Sept., 1910 
NESTING OF THE GRAY-HEADED JUNCO 
165 
voiced its anxiety with the peculiar metallic junco chirp, altho seldom allowing 
itself to be seen. 
Within a hundred yards of the first nest another bird was flusht from a cun- 
ningly concealed nest, deeply sunken in the ground among the dense branches at 
the base of a small bush. It also contained four eggs, and the parent upon flushing 
immediately disappeared and was seen no more. 
Preceding around the lake, a third bird was flusht from a nest bilt in the 
center of a small shrub, but not nearly as well concealed as the other two. This 
nest contained two eggs and two freshly hatcht young — tiny, wriggling, pinkish 
little creatures irregularly covered with very fine grayish down. 
As it was raining and the temperature entirely too low for comfort I markt the 
nests and sought shelter. On my return, a couple of hours later, the parent of the 
first nest found stayed on the eggs until we almost toucht her, and so perfect was 
the concealment of the nest and the protective coloration of the bird, that altho we 
knew exactly where to look, both were absolutely invisible to the eye at arm’s 
length. In all it was the most perfectly concealed nest I have ever seen. 
The birds on the other two nests, however, flusht much more wildly than on 
our first visit and were not so demonstrative. 
After photographing the nests, the two containing eggs were collected. They 
are practically identical in size and construction, being strongly and compactly bilt 
of -dried grass, well rimmed, deeply dipt and lined with finer dried grass and a 
scant amount of fine hair. Tliejr are somewhat longer than wide and measure as 
follows: Outside, length 4 inches, width 3 inches, depth 2 inches; inside, 
long diameter 2)4 inches, short diameter 2]A inches, depth 1)4 inches. 
The two sets of eggs exhibit a fine variation in coloration and marking. One 
set has a ground color of light clay color with a slightly bluish tinge, lightly markt 
with minute and very subdued spots of reddish brown. Two of the eggs are 
evenly spotted over the entire surface, while on the remaining two the spots are 
partially confined to the larger ends. 
The other set has a much lighter color — almost pure white — clearly and boldly 
spotted and blotcht with clear reddish brown, the markings being lievier and more 
clearly defined around the larger ends. The heviest markt egg of this set is 
almost identical in coloration and marking with a set of Field Sparrows’ eggs in my 
collection. 
The two sets are remarkably uniform in size, and average .75X.57 inches. 
NOTES ON REGURGITATION 
By HARRIET WILLIAMS MYERS 
H AVING been led to believe, thru reading, that for the first few days, practi- 
cally all birds feed their young by regurgitation, I have been surprized at the 
number of birds I have observed who do not use this method of feeding, but 
rather from the very beginning feed insects directly to their young. 
In March, 1909, a pair of Song Sparrows (Melospiza m. cooper/) nested in 
the pampas grass in my yard, giving me an opportunity of daily observation. On 
the seventh of March the eggs hatcht and 1 stationed myself to take feeding record. 
At 8:50 the female left the nest and began searching about in the grass and weeds. 
In one minute she returned to the nest carrying a visible object in her bill which 
