Nov. ,1911 
SOME ROBINS’ AND MOURNINO DOVES' NESTS 
185 
rounding irrigated portions of the valley ahead of the development of a sufficient 
number of trees large enough to be suitable for nests. 
The robin’s nest mentioned above was begun on May 2, 1910, and was con- 
structed of alfalfa and weed stems plastered together with mud and lined with 
rootlets after the usual robin style, but it was placed on a six inch beam close under 
the roof of an open cow-shed. The nest was about six feet above the ground. 
On May 15 it was nosed down by an inquisitive horse, breaking the three eggs 
which it contained. A nest was built shortly afterward, possibly by this same 
pair, in a cork elm tree on the lawn. This nest was built in a heavy fork about 
twelve feet above the ground. 
These robins perhaps lacked a strong tree nesting instinct, because they con- 
Fig. ,56. A MOURNING DOVES’ NEST ON THE GROUND 
structed a loosely attached nest. Sufficient mud and other material had not been 
put in the base of the nest to wedge it solidly in the tree fork. This nest, with 
the four eggs which it contained, was destroyed by being blown out of the tree 
during a moderate gale on June 9, 1910. 
During this same season of 1910 a pair of robins built a ne.st in the fork of a 
cherry tree about four feet above the ground. This pair was successful in rearing 
its young. During the present season, 1911, a pair of robins built in a honey- 
suckle vine on a porch within five feet of a door, through which people passed 
frequently. The nest was well built and of the usual type. There were three 
eggs in the clutch, which were hatched and the young successfully reared. 
Mourning Doves do build on low horizontal limbs and in broad forks as is their 
