The Western Golden-crowned Kinglet 
against the evening sky and scrutinized mechanically afforded grounds 
for suspicion in a certain thickening of the twigs under the midrib. 
Investigation revealed a ball of moss matched to a nicety of green with 
the surrounding foliage, and made fast by dainty lashings to the envelop¬ 
ing twigs; and, better yet, a basketful of eggs. The first record for 
California appears to have been made by Mr. Harry H. Sheldon, of San 
Francisco, who in the summer of 1907 took a set of five eggs on the 
Lagunitas Creek, in southern Marin County. 
Nests, it seems, may be found at any height from the level of the 
eyes to sixty feet (higher, no doubt, if one’s eye-sight avails), but always 
on the under side of a fir limb, and usually where the foliage is naturally 
dense. The nest-ball is a wonderfully compacted affair of moss, both 
green and gray, interspersed with liverworts, dried grasses, soft weed- 
fibers, and cow-hair. The deep depression of the nest cup scarcely mars 
the sphericity of the whole, for the edges are brought well in; so much 
so, in fact, that a containing branch overloaded with foliage upon one 
side, once tipped half way over without spilling the eggs. The deep 
cavity is heavily lined with cow-hair and abundant feathers of grouse 
or lesser fowls. These feathers are 
placed with their soft ends protrud¬ 
ing, and they curl over the entrance 
in such fashion as almost or quite to 
conceal the eggs. One would like to 
particularize at great length, for no 
fervors of description can overstate 
the beauties of this Kinglet palace. 
Eggs vary in 
number from five to 
nine, seven and 
eight being the rule. 
I once took a nest 
with eleven—one too many at the 
least, for it had to rest on top of the 
others. They are not much larger 
than Hummingbirds’ eggs and are 
quite as fragile. Mr. Bowles con¬ 
sumed twenty minutes in removing the contents of the big nest to the 
collecting box without a break. The eggs vary in color from pure white 
to sordid white and dusky brown. In the last two cases the tint may be 
due to a profusion of fine brown dots, or to advancement in incubation, 
the shell being so thin that the progressive stages of the chick’s develop¬ 
ment are dimly shadowed through it. 
799 
NID-NID-NODDING 
