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 Nov., 1912 221 NESTING HABITS OF THE WESTERN BLUEBIRD By HARRIET WILLIAMS MYERS HoE f Western Bluebirds are, as a rule, winter visitants, only, in the vicinity Los Angeles, staying about in small flocks until spring, when they disappear. Recently, however, some of them have been changing their habits and becoming resident birds. The only place where I have known of their nesting is in a Los Angeles city park, called Sycamore Grove. This park is a continuation of the Arroyo Seco, and is filled with large live oak and sycamore trees. One side is bordered by a busy thoroughfare where electric cars and vehicles are co. ntinually passing. Moreover, this park is a most popular place for picnic parties and is filled with people throughout the summer months. It seemed a little queer that these birds should have chosen so busy a place for a nesting site, when by going a little farther back they could have had perfect quiet. On the 24th of April, I9IO, while watching birds at Sycamore Grove, I noticed a male Bluebird flying about. Having been told that these birds nested in the park the year before, I gave all my attention to locating them. I ha4 waited only a short time when the female appeared on a wire that was strung among the big trees. After darting out into the air and down onto the lawn a few times, she flew up into a tall sycmmore tree that grew close beside the walk on that busy thoroughfare, Pasadena Avenue. This tree had four trunks, one of which had been broken off about thirty feet from the ground. A round hole just below the break, partially hidden by a growth of new leaves, suggested that it had once been the nesting site of a woodpecker. For one hour and thirty-five 'minutes I watched the nest. During .this time the female left four times, staying away five minutes once and eight the other times. Her times for brooding were respectively twenty-two, eighteen, ten, and twenty-four minutes. Almost invariably during this and subsequent watch- ings the female did not leave the nest until the male came to it. A small broken limb grew out from the nesting trunk and this was hsed by the male as a resting place. He never brooded the eggs, although sometimes he hopped down into the nest, or beside it, as if to assure himself of their safety; then after a moment's inspection he returned to the resting site, or flew directly away. His coming to the dead branch was always a signal for the female to leave the nest and fly away. It was_ almost as if the little mother away up there above. everything, and with only the blue sky to look at, knew that her mate was thinking of her and would come and remind her, and this he surely did. He did not seem to guard the nest while the little mother w.as away, but often accompanied her. Together they foraged about on the lawn or in the trees until time to return to the nest, when quite often the gallant male accore- pained his mate homeward, then flew away when he had seen her located. Neither bird seemed at all shy, oftentimes foraging about on the lawn only a few feet from where I sat. Four days later I again visited the nest, staying an hour and a half. During that time the female left the nest four times as before. The longest interval of staying away was twenty-seven minutes; the shortest two minutes. The longest interval of brooding was sixteen. minutes; the shortest thirteen. Twice