected by a canopy of dense 

 foliage. Fine shreds of corn-husks and pliable plant-stems, mixed with spider's nests, 

 formed the bulk of the material, and the cavity w^as lined with fine pieces of corn-leaves 

 and tender grasses. A third nest was also in a rather extraordinary position. It was 

 built in an almost pendulous branch of an oak on the woodland border and far from 

 the trunk, about twenty-five feet above the ground, and entirely out of my reach. All 

 the other nests were built in orchard trees and ornamental shrubs. One was placed in 

 an apple tree only a few steps from a house and near a much frequented walk. Almost 

 all contained four, only a few three, and none five eggs. In May of 1882 I found 

 fifteen, and in June six nests of the Blue Grosbeak. In the South usually two broods 

 are raised each year. 



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