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May, 1908 THREE NESTS O1? NOTE I?ROM NORTHERN CALIFORNIA 123 waited his return the subdued notes of a Western Golden-crowned Kinglet caused me to look to the top branches of a fir close by. I looked till my neck ached, but as usual this green mite of a bird that nature so skilfully blends with the tint of the forest was everywhere but the place I looked for him. However, as I was about to give up the search he flew down into a tan-oak. Following him I soon found him clinging to the underside of a branch, and blazed a.? silently left the tree without a feather disturbed. .Again following to a ?. - - was about to pull on him with the other barrel, when I noticed ano i '? join him and I stood close to the trunk to watch them..? If it had not been for my bad judgment, a defective shell, or probably more providence than anything, there would have been no cause to write these notes. Flying down to within five feet of my head the mate began tugging at some moss which grew in clusters on the trunk, and immediately a mental picture of a partly constructed nest flashed across my mind. It was hard to suppress an inclination to turn my head in search of it, which action would certainly have spoiled any chance of its discovery. But I obeyed the instinct to freeze, and stood afraid even to wink until the bird fluttered over my head with a few timid peeps sixty feet up in a tall fir and disappeared into a cluster of small branches on the underside and close to the end of a large overhanging limb. About this time Taylor appeared on the scene with a fine male Pileated and we exchanged congratulations. For about a half hour We stayed in this spot watching the Kinglets'make trip after trip to their nest which was absolutely invisible from any point of view. But it was there, that was sure; and for the fact that the birds had not the slightest regard for our presence, it seemed a certainty that a little patience on our part would mean the nest and eggs of ?r?eg?ulus saD'apa ol[vaceus. Much satisfied with the prospects in view we resumed our way to the coast and by noon were in the midst of tangles of blackberry thickets with Sparrows piping all about us; but with all this encouragement not a nest was found, until we again made the trip on the second of June when we took three rich sets. Meantime the Kinglets were not seen making trips to their home with building material as they had done on the day of finding the nest; in fact only once did I hear them in the vicinity and then neither of them were seen. ]?videntlythey must have been adding the last finishing touches when I first saw them. Much to our regret we had a limited amount of time to stay on the South Fork; business com- pelled us to break camp on the 8th of June. So the day before, we were obliged to pay our last visit to the "Kinglet tree". A full set was hardly expected, two or three eggs would answer a good purpose, and the anticipation from this thought hurried us across the open glade to the tall fir. Bird life was unusually quiet, probably due to a thick fog that floated up the gulches from the ocean below and reaching the ridge would spread its misty blanket over the timber where it hung until the warm rays of the noon sun melted it into space. On one occasion it became so damp owing to a fog of this sort which managed to get down into the canyon one night, that waking up half drenched we decided it would be more comfortable around a camp fire than to attempt sleep in miniature lakes of fog. ' And sitting by a smouldering fire we smoked and were smoked, till the first sign of morning gave us a chance to start another day. But back to the tall fir and the Kinglets: After exchanging ideas as to which was the best way of getting to the nest we decided to both climb to the limb in which it was placed and take a chance at crawling down the limb beneath. Taking a coil of stout cord I fastened one end as near the nest as I could reach and tossing