Page:Condor8(3).djvu/15

May, 5906 I PAPERS ON PHILIPPINE BIRDS II 73 possess the patience of an American Indian combined with the small boy's delight in a gun and take keen pleasure in securing new or rare birds. Next to the leech the greatest pest is the average white man who wants to know how you kill 'em and what you do with 'em, or who insists that you are col- lecting for the Smithsonian "Institute"! The "little brown brothers" are quite as inquisitive but one need not understand Spanish and can forgive them as they know no better. When once you become resigned or callous to the delays in transportation, to the slowness inherent in natives of all tropical countries, to the monotony of rice at every meal, to the lack of mail for weeks at a time, and forget the inquisitive white, you really enjoy collecting in the Philippines. To expect tomorrow what should come today and to be unruffled when the morrow does not bring it is to live happily in these islands. Mexico has been called "the land of manana"; the Phil- ippines are the islands of fiacencia. Manila, ]>. f. The Nuttall Sparrow Around San Francisco BY LOUIS BOLANDER HE Nuttall sparrow (Zonotrchia leucophr?vs nullalii) is very plentiful around San Francisco at all times. Along canyons that have just enough brush for a cover, near thesea shore, and along wooded highways you can nearly always find this wide-awake bird. I knew of a place in the suburbs of San Fran- cisco where they used to come and roost in a vine against the house every night. This was in January and February. There is a valley near the city called French- man's Valley. Here you can see this sparrow at any time; for they nest and raise their young here, finding their food in the nearby vegetable gardens. They do not fly far when followed by a person, except when he has a gun; then they dis- appear in all directlons. They build their nests in the brush which here does no t grow higher than two feet. Once in a while [ find a nest built on the ground. The nests are not bulky when they are built thus. The only site where I have noted their nests as being bulky is where they build in trees, especially the young pines. The first two nests of this species I ever found were built in pine trees about eight feet above the g?ound. And here the nests were very bulky. The inside lining was of light-colored soft grasses; then around this were heavier grasses of darker color; and then came a thick matting of pine needles. You could not tell the nest apart from the other bunches of needles that had caught in the crotches of the tree. The bird flew off each time as I approached the nest, and this was the only means of finding the nest. Both male and female kept up a constant chirping while I was near. Both nests contained three eggs. These nests were found in a small valley leading up from the pumping station on Lake Merced. When the nests are built in cypress trees they are generally small but not as small as those built in bushes. The birds commence to breed about the last of March. I found one set on April 8, r9o 5. The eggs were deserted because of a heavy rain just a few days before, or possibly from some other cause. Within fifty feet was another nest with four half-grown young birds in it, all with their mouths open for food. The