Page:Condor9(4).djvu/9

 July, x9o 7 NESTING HABITS OF PHAINOPIPLA NITENS Io3 itself was ten or twelve feet from the ground in an upright crotch formed by sev- eral small branches. It exactly matched the bark and was inconspicuous until the birds stuck a piece of white cotton on one side of its upper edge. This was added after sitting had commenced. Whether the male Phainopepla sang on the nest I know not; but often during the nest building he came to the wires directly in front of the house and sang the same sort of a song the Arroyo bird sang, only it was much louder. He also gave several different call notes. On June sixteenth, five days after nest building began, the female first went to the nest and remained for any length of time. Toward night I saw her skim- ming thru the air, swallow fashion. The next day it was evident that brooding had commenced; for twice, as I passed near the tree, I scared the female off. I found in the subsequent watching that she was shyer than the male and would never stay on the nest when I came near the tree. On the other hand the male did not mind, and stayed by the nest under the closest scrutiny. The work of incubation was very equally divided between the two birds. Seldom was the nest left alone. When the female left it, a she frequently did, the male took her place and kept it until she returned. On the afternoon of July first, fourteen days after sitting had commenced, I saw the male Phainopepla go to the nest, feed, and then slip onto it. In five minutes the female came and the male left; the female fed, then brooded until the return of the male in about five minutes. This alternating was kept up until seven o'clock when the female took the nest for the night. In five minutes the male flew into the tree and out again without stopping. Three minutes later he did the same thing, flying near the nest as if to see that all was well for the night, then flying out and away into the Arroyo until out of sight. In the morning I watched at the nest for over an hour and no birds came near it. At noon a male bird sang on the wire before the house, and gave his two notes, "beck" and "scat", but no female was anywhere about. Once the male flew thru the nest tree. Of course, I cannot know what was the tragedy of the nest, but I have always thought that some cat took mother and young in the night. At four P. ., June twenty-six, I found another Phainopepla's nest in a small upright crotch high up in a sycamore tree on the Arroyo bank only a few yards from the first nest I had found. I believe it was the same pair of birds. The male was on the nest, and for ten minutes he stayed there; then he slipped off and was about on the tree near the nest for five minutes, when he returned and remained ten more minutes until the female returned and took his place. Fifteen minutes after the male had left the nest and the tree, I heard his liquid call note. In five minutes more he drove another male away from the vicinity of the nest, and in another five minutes (twenty-five from the time he left) he returned and took the female's place. The next morning when I visited the tree the female was brooding. Soon she left, and for thirty-five minutes the male had charge of affairs. During this time he was on and off the nest four times. The first twenty minutes were spent in quietly sitting on the nest; the rest of the time in slipping on and off at short in- tervals. I imagined I could feel his relief when his dallying spouse finally came. I have every reason to believe that this pair of birds raised their young; but unfortunately I was away at the time of nest leaving. When I returned, a female and at least two birds that resembled her were about in the sycamores, and I doubt not that they belonged to the sycamore nest. fos Angeles, California.