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 208 THE CONDOR Vol. XVI swung about my head in ceaseless flight, and with frightened twitterings. The nest was composed of dried grasses, several needles from the big-cone spruce, some dried leaves, and a few feathers of a dusky white, that were evi- dently from the birds themselves. The dry grass was the dominating material and was woven, or rather laid, the long way of the crack. The inside of the nest was about two and a half inches in diameter, not over one and a half in depth, and was a little longer one way than the other. The whole affair was rather loosely built and there was no finish at the upper edge of the nest proper ecept a few coiled grasses. After I had replaced the slab of wood as carefully as possible I continued up the snag to the next crack, which was some five feet higher, and showed on inspection seven full-fledged young of the Western House Wren (Troglo- dytes aedon parkmani). The little mother of this brood continued to fly back and forth to the nest with food all of the time I was on the snag, usually with some small moth or butterfly in her bill, sometimes several. The next thing to engage my attention was a small hole just around the tree from the wren's nest. After several ineffectual attempts to reach it, I was about to give it up in spite of the fact that the surface below the entrance was polished clean from recent use, when my ear caught a subdued hissing. At first I thought it was the young wrens, but on placing my ear against the stub and tapping lightly I found it to proceed from the hole in front of me; now, my bump of curiosity bulging, I was determined to see what was inside that hole, risk neck or not. So off comes my belt, and looping t over a branch a few inches long just above me, I placed my arm through it, and using my stoekinged feet as levers, slowly swung myself out, till by extreme rubber-necking and the use of my one free arm, my mirror disclosed a tangle of what looked at first sight like a lot of animated mushrooms. Later observations disclosed their identity when a female Cabanis Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus hyloscopus) flew to the nest cavity with food for her young. The next hole to stand inspection after I had taken a much needed rest, was on the south side of snag, eight or nine feet higher up, and contained one egg of the Mountain Chickadee (Penthestes gambeli baileyae). Just around the tree again and about four feet higher up, a pair of Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexiana occidentalis) had a cozy nest in a large cavity which sheltered two handsome blue eggs, looking as if two stray bits of the summer sky had become entangled in the grasses of the nest. Continuing u the snag I examined a number of holes and cracks, some containing old ,nests, others empty, until, within three feet of the jagged top, a female Western Martin (Progne subis lesperia) flew out of a hole on the north side. She scolded me to such purpose, that, instead of using my .axe to pry into her house-keeping secrets, I threw it to the ground below, and followed after it, as best I might, finding, by the way, that it is far easier to ascend a snag than it is to descend it. This completed my tally for this apartment house, and showed six pairs of iusect-eating birds. Only one of these made extended trips beyond the circle of investing trees. These formed an open wall about a little mountain meadow or park-like space, covered with flowers, and therefore forming a pre-emi- nently suitable place for the capture of winged insects. The Cabanis Wood- peckers invariably flew towards the deep canyons on the north slopes of the flats, where no doubt they found pickings more to their liking in the shape of fat grubs among the fallen togs and stumps. As near as I could judge without a watch they made trips at intervals of about four minutes, the male carrying