56 



THE OOLOGlSf . 



Photo by Reinecke. 



Nest of Brown Creeper In Situ. 



times out of ten this inner nest is 

 of horse or cow hair, very rarely of 

 feathers, now and' then of fine, dry 

 grass blades. Therefore I have call- 

 ed it the "hair lining" of the nest, 

 though it is not always of hair. 



In this respect of mud and hair lin- 

 ing, though the mud layer seldom cov- 

 ers more than the bottom of the nest, 

 I judge that these birds build some- 

 what as do the Eastern Robins. The 

 hair lining is one-eighth of an inch 

 thick and so closely woven as to re- 

 tain its shape long after removal 

 from the outer nest. 



From three to eight eggs are laid, 

 ordinarily six. It is absolutely im- 

 possible to describe these eggs; the 

 ground color ranges all the way from 

 pallid grey to light green. Markings 

 are from practically none to heavy 

 blotches and are gray or light sepia. 

 Occasional lines and scrawls of black 

 or dark brown are noticeable on some 

 of the eggs. Some resemble the eggs 

 of the Western Mockingbird, still oth- 

 ers are scarcely distinguishable from 

 heavily marked shrike's eggs. 



Among the numerous misstate- 

 ments in Mrs. Wheeler's "Birds of 



