The Cactus Wren 
sort of support which promises to scratch the enemy sufficiently. In 
the San Fernando Valley I found one nest in a gooseberry bush (Ribes 
hesperium). Mr. Frank S. Daggett found a nest in an apricot tree, 
and another one, still more remarkable, on the cross arm of a power-line 
pole, near Azusa, at a height of thirty feet. 
Taken in Los Angeles County 
A THREE-STORY FLAT 
Photo by Wright M. Pierce 
Cactus Wrens tend 
to colonize in loose asso¬ 
ciation of from ten to 
twenty pairs. Their in¬ 
dividual attachments to 
locality are, moreover, 
very strong, and a 
practiced eye can iden¬ 
tify the nests of several 
successive years in one 
immediate neighbor¬ 
hood. The older nests 
are gray and discolored, 
while “this year’s nests” 
may include the one in 
occupation, the one 
recently quitted by the 
first brood of the season, 
and a cock-nest or two 
in good repair. The 
males, quite certainly, 
use these extra nests as 
roosts during the breed¬ 
ing season, and it is 
probable that some of 
them are in commission 
the year around. 
The remaining 
wonder is how these 
birds, be they never so 
agile, can make their 
way about through the 
cruel cactus spines with 
impunity. They do not 
achieve immunity by in¬ 
stinct, for I have seen 
young birds lacerate 
666 
