68 Cooper on Nest and Eggs of two Western .Birds. 
* 
Helmin thophaga ruficapilla , Lanivireo solitarius , Collurio ludovicianus , and 
Zonotrichia leucophrys. It should be borne in mind, however, that every 
species is very much more local in the West, where modifications in 
topographical details are intricate, involving very great variations of cli- 
mate and vegetation within a small compass of territory, than in the East, 
where the whole country presents a great uniformity of surface, thus al- 
lowing a much more general dispersion of vegetable and animal life. 
NOTES ON THE BREEDING HABITS OF HUTTON’S YIREO 
(: VIREO HUTTON I) AND THE GRAY TITMOUSE ( LOPHO - 
THANES INORNATUS) WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THEIR 
NESTS AND EGGS. 
BY WILLIAM A. COOPER. 
Hutton’s Vireo ( Vireo huttoni ) breeds in the vicinity of Santa 
Cruz, though not in abundance. Retiring in habits, their nests and 
eggs are rarely found. April 7, 1874, I found a nest placed ten 
feet from the ground, suspended from a dead branch of a Negundo, 
containing three eggs incubated about five days. March 30, 1875, 
I found another nest placed eight feet from the ground, suspended 
from the small twigs of a Frangula. The bird showed little signs 
of fear, and would not leave the nest till I almost touched her ; 
then she flew to a tree near by, and uttered a single note, twea , re- 
peated every three or four seconds. When I took the nest she 
hopped around me from twig to twig, venting her sorrow in a plain- 
tive twik y twea ; twik , Uvea. 
The nest — a neat, compact structure, composed of fine vegetable 
fibres, bits of paper, and grasses covered on the outside with green 
and gray mosses, lined with fine grasses — measures 3.25in ches in 
diameter outside, 1.75 inside ; depth 2.25 outside, 1.50 inside. 
The eggs, four in number, are white (a delicate blush-color be- 
fore blown), marked with minute dots of reddish-brown, more nu- 
merous toward the larger end. k They measure respectively, .70 x .52, 
.70 x .51, .69 x .51, .68 x 52. Two other nests were found, each 
containing four eggs. They were placed, one in a Negundo , thirty 
feet high, the other at the extremity of an oak limb, twenty-five feet 
from the ground. Of the latter the female was so unsuspicious that 
when caught and removed from the nest she immediately returned 
to it. 
