212 Notes on the Breeding of a few Western Birds. [March, 
and composed entirely of grasses well interwoven and lined 
thickly with feathers. The entrance is by a long funnel-shaped 
passage on one side and at the top of the nest, and varying in 
length from six to ten inches. The lining of feathers is very 
thick and is comprised of feathers of many birds. Dr. Heerman, 
an old time ornithologist, has said that he would often tear open 
the nest of a cactus wren to ascertain what birds were in the 
vicinity. The number of eggs in a full complement is almost in- 
variably five; occasional nests with three or four well-incubated 
eggs constituting the only exceptions. The eggs are of a pale 
salmon color, marked so thickly and evenly with darker salmon 
color as to give a very rich cast to the whole egg. While the 
bird commonly seeks the cactus to build its nest in, sometimes 
when this is scarce, it will build in a mesquite or other tree, and 
in this case almost always at a considerable height—ten to twenty 
feet. I am told that this bird raises a brood as late as August, 
and if it does, as I have no reason to doubt, it then breeds con- 
tinuously during a period of six months. In that time one paif 
could raise five or six broods, but it is not likely that they make 
a new nest as soon as one brood is fully fledged. 
A very common bird from the mountains to the coast, in Cali- 
fornia, is the brown towhee (Pifilo fuscus). These plainly colored 
finches, although pre-eminently ground birds, nest in low bushes 
or scrub trees, contrary to the habits of the family. A nest, 
found shortly before leaving Los Angeles, was placed between 
the forks of a prickly pear cactus, and contained four eggs of a 
light blue color, marked with lines and dots around the. larger 
end, resembling the eggs of some blackbirds. The nest was 
composed of grasses and fibers from the bark of the cactus, and 
lined with horsehair. There are two other species of the same 
genus and somewhat resembling this bird, which I afterwards 
found breeding in Arizona, the Abert’s finch (Pipilo aberti) and 
the canon finch (Pipilo mesoleucus). They also are tree or bus 
builders, and there is a similarity between the nests and eggs of 
all three. The Abert’s finch built a somewhat larger and not as 
neat a nest as the others, composed entirely of grasses and lined 
with a few horsehairs. The eggs, larger than either of the others, 
were of a light blue color, marked with numerous black lines and 
spots in a ring around the larger end, and also with a number © 
bright red spots. The canon finch, nesting in the same situations, 
