Mar., 1904 I 
THE CONDOR 
35 
what scandalous among my own neighbors. Maybe he blamed his wife for my in- 
terference or he may have been tired of her fooling, at an}^ rate she quit her de- 
ceiving antics and soon led her children off through the bushes. 
Berkeley, Cal. 
FEMALE BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER FEEDING YOUNG 
Nesting Habits of the Black-headed Grosbeak 
BY ,\NNA HEAD 
D oes the same pair of birds return to their old nesting-site? This is a 
question difficult to determine, as, from tlie nature of things positive evi- 
dence is almost impossible to secure. In some cases a ring has been fast- 
ened about the leg of one of a pair, and so it has been proven that he returned 
several years in succession to the same locality. But from slight indications point- 
ingin the same direction, even though no positive proof is forthcoming, I am inclined 
to think this is commoner than usually supposed. The evidence which has convinced 
me may not be so cogent to another as to myself. It depends chiefly upon individ- 
ual traits of character and of song observed for two successive 5^ears in a small val- 
ley in Mendocino county. The bird to which I paid most attention was the 
black-headed grosbeak {Za 7 nelodia inelanocepliala), and at the end of the first sum- 
mer I felt personally acquainted with several pairs. 
In one pair the female was brave and did a large part of the feeding, brooding 
the birds willingly in my presence, while the male circled about and sang inces- 
santly. This pair chose a damp willow thicket, the home of the chat, for their 
nest, and placed it rather high on a swaying twig of willow, stayed by two cross- 
ing blackberry vines. I had the pleasure of watching the whole course of rearing 
the young, and saw where they were led off to the right along the edge of the 
swamp, while still totally destitute of tails and very downy about the head. This 
I consider a rather unusual nesting site, as the grosbeak seems to prefer dry hill- 
sides and manzanita, madrone, or hazel bushes. So when the second year I found 
