Sep., 1901 I 
THE CONDOR 
that the core of the stub had rotted out 
to a depth of twelve inches. The en- 
trance was perhaps two inches in diam- 
eter, but the nesting cavity had evi- 
dently been enlarged. At the bottom 
about two inches of soft, stripped spruce 
bark had been placed for a foundation 
and on this rested two inches of fine, 
soft, matted fur, much of which had 
been gathered from some luckless squir- 
rel. This made an extremely warm 
and downy nest for the young, and the 
labor of bringing such a mass of mater- 
ial into the stub is worth contemplat- 
ing. The illustration shows very 
well the nest after one side had been 
removed, although but one of the six 
3^oung chickadees secured a “ full 
length ” portrait. 
On June 8, 1899, Mr. H. W. Carriger 
found a nest of this species in a pine 
stub four feet up, holding seven newly- 
hatched young. The nest was of 
shredded cedar bark and squirrel fur. 
This nest was located in the deep pine- 
woods. 
When we camped on a beautiful 
mountain meadow at 7,500 feet in June, 
1900, the Mountain Chickadee did not 
desert us. The meadow was damp, 
and frosty nights were the rule, yet al- 
most the first bird that greeted us on 
our first morning in the meadow was 
little Parus in a tamarack near the 
cabin. Presently he flew down to the 
base-boards of the cabin and peered in- 
quiringly into a rough hole which some 
woodpecker had probably drilled in 
previous years. Then he was off and 
a peep into the hole disclosed the fe- 
male bird setting complacently on an 
exquisite nest and eight eggs. 
The domestic affairs of this pair of 
birds would no doubt have proven pro- 
ductive of many interesting observations 
and photographs had we been permit- 
ted to tarry, but such an arrangement 
was out of the question. So I con- 
cluded that the set was ni}^ lawful prey 
because I was ordinarily some 200 
miles from the Sierra, while to the 
chickadees the matter of producing a 
IT3 
second set was one of small moment 
and the additional practice of nest- 
building would be beneficial, tho’ I 
doubt if they ever again build quite so 
unique a nest as was this one. 
The nest had been built on a joist 
under the cabin in a space ten inches 
long and seven and a half inches wide. 
This had been filled with cow-hair, 
squirrel fur and hemp picked up from 
about the dairy, and when the nest was 
removed it presented a solid mat 2j4 
inches thick and of the dimensions 
given. Near the center of the mat a 
round cavity 2^ inches across and 
inches deep held the eight eggs. Of 
these one was spotted, one had a trace 
of markings while the other six were 
pure white. The set was but slightly 
incubated when collected on June to, 
1900. During our stay on the meadow 
Mr. Atkinson found a nest just finished 
in a tamarack stub, but no eg-gs had 
been deposited. During May of the 
same year Mr. Taylor found a nest 
located in a rotten cavity of a large 
tree trunk by the roadside near Fyffe. 
On June 6, of the present year while 
at Fyffe Mr. Taylor and I noticed a 
Mountain Chickadee enter a deserted 
woodpecker’s hole in a large burnt 
stump eight feet from the ground. 
Upon opening the nest eight fiilly- 
grown young chickadees flew out one 
by one while both parents anxiously 
watched the proceeding from a nearby 
bush. On June 10 at Slippery Ford we 
found another nest in a black-oak snag 
on a hillside. The stump was about 
six feet high and a hole in the top 
served as an entrance to the nest. As 
in all previous cases the parent bird in 
the nest gave vent to a series of hisses 
which might easily have been taken for 
those of a snake had we not known the 
contents of the cavity. This nest held 
small young but we could not deter- 
mine the size of the brood. 
The above nesting records cover per- 
haps the range of nesting-sites selected 
by this chickadee and the sets of eggs 
vary apparently from seven to nine. 
