Nesting Notes from Tacoma, Washington
Nesting Notes From Tacoma, Wash.
The unusually warm spring has started the birds to housekeeping some two weeks earlier than is customary with them. An incubated set of two eggs of Allen's Hummingbird (Selasphorus alleni) was found on April 14, and the mother bird sat with the utmost composure to have her photograph taken at a distance of five feet. She seemed to fee1 that the two little pearls under her were perfectly safe in her keeping, and I am happy to add that she was not disappointed. On the 17th of April a set of two eggs of the same species was found on the point of hatching.
A nest of the Bush-Tit (Psaltriparus minimus) containin&seven fresh eggs was noted April 12. One of the most curious changes in nesting habits has occurred this season in a colony of Brewer's Blackbirds (Scolecophagus cyanocephalus). In previous years they have nested in holes of the Red-shafted Flicker high up in some dead firs, but a visit a few days ago disclosed the remarkable fact that every bird is nesting in gooseberry bushes, no more than three feet from the ground. There is no apparent reason for this change, of some seventy-five feet in altitude, for the holes used in previous seasons still appear to be in as good condition as ever.
J. H. BOWLES
Tacoma, Wash.
