The Nuttall Sparrow 



the northbound migrants have extricated themselves, or passed over their 

 heads. First nests are likely to be placed upon or near the ground, but 

 as the season advances the birds prefer the depths of low thickets, or 

 saplings, or even ferns. In the southern part of the range cypress trees 

 are effected, and one observer 1 records a nest thirty-five feet up in a 

 cypress. Of course two or three broods are raised in a season. The 

 M. C. O. has a set of three eggs taken on the 31st of October (1901) by 

 C. I. Clay on Humboldt Bay. 



Taken in Humboldt County Photo by the Author 



GATHERING CRUMBS IN CAMP 



The nests themselves are usually substantial and often beautiful 

 affairs. The birds use almost any sort of material that comes to hand, — 

 bark-strips, twigs, grasses, bits of paper, rags, horsehair, and rootlets; 

 but good taste is almost invariably exercised. A nest before me is deco- 

 rated profusely with nodding grass-stems in flower, and the effect is as 

 dainty as that of a Parisian bonnet. The eggs, three or four, rarely five in 

 number, are of a handsome light green or bluish green shade, and are 

 heavily dotted, spotted, blotched or clouded with reddish brown. 



Young birds lack the parti-colored head-stripes of the adult, although 

 the pattern is sketched in browns; and they are best identified by the 

 unfailing solicitude of the parents, which attends their every movement. 

 They are rather bumptious little creatures for all; a company of them 

 romping about a pasture fence brings a wholesome recollection of school- 

 boy days, and there are girls among them, too, for my! how they giggle! 



1 Louis Bolander, "The Condor," Vol. VIII., May, 1906, p. 74. 



334 



