Page:Condor5(2).djvu/9

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38 THE CONDOR ] VOL. V Of these, four pink-sided juncos, three red-breasted nuthatches, and two mountain chickadees were fresh enough to be skinned, and were preserved as specimens. Two days later, the only fresh corpses were a tnouse, a grasshopper, and a Rocky Mountain creeper, which latter was preserved, having just died. During the en- suing week no additional birds were asphyxiated. Although unable to estimate the number of birds that perished in the caves adjacent to the Mammoth Hot Springs during the past season, I am of the opinion that the number reached into the hundreds if not thousands. Birds were found dead in about thirty different caves and hollows about the "formation," between Snow Pass and the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, near which latter the lowest "bird cave" was discovered. At the suggestion of Mrs. Charles B. Byrne, who visited the St,gian caves in 1902 , [ requested the Park Superintendent to have the most important caves provided with wire screens for the purpose of keeping birds from entering them, and this will doubtless be done before another season, as the Superintendent and his wife are much interested in the matter. Following is a list of the species of birds which I found dead in the "Stygian" caves, I. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9- IO. II. I2. 13 14 15 16. from April to December, 19o2: Pica pica hudsonica (Sab.). Black-billed Magpie. Nuct]raga columbiana (Wils.). Clarke Nutcracker. Uarpodacus cassini Baird. Cassin Purple Finch. Spinuspinus (Wils.). Pine Siskin. funco mearnsi Ridgw. Pink-sided Junco. Oreospiza chlorura (Aud.). Green-tailed Tow bee. Pitanna ludoviciana (Wils.). Louisiana Tanager. ?'ireo?ilvus (Vieill.). Warbling Vireo. Dendroica audttboni (Towns). Audubon Warbler. Oporornis tolrniei (Townsend). Macgillivray Warbler. Certhia americana montana (Ridgway). Rocky Mountain Creeper. Sitta carolinensis nelsoni Mearns. Rocky Mountain Nuthatch. Sitta canadensis Linn. Red-breasted Nuthatch. Parus.?arnbeli Ridgway. Mountain Chickadee. Myadestes townsendii (Aud.). Townsend Solitaire. A4rerula rni?ratoria prepinqua Ridgway. Western Robin. Some Unusual Nests of the Bullock Oriole. BY C. S. SHARP, ESCONDIDO, CAL. The popular idea of au oriole's nest seems to be that it is always pensile, sup- ported wholly from the top and the lower part, large and purse-shaped, hanging free to sway with every breeze. I have never seen an illustration of one that was not of this description. In my observations of nests of the Bullock oriole ([cterus bullocki) [ have found two distinct types, and presume the same forms are found in the nests of its nearest eastern relative ?albula), the nests of others of the genus hardly coming into com- parison. These two types are the truly pensile and what is generally termed the semi- pensile form, although, in reality, it is not pensile at all. With bullocki the latter