1896/04/01 by Abbott H. Thayer · 15 citations
Social Sciences · #Biology #Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences #Zoology
paper · doi:10.2307/4068693
openalex publication_date 1896/04/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Auk 1 2 4 rFIIAYER OU Prolecl/r,e 'Coloral/on.[April 889, I found a nest in a snall oak, containing two eggs.Ma), 4, 894, 1 fonnd a pair brooding.May 6, a pair were bnilding in an oak, fifteeu to txventy feet above the ground.May 28, the birds seemed to be through building and were flitting about warbling and apparently taking it rest before time to begin brooding.May 3 I, after a Blue Jay had created all excitement in the oak, the Gnatcatchers begau taking their nest to pieces, and went to work putting it up in alow oak a few rods away.Jnne 7 the birds were still building.June i they were brooding, changing places in tile nest.June 2 5 the young were beitlg l:ed.July 4 tile young were out.being fed in tile brush.From Mav 6, or more accnrately N'lay 4-for the nest had been begtin at least two days before I fonnd it--from May x 4 to July 4, those birds were working tu get one brood launched.The first nest took them two weeks, the second nne about ten days.Their method of work was interesting.The nest vas lald on a borizontM branch.Their plan seemed to be twofold, to make the walls compact and strong by using only fine bits of nntterial and packing them tightly together--drilling them in--aud at the same time to give the walls form and kee l ) them trim and shipshape by moulding inside and smoothing the rim and the outside.Sometimes the bnilder wonld smouth the brim vith its neck and bill like a Redstart, its a person shin-pens a knife on a whetstone, a stroke one way and then a stroke the other.Tile birds nsually got inside to work, but there was a twig beside the nest that served for scaffolding, and they sometimes stood on that to work on ontside.They both worked, flying rapidly back and forth with material.The second nest rested lightly on a horizontal limb, but was supported mainly by two twigs which forked so as to enclose it.It was a beautiful '