Page:Condor6(6).djvu/22

Nov., I9O4[ THE CONDOR I6 3 Nesting of the Western Golden-cro?rned Kinglet in Western Washington BV J. H. BOWLES N the ?9th of May, i9o2, my attention was attracted to a dark spot on the under side of a fir limb at an elevation of forty feet above the ground. It was near the top of a young tree about five feet from the trunk, and my disappointment may be better imagined than described when I discovered it to be a ball of moss and feathers, open at the top and containing nine newly hatched young of lgeffulus satrapa olivaceus. This being my first positive breeding record for this bird my oological ambition became centered on securing a nest with eggs, and the season of i9o 3 was largely devoted to that purpose greatly to the neglect of other much deserving species. Time and again I thought I had suc- ceeded, but only to find the usual cluster of our exceedingly common hanging moss, or at best adecoy nest, for these kinglets are nearly as fond of building extra nests as are so many of the wren family. To give the readers of THE CONDOR an idea of the difficulties of the undertak- ing hefore me, a description of the nesting grounds is necessary. While the king- lets are not particularly rare, the localities where they may be found are the im- mense stretches of great firs that cover large portions of our dry prairie country. The only intimation, as a rule, of their presence is their faint squealing call-note that comes from somewhere high overhead in the dense foliage, the birds them- selves being so small that it is almost an impossibility to get a sight of them. With this discouraging prospect I started in on the present season of i9o4, and my reward came most unexpectedly, on the evening of April 25. My brother and [ were returning from a successful trip after nests of the Audubon warbler, having taken two handsome sets of four, and were strolling along the edge of a stretch of fir timber several square miles in extent. Kinglets being in my mind as usual, my attention was drawn to a spot among the fir branches which, even in the growing dusk, looked a trifle different from any of the surroundings. It proved to be a most promising looking kinglet nest, but, being twenty feet from the ground and fifteen feet out under an immense branch, making a close examination was impos- sible. As there were no birds around we decided it was the customary decoy and so left it, but after two days had passed the uncertainty became too much for our nerves and we again visited it, armed this time with a hundred feet of rope. Curi- ously enough it was impossible to see the nest in the bright sunlight until we were directly under it, so well did it harmonize in coloring with its surroundings, although in the evet?ing it was faintly discernable at a distance of sixty feet. When we arrived within a short distance our hopes rose a trifle to see a small gray object leave the vicinity of the nest and disappear like a flash in the surrounding maze of branches. Climbing up the tree some forty feet above the nest my brother securely fastened one end of the rope, and, coming down to a level with the nest, attached the rope chair and I, on the ground, pulled him out to the nest, Seldom has anything been more welcome to me than when he called down, "It's full of eggs." We stayed around the tree for an hour, during which time the male Regulus was extremely shy, but the fentale after a while became accustomed to us and would return and get into the nest when my brother was within three feet of it. The nest, like all the others I have seen, was most insecurely fastened among the small needle-covered twigs about three inches under the limb. It is an exceedingly bulky structure, considering the size of the bird, measuring externally 3 inches in depth by r6 inches in circumference. The cavity is small though