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 July, 9o2.[ with a ridge r rim next to the entrance tube or neck, to prevent the eggs rolling out. In the winter nest there is merely a slight depression, little more than a shelf on which to rest. The one in- stance which leads me to think the young are sometimes raised in the winter nest is as follows: In the early part of March, i899, - the 7th I believe--I found a male win- ter nest and about twenty feet from it what I supposed to be a female winter nest, both in the woolly yerba santa or 'riodict,oz tomen/osum. A fexv weeks later, about April 5, [ examined the nests and found four fresh eggs in the female's nest. That evening after dark I returned to the nests and captured both male and female in their nests. took them to my camp and in the morn- ing the female had added another egg thus completing the set for me, for which I rewarded her with liberty. Looking over my notes I find most of the verdin entries date from March 2o to May 2, most of the fresh eggs being found the last week in March, though have found fresh eggs on March m. The number in a set is four or five about evenly divided a to frequency. This season I have fonnd three com- plete sets of four each and two of five. Most frequently the nests are found in mesquite trees and the smoke tree or Z)alea spinosa, Daley's thorn tree. But any spiny shrub will answer, as I have found nests in the screw-bean, cholla cactus, desert willow, tree-sage, cats- claw, Eriodictyon, and last month found one in a grapevine growing up in a cottonwood tree. The nests will average about five feet from the ground though I have found them as low as 2 feet and as high as ten or twelve feet. The bird THE COND)I,:.: :.. ; ... :,. ::,..,. : : .,! 9
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nest and ca, n be.heard chipt)ina in the nearby br'.u:lJlut..tldks: _ci not to approach the'ifi't'r[Ide}'.' 'u[ here are exceptions; as this season a pair of them came only four Feet from me and scold- ed while I examined their nest of fresh eggs. Infertile eggs are offeu found especially toward the end of the breed- ing season, and in most of the sets of five eggs one is infertile. I do not think I ever found five young in the nest though often four and one rotten egg. The eggs resemble those of the gnat- catcher, pale green with brownish spots on them, but are a little smaller and the markings paler and often coarser, approaching blotches. Last December I found two female winter .nests and later saw several of both sexes. One of them in a mesquite tree was ten or twelve feet from the ground and measured more than eight' inches long by seven wide and seven deep. Lining was about one and one- quarter inches thick and composed of feathers--quail, chicken and others. The cavity was spherical, about one andone-half inches in diameter. The exterior was of mesquite and other thorny twigs, grass and weed stems,fine leaves, and any woolly or sticky fibre or weed that would hang together and help bind the nest. The birds seem almost independent of wateras I have found nests and young about five miles from water and have seen old nests at least ten miles from any known water. The problem I am now at work on is that of the use of winter nests for breeding and if a number of nests can be located and marked next fall and winter and exam- ined in the spring the question can be settled. Perhaps some of Ttir: Cooo readers can answer from personal ex- is easily flushed from the perience or some other knowledge. The Southern White-headed Woodpecker. BY JOSEPH GRINNELL. Xenopicus gravirostris, new species. SPEC. CHxR.--Similar to A?nopicus albolarvalus but bill much heavier, and size in general