The Western Bluebird 
triumphantly, a nest with three eggs. The next pair have shown better 
taste, for they have placed their domicile full sixty feet up and eight 
feet out on the first limb of a stately hemlock. A tap on the bole sends 
the female off like a silent ghost, but such high pickings offer no temp¬ 
tation. 
A typical nest, freshly examined, is placed at a height of six feet 
in the top of a tiny fir sapling, which required the support of a chance 
armful of leaning vine-maple poles. The nest proper is an immense affair, 
eight and a half inches deep and twelve inches by eight in diameter 
outside, and two and a half in depth and four in width inside. It would 
weigh about three pounds, and is, therefore, quite compact, although 
the moss, which is the largest element in its composition, holds a large 
quantity of moisture. Twigs from six inches to a foot in length enter 
into the exterior construction, and these are themselves moss-bearing. 
Stripping off the outer moss-coat, one comes to the matrix or crucible¬ 
shaped vessel of rotten wood, an inch or more in thickness throughout, 
and sodden with moisture. Within this receptacle, in turn, appears 
another cup with walls three-quarters of an inch in thickness, and com¬ 
posed solely of dried grasses and moss, neatly woven and turned. The 
innermost lining comprises the same materials, not very carefully 
smoothed, but amazingly dry, considering the character of their surround¬ 
ings. The brim of the nest is strengthened by bark-strips, the inner 
fiber of cedar bark being exclusively employed for this purpose; while 
the finishing coat consists of moss, compacted and flawless. There are, 
in fact, few nests to compare with that of the Varied Thrush in strength, 
elaborateness, and elegance. 
No. 152 
Western Bluebird 
A. O. U. No. 767. Sialia mexicana occidentalis Townsend. 
Synonyms. —California Bluebird. Mexican Bluebird. Townsend’s 
Bluebird. 
Description. —Adult male: Head and neck all around and upperparts rich, 
smalt blue, brightest on crown, rump, and wings, paler and grayer on sides of neck and 
on throat, where gentian blue; the shafts of wing-quills and tail-feathers, and the 
exposed tips of the former, black; more or less dull chestnut on scapulars, usually 
irregularly continuous across back; sides of breast and sides, continuous across breast, 
grayish chestnut; belly, flanks, crissum, and under tail-coverts dull grayish blue 
(campanula blue to pearl blue). Bill black; feet blackish; iris dark brown. In winter: 
774 
