Mar., ?9ot I THE CONDOR 35 more suitable site and then the work of tearing down would begin and it would be moved piece-meal to the new place and until scarcely a vestige of the nest remained in the old location. The third and final resting place for this nest was in the main crotch of a small white oak bush at such a height that I could just reach the nest by standing on tip toe. The eggs, four in number, were deposited in May and I soon after gave the birds a chance to build another nest, which chance they availed them- selves of, for they reared a brood t-hat season in June, while they probably gave the jays dredit for the robbery. The nest was built of exceedingly fine and soft material, a few small feathers being the coarsest stuff used. Very thin strips of vegetable vellum and rotten bark fibres made up the bulk of the nest. 'l'he edges at the top were drawn in, making the diameter of' the opening less than that of the center of the cavity-the cavity being deep and snug-looking. The outside of the nest was laced over with cobwebs and spangled with lichens from the oaks which were bound on with webs also. The selection of lichens' varied consid- erably with the pairs .of birds, some choosing dark brown ones with black backs which gave the nest a rich but subdued east while other nests were paler or brighter owing'to '?the use of lighter-colored lichens-the usual kind being pale green or silver gray in color. Most of the nests I found in Lake Co. were in small scrub oaks7"but two were taken from large limbs of fair-sized oak trees. May seems to be the best time for collecting nests in this locality. During the spring of '97 I found the Western Gnatcatcher very abundant in Tuolumne antl Calaveras counties but saw none above 3500 feet elevation. Near Stent in Tuolumne Co.; I secured nests in oaks, 'pines and one 'in an alder tree. My experience here destroyed all the imaginary limits I had placed on the nesting sites of this species, for I found nests in many kinds of trees, on the ends of horizontal limbs, at'the base of limbs, in large and small crotches, and at heights varying from five to fifty feet from the ground. Most of the records of sets are for May. One nest was in the main crotch of an alder tree 30 feet from the ground, the tree being in a creek bed. This is the only record I have of a nest near water andlmade a sketch of it as being a rather unusual site. Another rather pretty but quite typical nest was saddled to a small horizontal oak limb about six feet above the ground. It was made in between the stub of a small twig and a live twig carrying a bunch of leaves that hung over the nest '.like a parasol. Perhaps the most unique nesting site ever seen of this species was the top of a pine cone in a sprawling bull pine. The cone was on a lonely limb fully thirty feet above the ground at the butt of the tree, but as the tree hung over a gully the nest was double that distance vertically from the ground. I made rough note-book sketches of several of these nests which I finished up at home. During May '?9oo, while working in connection with the Duchess mine in Calaveras Co., I found a nest with'half- grown young of this species in a live oak that had been killed by fire, as had all the trees on that mountain side. The nest was about ?5 feet up' in a crotch of one of the limbs and the young left it about the last of May. On June 7 I took a nest and five fresh eggs from, I think, this same pair in a loca- tion quite similar to the first and about 5 feet away from it. These two nests are the first I have ever seen that were devoid of lichens. On account of the fire all timber was dead and there 'werb no lichens. The nests however were decorated with bits of burnt bark which made a rather poor substitute for the usual decoration, as far as looks go. I think this circumstance of covering the nest with material similar in color to the tree in which the nest is situated is a means of protection rather than
