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?3o THE CONDOR VOL. VI flower plant and close to the ground on the bank of a stream; a fourth was placed six inches up, right in the center of a tussock of rushes growing on a small inland in an almost dry water course. A strange site was that of one pair which built their nest right in an old nest of bicolored blackbird that was placed three and a half feet up in a very small wil- low sapling, standing in water. Only five out of the great number of nests exam- ined could be classed as truly typical. They were built in clumps of stranded tule and varied in height from six inches to five feet. June ? was a red letter day. I had the good fortune to enioy the companion- ship of my friend, Mr. H. R. Taylor, the esteemed president of the Cooper Club. We put in a long, hot day's work, exploring by aid of our boat the banks of a large slough, both sides of which had many thickets of willow and alder with here and there large patches of wild rose upon them. We located no less than twenty- two nests of yellow-throats. One nest held young birds, nine, eggs and the rest were in varions stages of construction. With all due acknowledgements to Mr. Taylor I transcribe a few extracts from the notes he made: "No. 6, nest building; ten feet from ground in willow near banks of slough. No. I4, nest and egg; three and a half feet up in willow, standing in water; willow catkins freely used in com- position of outer walls of nest. No. i7, nest and four eggs;' built in wild mint, compact and standing high, evidently out of place in its odd situation being only partially concealed; six inches from ground, built on side of stream now dry and about one hundred yards from the nearest water. No. ?8, nest just co?npleted; built on the ground in sunflower on bank of same stream as No. ?7, and thirty yards from it and about seventy from lake. No. 20, nest building about twelve feet up in willow on edge of lake. One nest, number five, with three eggs, was placed five and a half feet up in a willow standing in water near bank. A heron's feather was fixed into one side of the nest and its top projected three inches or more beyond the rim." Inconnection with nest ?4, composed partly of willow catkins,I found in the last week of May a very large nest built almost entirely of willow catkins and placed four feet up on a pendant branch of a willow standing in water. This nest is now in the possession of Mr. Taylor. On June x3 we took careful line measurements of the two highest nests dis- covered up to that time. The first was placed in a crotch of a small black oak on a knoll near the lake and was exactly seventeen feet six inches from the ground. The other nest was built in a cypress on a hillside and near a residence. It con- tained young birds iust hatched. It was eighteen feet ten inches up, and about three hundred yards from the nearest water. Both these measurements have the advantage of being checked and verified by Mr. Taylor. The record nest as to height was I believe a second nest of the cypress pair. It was built in a crotch of a blue gum standing in the same grove as the cypress, the bases of the two trees being only sixteen feet apart. On July ?2 when measurement was taken the nest held, iudging from their appearance, three highly incubated eggs. The height of this nest from the ground was twenty-two feet eleven inches. One other nest needs special mention. On June i8 it contained two apparently deserted eggs. Its situation was an extraordinary one, at least a quarter of a mile from either lake or slough though a small stream was within two hundred yards. The n?st was built four and a half feet up in a rose bush trained against the eastern wall of an unoccupied house, standing upon a hill, just such a site as the house finch de- lights in. I have often seen their nests in this bush. Curiously enough no set of