Mar., ?9ot 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 score or more of White-throated Swifts (Aero- nautes melanoleucus) skimmed their rapid flight, and a pair of Painted Redstarts (Selophao?a picla) who had a nest full of hungry mouths in the stream bank 6o 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 fairly pulsed with fascinating interest, and the days, tho' of the longest, were all too short and too few. But very early one morning, June x6 i saw the female fly repeatedly 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 I ate any breakfast that morning or not; ifldidlamsure I did not know what I ate. The female did all the work. The nest was placed in an inclined fork among the thick branches, pretty well up, about 35 feet. It was well-construct- ?d,'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 (D. a7tduboni) a blue one of the Chest- .nut-backed Bluebird (Xialia m. bairdi) and a barred feather of the Whip-poor- Will (,4ntrostomus v. macromystax) 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 nest two eggs were laid July t 5 and x6. Aset of two also 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 lessening 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 pit? 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 4o 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 nev,er found. Again, last season, ?9oo, passing 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. Subsequently, I found the nest of this pair in a large pine, but I found it only after days of searching. The nmle 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 pities, 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-
