The Cactus Wren 
as a peck measure, sometimes a 
perfect sphere, but oftener an 
ellipsoid, resting on one side and 
with an entrance in one end. 
Whoever he was that first called 
it “purse-shaped” had either too 
much imagination or none at all. 
Is a foot-ball purse-shaped? 
Yet every compiler in recent 
literature has dutifully repeated 
this epithet and will, I suppose, 
to the end of time. Purse¬ 
shaped it certainly is not, for it 
is neither pendent, nor wide¬ 
mouthed, nor open at the top— 
nor even flat, as most of our 
purses are—only hollow. But 
one might well wish for a purse 
or even a treasure-chest of such 
o Taken near San Diego Photo by Dickey 
cL SlZc. 
. , ,, , YOUNG CACTUS WRENS 
1 he nesting ball, whatever 
its shape, is composed externally of fine twigs, chiefly those of the arte- 
misia (. 4 . dracunculoides, etc.), dried flower pedicels, and stiff grasses, 
all of which, being unyielding in character, impart a bristly, dishevelled 
appearance to the outside, especially in that portion surrounding the 
entrance hole, which is purposely left “out of focus.” The body of the 
structure is made of finer, more tractable materials,—grasses, rootlets, 
dried flower-heads, bark-strips, etc., artfully coiled; while the capacious 
hollow is heavily lined with the shredded inner bark of weeds, spider 
cocoons, and feathers, wherever the last-named are obtainable. The eggs, 
four or five in number, are quite the handsomest of the wren kind, pale 
ochraceous salmon as to ground-color, but so finely dotted with orange- 
cinnamon, mikado brown, or russet, as often to appear of a uniform 
vinaceous cinnamon. There is a tendency toward annulation of color 
about the larger end, and this ring is notably near the apex, sometimes 
including it. 
The stock host of this bird in the desert patches of the San Diego-Ven- 
tura district and on the margin of the Colorado Desert is the cholla cac¬ 
tus, Opuntia bernardina, and its related forms. On the margin of the Mo¬ 
have Desert the Joshua trees, or tree yuccas, are largely resorted to. Else¬ 
where in the desert valleys, mesquites, palo verdes, indigo bushes, canotias 
and cat’s claw (Acacia greggi ) are resorted to freely, as well as any other 
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