130 THE CONDOR Vol. XX 



which with others formed a narrow fringe along the river. All these nests were 

 included within a distance of a half-mile along the stream. 



The work of building the nests, incubation, and care of the young seemed 

 to be entirely performed by the females, and the males were not seen near the 

 nests after the eggs were laid. Each nest was a dainty cup of dried grass lined 

 with feathers and down, and each was placed in a fork alongside the main stem 

 of the shrub. 



Eggs seemingly were laid one each day, as shown in the accompanying ta- 

 ble. The cases where two eggs apparently appear in one day are probably due 

 to one egg having been laid after my visit the first day and the other before my 

 visit the second day. The number of eggs in the complete set was four in nest 

 no. 3, and five in each of the other nests. The eggs of nest no. 3 were collected 

 on May 30 when the set was seen to be complete. 



Incubation was in progress in all nests on May 29, but may have begun on 

 May 28, for the nests were not examined on that day, or perhaps even earlier in 



:# 



Fig. 23. Nokth Fokk of the Kuskokwim River about a half-mile below 



WHERE THE REDPOLL NESTS WERE FOUND. A GROWTH OF WILLOWS CAN BE 

 SEEN ON THE RIVER-BAR AT THE LEFT OF THE PICTURE, AND IN THE DISTANCE A 

 FOREST OF PAPER BIRCH AND WHITE SPRUCE. 



nest no. 2, where the female was on the nest when it was seen on May 27. Due 

 to a collecting trip to an adjacent mountain the nests were not visited on June 

 4, 5, or 6, so the time the eggs hatched is not exactly known, but was, for the 

 two nests remaining, sometime between June 3 and June 7. 



Three eggs of nest no. 1 failed to hatch, though all hatched in nest no. 2. 

 A male was collected May 19 near the site of nest no. 1, before the nest was 

 found. Perhaps he was the mate of the female of this nest, and his loss may 

 have been the cause of the infertility of part of the eggs. Apparently the male 

 has no function in the home life of the Redpoll other than to fertilize the eggs. 



Of the two nestlings in nest no. 1, one grew much more rapidly than the 

 other, but both grew more rapidly than the five in nest no. 2. By the time the 

 young birds were able to fly the nests had become foul with excrement, and the 



