Mar., 1901 I 
THE CONDOR 
39 
phensi), a veritable chicken’s voice-a 
lost chicken- reached my ears; far up 
in the very dome of heaven a seore or 
more of White-throated Swifts (Aero- 
nantes me/anoleucus) skimmed their rapid 
flight, and a pair of Painted Redstarts 
{Setophaga picta) who had a nest full of 
hungry mouths in the stream bank 60 
yards below, passed in sight now and 
then, in their foraging, their black and 
white plumage distinguishing them 
nearly as far as they could be seen. 
Earth and trees and air fairl}^ pulsed 
with fascinating interest, and the days, 
tho’ of the longest, were all too short 
and too few. 
But very early one morning, June 16 
I saw the female fly repeated!)" from 
the ground on the hill-side to the same 
limb of a large sycamore about which 
they had spent much time. That .settled 
it. I was never quite certain whether 
T ate any breakfast that morning or 
not; if I did I am sure I did not know 
what I ate. 
The female did all the work. The 
ne.st was placed in an inclined fork 
among the thick branches, pretty well 
up, about 35 feet. It was well-construct- 
ed, compact, deep, of dried grasses, a 
few vegetable fibers, plenty of spider’s 
silk and into the lining were woven a 
few bright feathers. Two nests found 
this last season also contained several 
bright feathers, one of them, bright 
yellow ones of the Audubon’s Warbler 
(Z?. anduboni) a blue one of the Chest- 
nut-backed Bluebird {Slalia m. bairdi) 
and a barred feather of the Whip-poor- 
will {Antroslonuis v. mdcromystax) flut- 
tered on the edge of the nest. 
In the first nest referred to, beginning 
on the ninth day after work began, 
were laid three plain, creamy white 
eggs of dimensions as follows: .24x.29,.24 
x;29..24x.3o.This set with the nest, I took, 
purposely, after dark one night, and 
the next morning they went merrily to 
work building another nest in the same 
tree, about six feet from the location of 
the first. In this ne.st two eggs were 
laid July 15 and 16. Aset of two akso 
followed the taking of a set of three in 
99,’ and a set of three the taking of a 
set of four this year. In fact I have 
met no exception yet to the les.sening 
of the number of the second set by one. 
Three years later, in ’99, I revisited 
this canyon and, as I passed the local- 
ity of my interesting experiences, I 
rode slowly, and listened and watched. 
Could it be that I heard again that 
gentle piP. But who that loves the birds 
could ever forget a bird voice that had 
once fascinated him? There was no 
doubt about it; from a point 40 yards 
below the old nesting site, it came and 
I succeeded in catching just one glimpse 
of the bird ere he disappeared in some 
black willows down stream. His nest I 
never found. Again, last season, 1900, 
pa.ssing this spot on the last day but 
one of May, I watched and listened, 
and again I heard and saw these my 
old companions of the days of ’96,-at 
least such I liked to fancy them. What 
constancy to locality! Just one pair of 
birds at this point year after year, and 
none other anywhere about. 
SubsequentEq I found the nest of 
this pair in a large pine, but I found it 
only after days of searching. The male 
had a plan for frustrating the hunter 
which he worked diligently and as I 
have noticed it in several, I take it to 
be characteristic. Each time as I ap- 
proached the location of the nest, he 
came out some distance to meet me and 
began calling and occasionally scolding 
in a certain locality, thus leading me to 
believe the nest was somewhere in that 
vicinity. Once, however, I waited until 
long after sunset in the vicinity of two 
large pines, near which the soft pit, pit 
of the female, as I felt sure it was, an- 
swering the male had suddenly ceased 
the day before. Meanwhile the male 
was persistently, for two long hours, in- 
sisting that all his interests were in the 
vicinity of a tall, leaning pine a hundred 
yards distant, to which point he had 
come to meet me day after day. 
Finally, when nearly dark, his voice 
ceased for .some time, and upon my imi- 
