516 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
side door of the nest was hidden under a projecting roof, which slanted 
down from the doorway far enough to cloak the goings and comings 
of the small birds as they quietly and quickly slipped in and out. 
Then, too, the nests were largely under thorny trees rather than on top 
of them. Of the fifteen examined, all but one, which was in a cats-claw, 
Shaded areas show general range. Triangles mark breeding and yearlong 
records 
were in blue thorn bushes and “ nearly all of these bushes stood under 
good-sized, more or less isolated mesquite trees. Whether this selection 
of nesting site was on the protective principle that two thorn trees are 
better than one, or whether the shading and extra, thorn-supplying 
mesquite, which seemed to me such a happy addition, was quite irrele¬ 
vant to the Verdin, an easily accessible long-thorned zizyphus being its 
only requirement, must remain a matter for speculation.” 
