Page:Condor14(4).djvu/34

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144 THE CONDOR Vol. XIV three practically fresh eggs which were collected with the parent and which Joseph Grinnell pronounced typical montana. On May 29 I took the first recorded eggs (a set of six) for Lake Valley of the Parkman Wren (Troglodytes aedon parkmani) with parent. The nest was first found on May 21 and was placed in a dead aspen 71 inches up. The cavity was extremely small and allowed very little opportunity for that exten- sive nest-building so dear to the heart of parkmani; in fact it had only a warm lining of feathers. In a hole in an adjoining aspen, twenty feet up, was a nest of the Red-shafted Flicker (Colapres cafer collaris) with large young. The Sierra Junco shows a decided preference for the margin of meadow lands and often selects situations where the nests become water-soaked and the Fig. 60. NEST AND EGGS OF SIERRA HERMIT THRUSH IN LODGE-rOLE PINE eggs fail to incubate. One nest of this kind I found on May 30. Although the eggs were lying in water the parent remained incubating. This day proved one of continuous surprises and I felt well repaid for the long trip into new territory. The first thrills were two nests of the White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys leucophrys ). One was placed on the ground at the foot of a sinall willow, along a brook. The nest was flush with the surface and made of grasses lined with red co,v-hair with which the green-brown eggs prettily con- trasted. The eggs were three in number and ahnost fresh. The flushing of the sitting bird led to the discovery of the nest. The secoml nest was along the .same stream four' feet up in a lodge-pole