The Western Kingbird 
us 1 how the smaller telephone lines of that section are “supported on 
poles without crossbars, the majority of these poles being about four 
inches in diameter and extending to a height of about sixteen feet, 
excepting where the lines cross entrances to farmhouses or intersecting 
roads, in which case the wires are raised several feet to permit the passage 
of derricks and other tall machinery. This additional height is attained 
by nailing two two-inch pieces to the original pole on opposite sides, 
thus leaving a four-inch platform, protected on two sides, on which a 
nest just fits snugly. A 
drive through the coun¬ 
try, during the summer 
months, now reveals a 
pair of Kingbirds 
tenanted in nearly every 
such pole.” Perhaps 
the oncoming of wireless 
telephony will deprive 
our friends of their 
mj’riad citadels. If 
such threatens to be the 
case, it will pay us to 
provide artificial sup¬ 
ports, for the usefulness 
of these birds in control¬ 
ling the balances of the 
insect rvorld and in pre¬ 
venting unseasonable 
outbreaks of pests, such 
as crickets and grass¬ 
hoppers, is simply 
incalculable. 
Eggs, to the num¬ 
ber of four or five, are 
deposited from the 1st 
of May to the middle 
of June. Beauties they 
are, too, creamy white, 
with bold and handsome 
spots of chestnut in two 
shades, and lilac-gray. 
Taken in Washington 
Photo by the Author 
1 Pac. Coast Avifauna, No. 9, by 
John G. Tyler, 1913, p. 60. 
“IT IS SURE TO HAVE STRING” 
NEST AND EGGS OF WESTERN KINGBIRD 
855 
