The Phainopepla 
in patches. Length 177.8-203.2 (7.00-8.00); wing 95 (3.74); tail 96 (3.78); bill 11 
(.43); tarsus 18 (.71). Females average somewhat smaller. 
Recognition Marks. —Sparrow size; slender proportions and erectile crest; 
shining black with latticed white wing-patch of male; nearly uniform mouse-gray of 
female. 
Nesting. — Nest: A rather shallow cup of soft vegetable materials of almost 
every conceivable sort, bound together with cobwebs, and without special lining; 
placed in fork of tree—mesquite, elderberry, sycamore, or live oak—often at consider¬ 
able elevations. A typical example is inches wide across the bowl, and one inch 
deep, with walls of an inch in thickness. Eggs: 2, occasionally 3, 4 of record; 
ground-color light yellowish gray (yellowish glaucous) fading to pale mineral gray or 
grayish white, usually broadly belted at the larger end with dull violet (light Varley’s 
gray), which fades entirely out, speckled sharply and with practical uniformity (or, 
rarely, with tendency to wreath formation), with dull olive-black or olive-brown and 
violet-gray. Av. of 32 eggs (15 sets) in the M. C. O. coll., 22.1 x 15.8 (.87 x .62). 
Season: Varies with local conditions: March-April on the deserts; May-July, but 
chiefly June, elsewhere. 
General Range. —The southwestern states and Mexico, breeding from central 
California, southern Utah, and southwestern Texas, south to Cape San Lucas, Vera 
Cruz, Puebla, and the valley of Mexico. Winters from the Mohave Desert south¬ 
ward, or casually farther north in west central California. 
Distribution in California. —Abundant winter resident and fairly common 
summer resident in suitable sections of the deserts, Mohave and Colorado, north to 
Owens and Panamint valleys; common summer resident in the San Diegan district 
and north,—west of the Sierras along the western ridge to Alameda County (Pem¬ 
berton); in the interior valley, to Chico and Marysville (Belding); and along the west¬ 
ern foothills of the Sierras to Butte County, or even (at least formerly) Shasta County 
(Townsend). Rare in winter in the San Diegan district, but found at sheltered stations 
along the western coastal ranges to Paicines (J. Mailliard). Reported in summer 
from Catalina Island (Bryant). 
Authorities.—Heermann (Plilogonys nitens ), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 
ser. 2, ii., 1853, p. 262 (s. Calif.); Cones, Birds Col. Val., 1878, p. 45 (general account: 
syn., desc., habits, hist., etc.); Evermann, Auk, vol. iii., 1886, p. 183 (habits; desc. 
nest and eggs); Fisher, N. Am. Fauna, no. 7, 1893, p. 113 (occurrence in Calif.; food, 
nest and eggs, etc.); Merriam, F. A., Auk, vol. xiii., 1896, p. 38 (nesting habits; song). 
CERTAIN baffling contradictions, and many elusive qualities be¬ 
sides, mark this wayward son of the desert. Handsome he is, indeed; and 
they have given him a high-sounding Grecian title in appreciation of 
his magnificence. Yet is he ever the soul of modesty, and the sudden 
consciousness of a spying eye will scatter all his show of finery, and send 
him dashing into the bush with “peps” of disgust. Shy he is to a fault, 
insomuch that the other side of a bush has always the preference both 
in approach and in escape. The waste places are his proper home; yet 
he will conduct his small affairs in a crowded suburb, and he will set his 
nest in a spreading oak tree which overshadows a human habitation. 
Curiosity will tempt him to answer a cat-call from the depths of a mes- 
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