1.30 
THE CONDOR 
Vo i„ XII 
portions of Lake Valley. In the particular spot where I now happened to be, jays 
were neither to be seen nor heard; but some suspicious looking twigs, protruding 
from the end of a thick-foliaged pine limb, caught my eye and I determined to in- 
vestigate. After a rather difficult climb, altho it was but fifteen feet up, I reacht 
what proved to be a nest of the jay. The nest contained three eggs which lay in 
pretty contrast to the lining of red pine needles. It was not until I had been in 
the tree fourteen minutes that the jays appeared, and then, altho there were but 
two, the air seemed full of them; for the jay, when it wills, is about the noisiest 
bird in the woods. 
The nest and eggs were collected, the latter proving well advanced in incuba- 
tion. The nest, a typical one, is of bleacht twigs outwardly, principally of the 
manzanita, bark strips, grasses, mud, rootlets, and lined with pine needles; it mea- 
sures seven inches in diameter while the cavity is four inches by two and one-half 
inches deep. As a nest of this size was rather cumbersome to carry I brought the 
days’ work to a close and started for camp. 
Just before reaching Bijou, however, I made a most interesting discovery, the 
find of the season. In a grove of small tamaracks I came upon a pair of Ruby- 
crowned Kinglets {Reg ulus calendula calendula ) that were putting the finishing 
touches on one of the daintiest specimens of bird architecture I have ever seen. It 
was placed but ten feet up and was made of plant fiber, moss and down and warmly 
lined with feathers and a few horse hairs. The accompanying photo was taken In 
situ by Heinemann on June 19. 
The 28th of May dawned windy, cloudy and cold, all of which, however, did 
not deter me from taking a jaunt due south up the valley. Some distance from 
Bijou a nest of the Red-shafted Flicker {Colaptes cafe?' collaris') and one of the 
White-headed Woodpecker ( Xcnopicus albolarvatus ) were noted in inaccessible 
situations in tall dead pines; while in a tamarack sapling a nest of the Audubon 
Warbler ( Dcndi'oica auduboni auduboni ) with one fresh egg was found. It 
grew so intensely cold, however, and sleet continuing to fall hour after hour, that 
I was finally obliged to take refuge for a time in an unoccupied farm house, where 
for some hours I past the time gazing out on a chilly and rather dismal landscape 
or looking over the newspapers with which the walls were papered and which 
contained the latest accounts of the Russian-Japanese war. 
Towards dusk the storm moderating I started back to Bijou. Near camp I 
noted a rootlet nest of the Mourning Dove ( Zcnaidm'a mao'oura carolinensis ) 
with two fresh eggs. It was bilt upon an old nest of either Euphagus or Planes- 
ticus. Altho the Dove is not uncommon in Lake Valley this is the first nest of 
this species that I have found in the region. 
To itemize all the nests found during my stay would make far too lengthy a 
list, so I will only review the most interesting finds. May 29 was warm and clear 
and was spent along the range southeast of Bijou up to about 6500 feet elevation. 
Several nests of the Western Robin {Planesticus ?nig?'ato?'ius p?'opinquus) were 
noted in pines and firs, all containing eggs well along in incubation. Next came a 
large nest 20 feet up in a fir. On climbing up the tree imagine my surprise on 
seeing a Clarke Nutcracker {Nucifraga cohwibiana) fly out from one of the 
branches. My wonderment was short-lived, however, as the nest proved an old 
one, the bird in the tree being merely a curious coincidence. However, I 
believe it was a nest of the nutcracker altho careful search failed to reveal any tell- 
tale feathers or other evidence of the bilders. The nest was a large and well-made 
affair of sticks and twigs, almost the size of a crow’s and thickly lined with bark. 
Two very common birds among the brush on these mountain sides were the 
