Front matter (continued 4)

Mr. Rathbun mentions three nests (MS.), found in that same vicinity; one was well hidden under some fallen dead brakes; and the other two were beautifully concealed in the centers of small huckleberry bushes.

William L. Finley (1904b) records six Oregon nests. The first “was tucked up under some dry ferns in the bank of a little hollow where a tree had been uprooted. * * * The second nest was on a hillside under a fir tree, placed on the ground in a tangle of grass and briar.” Another was “in a sloping bank just beside a woodland path. A fourth nest was tucked under the overhanging grasses and leaves in an old railroad cut.” He found two nests in bushes above ground. He saw a female carrying “food into the thick foliage of an arrow-wood bush. A cluster of twigs often sprouts out near the upper end of the branch and here, in the fall, the leaves collect in a thick bunch. In one of these bunches, 3 feet from the ground, the warbler had tunneled out the dry leaves and snugly fitted in her nest making a dark and well-protected home.” He found another nest 2 feet up in a bush, within a few yards of the ocean beach.

Henry W. Carriger, of Sonoma, Calif., (1899) mentions two more elevated nests of the lutescent warbler. He writes:

On May 31, 1897, I found a nest of the Lutescent Warbler placed three feet from the ground in a bunch of vines. * * * On May 3, 1899, * * * I flushed a bird from a nest in an oak tree, and was surprised to see it was a Lutescent Warbler. The nest was six feet from the ground and three feet from the trunk of the tree. A horizontal limb branched out from the tree and a small branch stuck up from it for about eight inches, and over this was a great quantity of Spanish moss (Ramalina retiformis), which fell over the horizontal limb. The nest is quite bulky, composed of leaves, grass and bark strips, lined with hair and fine grass, and was partially supported by both limbs and the moss, which is all about it and which forms quite a cover for the eggs.

Eggs.—The lutescent warbler lays from 3 to 6 eggs to a set, probably most often 4. These are ovate or short ovate and are practically lusterless. The white or creamy white ground color is speckled, spotted or occasionally blotched with shades of reddish brown, such as “russet,” “Mars brown,” “chestnut,” and “auburn,” intermingled with underlying shades of “light brownish drab.” The markings are usually concentrated at the large end, but some eggs are speckled more or less evenly over the entire surface. Small scrawls of blackish brown may be found on some of the more heavily marked types. The measurements of 50 eggs average 16.2 by 12.6 millimeters: the eggs showing the four extremes measure 17.7 by 12.8, 16.8 by 13.5, 14.7 by 12.2, and 15.9 by 11.1 millimeters (Harris).

Young.—We seem to have no information on incubation or on the care and development of the young.

Plumages.—The molts and plumages are evidently similar to those of the orange-crowned warbler, though the lutescent is, of course, decidedly more yellow in all plumages.

Food.—Prof. Beal (1907) examined the contents of the stomachs of 65 California specimens of this species.

Less than 9 percent of the food is vegetable matter, and is made up of 3 percent of fruit and rather more than 5 percent of various substances, such as leaf galls, seeds, and rubbish. Fruit was found in only a few stomachs, but the percentage in each was considerable; figs were the only variety identified. [Of the 91 percent animal matter,] Hemiptera are the largest item and amount to over 25 percent, mostly leaf-bugs, leaf-hoppers, plant-lice, and scales. Plant-lice were found in only one stomach and scales in 5, of which 3 contained the black olive species. Beetles amount to about 19 percent of the food, and with the exception of a few Coccinellidae are of harmful families, among which are a number of weevils. * * * Caterpillars are eaten rather irregularly, though they aggregate 24 percent for the year. Stomachs collected in several months contained none, while in others they amounted to more than half of the food. * * * Hymenoptera amount nearly to 15 percent, and are mostly small wasps, though some ants are eaten.

Other items were flies, less than 1 percent, and spiders, 7 percent. W. L. McAtee (1912) says that this is one of only two wood warblers known to prey upon codling moths. “The lutescent warbler shows a strong liking for the pupae, two taken in California in May having eaten 10 and 18 pupae, respectively.”

Behavior.—Mrs. Wheelock (1904) writes thus of its feeding activities: “All day long he flits about through the oak trees, leaning away over the tips of the boughs to investigate a spray of leaves, or stretching up his pretty head to reach a blossom just above him; now clinging head downward underneath a spray, or hovering under the yellow tassels as a bee hovers beneath a flower.”

Voice.—Samuel F. Rathbun (MS.) gives me his impression of the song of the lutescent warbler as follows: “Its song is a succession of trilling notes on a slightly rising then falling key, the latter more lightly given and faster. There is an apparent ease in this song that is suggestive of airiness, and, although simple in construction, it is pleasing to hear and further bears the stamp of distinctiveness.”

Fall.—The fall migration is southward to southern California, western Mexico, and Guatemala. The movement is apparently leisurely and quite prolonged, for the earliest birds begin leaving western Washington in August and September, and Theed Pearse gives me two October dates for Vancouver Island, with his latest date November 1. Taylor and Shaw (1927) write of the fall movement on Mount Rainier as follows:

The postnuptial scatter movement was in full swing by the middle of August. At this time the lutescent warbler was often found in the same flocks with Shufeldt juncos, western golden-crowned kinglets, or chestnut-backed chickadees. It is not unlikely that there is some good reason for this flocking, aside from the companionship involved. The warblers and the juncos, kinglets, or chickadees probably do not compete for food as would one warbler with another of the same species. The individual warbler, attached to a flock of kinglets, let us say, may be the more surely guided to available food. Then, too, differences in alertness of the two or more species concerned may afford greater protection to each than would be the case if they remained separate.

Robert Ridgway (1877) met with these warblers in large numbers in Nevada:

In the fall, the thickets and lower shrubbery along the streams, particularly those of the lower cañons, would fairly swarm with them during the early portion of the mornings, as they busily sought their food, in company with various insectivorous birds, especially the Black-capped Green Warbler (Myiodioctes pusillus) and Swainson’s Vireo (Vireosylvia swainsoni). At such times they uttered frequently their sharp note of chip. The brightly-colored specimens representing H. lutescens were prevalent in the western depression of the Basin, but were not observed eastward of the upper portion of the Valley of the Humboldt, nor at any locality during the summer; and wherever found, were associated with individuals of the other form, which is the only one found breeding on the mountains. It is therefore inferred that all these individuals were migrants from the northern Pacific Coast region and the Sierra Nevada, while those of H. celata proper were from the higher portions of the more eastern mountains, or from farther northward in the Rocky Mountain ranges, full-fledged young birds being numerous in the high aspen woods of the Wasatch Mountains in July and August.

VERMIVORA CELATA SORDIDA (Townsend)

DUSKY ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER

Plate 15

HABITS

The subspecific characters of this warbler, as given by the original describer, C. H. Townsend (1890), are: “Adult male: Entire plumage decidedly darker than H. celata lutescens. Feet and bill larger; wings slightly shorter. There is an appearance of grayness about the upper plumage, owing to a leaden tinge on ends of feathers. Throat and under parts slightly streaked.”

The principal breeding range of the dusky warbler is on the Santa Barbara Islands off the coast of southern California, but it has also been known to breed in San Diego and probably breeds farther south in Baja California, and on the Todos Santos Islands, off that coast.

The dusky orange-crowned warbler was discovered by Dr. Townsend on San Clemente Island January 25, 1889, but it does not seem to be so common there as on some of the other islands. According to A. Brazier Howell (1917) it has been reported from all of the channel islands except San Nicholas, which is too barren for it; and its occurrence on Santa Barbara Island is doubtful, as this precipitous island is not suited for it. It is probably commonest on Santa Catalina Island, “in the darker canyons and on the wooded hillsides.”

J. Stuart Rowley writes to me: “I found that the weekend nearest the 15th of April was the ideal time to hunt nests of this warbler on Catalina Island, and after much hiking about this island I finally located a little ravine, only about a mile or so out of the town of Avalon, where these warblers nested abundantly, due to the little trickle of surface water in the bottom of the ravine. Since most of the ravines here are dry, this one was ‘made to order’ and I enjoyed the chance to find many nests in the short time allotted to me. Around the middle of April this little ravine fairly trilled with the songs of many males, who were constantly pursuing trespassing individuals out of their nesting territories, only to return and continue their melodic songs.”

Nesting.—Of its nesting habits, J. Stuart Rowley continues: “I have found dusky warblers nesting in every conceivable sort of place, ranging from those placed on the ground in the grass to those placed 15 feet up in toyon trees. The usual nesting site here seems to be in a small toyon bush, rather well concealed, but not over 2 to 3 feet from the ground; the nests are made of fibres and grasses and, although nicely cupped and lined, are rather bulky affairs externally for a warbler to build.” Howell (1917) writes:

The usual nesting site of the Lutescent Warbler is on the ground, but I have never heard of sordida building in such a situation. On the smaller barren islands, such as the Coronados and Todos Santos (where it is common), they build in a bush or tangle of vines, a foot or so above the ground, and the nest is always mainly constructed of gray moss, where this is to be had, lined with a little fine grass. On the larger islands, where there are good-sized trees, the site chosen may be a thicket of vines several feet above the bed of a stream, a small shrub, say four feet up, or perhaps an oak as much as fifteen feet above the ground. In such case the nest is quite substantially made of leaves, twigs, bark, rootlets, and often a little sheep wool. Three or four eggs constitute a set, and at least two broods of young are raised each year.

A most unusual nesting site for a dusky warbler is described by Clinton G. Abbott (1926). It was—

a decorative fern basket inside a small lath house adjoining the home of Mrs. A. P. Johnson, Jr., at 2470 C Street, San Diego. * * * Her house is in one of the older residential sections of the city, known as Golden Hill. The homes here are large and surrounded by more or less extensive grounds, but the whole aspect is distinctly urban, with streets everywhere paved. Broadway, with double trolley tracks, is only one block away. The lath house, sixteen by twenty-four feet in size, was filled with a luxuriant growth of cultivated plants. A rectangular path within was marked at its corners by four wire fern baskets suspended about four feet from the ground. In one of these were the remains of the two previous years’ nests, and in the basket diagonally opposite was the inhabited nest, which contained three eggs. Although the eggs were manifestly not fresh, there was no bird about and they seemed cool to my touch. I waited about for fully ten minutes and was beginning to fear that disaster had overtaken the home, when I heard a low, scolding note overhead. Then down from between the slats hopped the dainty little warbler, and, with no concern whatsoever, she took her place upon the eggs, although I was standing in full view close by. [The nest was] cosily placed in the moss at the base of the ferns.

We soon discovered that not only was the bird practically fearless in the ordinary sense, but that she would even allow us to touch her without leaving her nest. She would permit us to raise her from her eggs with no greater protest than a pecking at the intruding finger. If she was not sitting sufficiently broadside for a good photograph, it was possible to arrange her the way we wanted her! Sometimes, if our familiarity was beyond her patience, she would merely hop among the foliage behind the nest, wait there for a few minutes, and then nestle back on her eggs.

Eggs.—Three eggs seem to constitute the average set for the dusky warbler, with occasionally only two or as many as four. Mr. Rowley tells me that, out of at least two dozen nests examined, he found only two sets of four; one nest had only one newly hatched young, and two or three nests held two well-incubated eggs. The eggs are apparently indistinguishable from those of the mainland races. The measurements of 27 eggs average 17.0 by 13.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 18.5 by 13.5, 17.6 by 14.0, and 16.0 by 12.7 millimeters.

Winter.—Many of the dusky warblers, perhaps most of them, desert the islands in the fall when they become dry and uninviting, for the winter spreading widely on the mainland as far north as the San Francisco Bay region and inland to Merced County. Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1898) says: “This subspecies appears in the vicinity of Pasadena in the oak regions and along the arroyos in large numbers during August, and even by the middle of July. Remains in diminishing numbers through the winter; the latest specimen noted in the spring was secured by me, Feb. 29 (‘96).”

VERMIVORA RUFICAPILLA RUFICAPILLA (Wilson)

EASTERN NASHVILLE WARBLER

Plates 16, 17

HABITS

Alexander Wilson discovered this species near Nashville, Tenn., and gave it the name Nashville warbler. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1874) say of its early history: “For a long while our older naturalists regarded it as a very rare species, and knew nothing as to its habits or distribution. Wilson, who first met with it in 1811, never found more than three specimens, which he procured near Nashville, Tenn. Audubon only met with three or four, and these he obtained in Louisiana and Kentucky. These and a few others in Titian Peale’s collection, supposed to have been obtained in Pennsylvania, were all he ever saw. Mr. Nuttall at first regarded it as very rare, and as a Southern species.”

This is not strange when we stop to consider that this bird is more or less irregular in its occurrence, apparently fluctuating in numbers in different localities and perhaps choosing different routes of migration. Its record here in eastern Massachusetts illustrates this point. Thomas Nuttall never saw the bird while he lived in Cambridge, from 1825 to 1834. Dr. Samuel Cabot, who lived there from 1832 to 1836, told William Brewster (1906) that he was sure that it did not occur regularly in eastern Massachusetts at that time. According to Brewster:

Soon afterwards a few birds began to appear every season. They increased in numbers, gradually but steadily, until they had become so common that in 1842 he obtained ten specimens in the course of a single morning.

In 1868, and for some fifteen years later, I found Nashville Warblers breeding rather numerously in Waltham, Lexington, Arlington and Belmont, usually in dry and somewhat barren tracts sparsely covered with gray birches, oaks or red cedars, or with scattered pitch pines. A few birds continue to occupy certain of these stations, but in all of the towns just mentioned the Nashville Warbler is less common and decidedly less generally distributed in summer now than it was twenty-five or thirty years ago.

Forbush (1929) found it “more common in eastern Massachusetts in the latter quarter of the last century than it is today.” And my own experience has been similar; prior to 1900 we used to consider the Nashville Warbler a common bird on migrations and even found it breeding in Bristol County in 1892; but we have seen very little of it since the turn of the century.

Spring.—From its winter home in Mexico and Central America, the eastern Nashville warbler seems to migrate mainly northeastward through Texas to the lower Mississippi Valley and then west of the Alleghenies to New England and northward up the central valleys. Some individuals apparently fly straight across the Gulf of Mexico, but it is very rare in Louisiana, for which Dr. Oberholser (1938) gives only three records. It seems to be very rare, or entirely unknown, in any of the southeastern States, east of Louisiana and south of Virginia, except in some of the mountains.

According to Dr. Chapman’s (1907) tables, about 18 days elapse between the average date of the first arrival of the species in Missouri and that of its first appearance in Minnesota, and it seems to require exactly the same time to migrate from West Virginia to New Brunswick.

Dr. Dayton Stoner (1932) says of its migration through the Oneida Lake region, N. Y.:

The Nashville warbler here seems to prefer coppices along the edges of woodland such as young aspen and maple and elm thickets and other small growth that springs up in cut-over and burned-over areas. In such situations I have found it singing persistently in late May and the first few days in June. This warbler and the chestnut-sided are often found together. However, it does not confine its activities to thickets, for it not infrequently visits woodlands of tall elm, maple, beech and other deciduous trees, as well as mixed forest and the vegetation in door-yards. The flowering currant is in full bloom at the time this bird reaches the height of its abundance and I have seen it visiting such shrubbery during the first part of May.

In Massachusetts in May, according to Forbush (1929), “among its favorite haunts are the bushy edges of woodlands, whether along roads, railroads or streams, or about ponds, lakes, marshes, swamps or open fields. It may often be found among willows, alders, birches or poplars. Old neglected fields and pastures, with scattered growths of birches and bushes, are favorite feeding grounds, but the bird also visits orchards, gardens and shade trees, even in city parks. It may be found on dry lands where scattered pitch pines grow, and on moist lands with rank shrubbery.”

W. E. Clyde Todd (1940) says of the migration in western Pennsylvania: "The Nashville Warbler appears during the flood tide of the warbler migration in both spring and fall and is sometimes inordinately abundant. * * *

“Almost every spring there is a day or two of decided movement, when the species is very common and on occasion exceedingly abundant. On May 3, 1901, I witnessed a remarkable flight at Beaver. That morning the woods everywhere were full of Nashville warblers, to the exclusion of almost all other kinds. I counted a dozen in one tree. They kept mostly in the treetops and were singing very little.”

These warblers are also sometimes abundant in Ohio, for Milton B. Trautman (1940) noted as many as 80 individuals on May 15, 1932, at Buckeye Lake.

Nesting.—The nesting haunts of the eastern Nashville warbler are quite varied, and habitats similar to some of those frequented on the spring migration seem to be suitable for breeding grounds. But the nest is always placed on the ground and generally is well hidden. Gerald Thayer wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907):

Birch Warbler would be a good name for this bird as it appears in the Monadnock region where it breeds abundantly. For here it is nowhere so common as in abandoned fields and mountain pastures half smothered by small gray birches. From the airy upper story of these low and often dense birch copses the Nashvilles sing; and among the club-mosses and ferns, and the hardhacks and other scrubby brushes at their bases and around their borders, the Nashvilles build their nests. But such is merely their most characteristic home. * * * Dark spruce woods they do not favor, nor big, mixed virgin timber; but even in these places, one is likely to find them wherever there is a little “oasis” of sunlight and smaller deciduous growth. They are fairly common among the scanty spruces, mountain ashes, and white birches of the rocky ridge of Mt. Monadnock, almost to the top—3,169 feet.

F. H. Kennard records in his notes two nests found near Lancaster, N.H. One was among some dead weeds on a mossy hummock in a pasture; the other was in a swamp, at the base of and under a clump of alders beside a path. Miss Cordelia J. Stanwood (1910), of Ellsworth, Maine, writes:

When a growth of evergreens—pine, fir, spruce and hemlock—is cut, it is succeeded by a growth of hard wood—gray, white and yellow birches, maple, poplar, beech, cherry and larch—and vice versa. As the woodland is cut in strips, there are always these growths in juxtaposition. Though the nest of the Nashville is always placed among the gray birches, the inevitable strip of evergreen woodland is near at hand, and a swale not far away.

The nest of the Nashville is sometimes placed in comparatively low ground (that is, compared with its immediate surroundings), in soft green moss under an apology for a shrub, again in the side of a knoll covered with bird wheat (hair-cap) moss, or at other times in an open space in the woodlands under a stump, or tent-like mass of grass, or a clump of gray birch saplings. Around the top is usually woven a rim of coarse, soft, green moss; sometimes dried boulder fern or bracken is added. The side coming against the stump or overhanging moss lacks this foundation. The nest is lined with fine hay, if it abounds in the neighborhood, or pine needles if they are nearer at hand. Sometimes both are used. The red fruit stems of bird wheat moss and rabbit’s hair are often employed. One or two birds have preferred some black, hair-like vegetable fibre for lining matter, one bird, horse hair.

Ora W. Knight (1908) mentions a Maine nest that “was situated on the ground on an open wooded hillside at the foot of and between two small spruce trees, and was well imbedded in the moss. It measures in depth outside one and three-fourths inches, and inside one inch, the diameter outside was three and a quarter. * * * Nest building begins soon after the birds have arrived, and presumably the female does most of the work, while the male perches in a near by sapling and sings. * * * It takes from seven to nine days to build the nest, and on its completion an egg is laid each day until the set is completed. The eggs are usually laid between six and ten in the morning.”

A nest found by Henry Mousley (1918) near Hatley, Quebec, “was located at the foot of a spirea bush on a little mound, well sunk into the surrounding hair-cap moss (Polytrichum commune) and dwarf cornel or bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) of which the mound was carpeted. It was entirely hidden from sight and would never have been found had I not flushed the female from her set of five eggs.”

The only local nest of which we have any record was found by Owen Durfee (MS.) in Rehoboth, Mass., on June 2, 1892. It was only partially concealed among some very low bushes, grass, and other herbage near the foot of a small hill in neglected pasture land; the hill had a scattered growth of oak and beech saplings and had been tramped over by cattle.

Frank A. Pitelka (1940a) found the Nashville warbler breeding in northeastern Illinois in “oak-maple-hickory climax woodland with semi-dense undergrowth, * * * with the stream cutting it and a semi-swampy, sedge-grass area with willow thickets and scattered elms and ashes.” In northern Michigan, he found it “in spruce and cedar bogs and in sandy woods of aspen, birch, and Norway pine.”

Richard C. Harlow tells me that most of the nests he has found in New Brunswick, about 10, are very frail, but are lined with moose hair. He has found 7 nests in the mountains of Pennsylvania, where the normal lining is deer hair.

Eggs.—The first set of eggs for the Nashville warbler seems to be always either 4 or 5; reported sets of 3 are probably incomplete or late sets. The eggs are ovate or short ovate and are only slightly lustrous. They are white or creamy white, speckled with shades of reddish brown, such as “chestnut” and “auburn,” mixed with “light brownish drab.” On some eggs the markings are fairly evenly scattered over the entire surface, but usually they are concentrated and form a wreath at the large end. Occasionally eggs are more boldly marked with spots and small blotches or short scrawls; others are nearly immaculate. The measurements of 50 eggs average 15.7 by 12.1 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 17.2 by 12.7, 16.4 by 13.0, 14.5 by 11.6, and 15.2 by 11.5 millimeters (Harris).

Young.—The period of incubation is said to be from 11 to 12 days, and probably the female does most of it, though Mr. Knight (1908) says: “One bird relieves the other on the nest and at times when the eggs are very near the hatching point I have seen the male bring insects to its mate on the nest. Possibly he may feed the female at earlier stages of incubation but I have not seen him do so. Both birds feed the young, giving them at first soft grubs and caterpillars, later on small beetles, flies and similar insects. * * * The young leave about the eleventh day after hatching.”

For a further study of the nesting behavior of the Nashville warbler, the reader is referred, to an excellent paper on the subject by Louise de Kiriline Lawrence (1948).

Plumages.—Dr. Dwight (1900) calls the natal down “sepia-brown,” and describes the juvenal plumage of the Nashville warbler as follows:

“Pileum hair-brown, back darker, olive tinged, and rump olive-green. Below, pale yellowish wood-brown, straw-yellow on abdomen and crissum. Wings and tail olive-brown broadly edged with bright olive-green, the median and greater coverts tipped with pale buff-yellow forming two wing bands. Lores and auriculars mouse-gray, the orbital ring pale buff.”

The sexes are alike in juvenal plumage. A postjuvenal molt occurs in July and August that involves the contour plumage and the wing coverts but not the rest of the wings or the tail. This produces a first winter plumage in which young birds become practically indistinguishable from adults in many cases, but the chestnut crown patch is generally smaller and more veiled in the younger male and is often lacking in the young female.

Dr. Dwight (1900) says that the first nuptial plumage is “acquired by a partial prenuptial moult which involves chiefly the crown, sides of head and throat, but not the rest of the body plumage nor the wings and tail. The head becomes plumbeous gray, the edgings only half concealing the rich chestnut of the crown. The orbital ring is white and conspicuous. Wear is marked, bringing the gray of the nape into contrast with the greenish back, later exposing the chestnut of the crown.”

A complete postnuptial molt in July and August produces the fully adult plumage. In fresh fall plumage the head is browner than in spring, the back is grayer, the crown patch is more veiled with gray tips, and the breast is tinged with brownish. The females are paler than the males, with less chestnut in the crown. Adults probably have a partial prenuptial molt similar to that of young birds.

Food.—Very little has been published on the food of the Nashville warbler. Knight (1908) says that “the food of the adults consists of beetles, larvae of various insects and the eggs of various insects. In fact they eat almost anything which they can glean in the insect line from the shrubbery and ground.”

Forbush (1929) says: “As the bird ranges from the ground to the tree-tops it takes most of the insects that any warbler will eat, among them flies, young grasshoppers and locusts, leaf-hoppers and many plant-lice, caterpillars both hairless and hairy, among them the gipsy, brown-tail and tent caterpillar, most of which are taken when young and small; also small wood-boring beetles are eaten, and other small insects of many species. The bird appears to be almost wholly insectivorous.”

Behavior.—The eastern Nashville warbler is an active, sprightly, restless member of an active family, ranging in its foraging mainly in the lower story of the open woodlands and more often in the low trees and shrubbery around the borders of the forest. When thus engaged it is not particularly shy and often seems quite unconscious of the presence of an observer. On migrations it seems to be sociably inclined and may be seen associated with the mixed flocks of warblers that are drifting through the tree tops. At these seasons it often visits our orchards and the shrubbery in our gardens, giving us a glimpse of green and gold among the blossoms and opening leaves.

J. W. Preston (1891) describes an interesting manner of foraging:

“One will fly to the foot of a fir tree or other conifer and begin an upward search, hopping energetically from branch to branch until the very highest point is reached, when the bird drops lightly down to the foot of another tree, much as does the Brown Creeper. When an insect is discovered the bird secures it by a sudden bound, and, should the object be not easily dislodged, Helminthophila sustains himself on flapping wings until his purpose is accomplished, which often requires several moments.”

Voice.—Gerald Thayer gave Dr. Chapman (1907) a very good description of the songs and calls as follows:

The Nashville has at least two main perch-songs, and a flight-song, all subject to a good deal of variation. It belongs decidedly among the full-voiced Warblers. * * * Its commoner perch-song consists of a string of six or eight or more, lively, rapid notes, suddenly congested into a pleasant, rolling twitter, lower in key than the first part of the song, and about half as long. In the other perch-song, the notes of what correspond to the rolling twitter are separate and richer, and the second part of the song is longer and more noticeable than the first, whose notes are few and slurred, while the whole is more languidly delivered.

The differences are hard to describe intelligibly; but in reality they are pronounced and constant. The flight-song, a fairly common performance in late summer, is sung from the height of five to forty feet above the (usually low) tree-tops. It is like the commoner perch-songs, but more hurried, and slightly elaborated, often with a few chippings added, at both ends. Among the Nashville’s calls a very small, dry chip, and a more metallic, louder chip, somewhat Water-Thrush-like, are noteworthy. It also chippers like a young Warbler or a Black-throated Green.

Miss Stanwood (1910a) writes:

One common song sounds like ‘tsin, ‘tsin, ‘tsee, another sweeten, sweeten, ‘tsee, a third, sillup, sillup, sillup, ‘tsee-e-e-e-e-e. At other times the bird sings but part of the song as sweeten, sweet; or sweeten, ‘tsee; or sweeta, sweeta, ‘tsee; or recombines them differently as sweeten, sweeten, sweeten, ‘tsee-e-e-e-e-e. * * *

The song is loud, constant, and heard all over the locality, coming principally from the gray birches, but also from the maples, poplars, and evergreens. The bird sings from the tree-tops, but likewise from the middle branches, and I have seen it singing on the ground and just a few inches above it. My last record of its song in 1908 was made the 17th day of July, the first, May the 14th. Between these dates it sang well-nigh incessantly.

Knight (1908) says that, while the female is building the nest, “the male bird perches in a nearby sapling and sings leisurely 'pea-cie-pea-cie-hit-i-hit-i-hit.'” Wilson (1832) thought that the “notes very much resembled the breaking of small dry twigs, or the striking of small pebbles of different sizes smartly against each other for six or seven times, and loud enough to be heard at the distance of thirty or forty yards.” Rev. J. H. Langille (1884) writes: “The song of the Nashville Warbler is a composition, the first half of which is as nearly as possible like the thin but penetrating notes of the Black-and-white Creeping Warbler, while the last half is like the twitter of the Chipping Sparrow.” He writes it in syllables as “ke-tsee-ke-tsee-ke-tsee-chipe-ee-chip-ee-chip-ee-chip.”

The song has been said to resemble that of the chestnut-sided warbler, but the two are really quite distinct; the song of the latter does not end in a trill or in chipperings. It does, however, more closely resemble the song of the Tennessee warbler. Dr. Roberts (1936) heard the two singing at the same time and noted this difference: “The Nashville’s song is an utterance of rather greater volume than that of the Tennessee and differs, also, in the fact that it has a short, rapidly weakening trill or slide, following a rather long and deliberate prelude of four or five notes; while the Tennessee has a brief prelude with a long finishing trill, increasing in loudness and intensity to an abrupt ending.”

Aretas A. Saunders contributes the following study of the song: "The territory song of the Nashville warbler is in two parts, the first a series of 2-note phrases, and the second a series of rapid notes, commonly lower in pitch and just twice as fast as the notes of the first part; pa tipa tipa tipa tipa tititititititit. In 26 of my 29 records the second part of the song is lower than the first. In the other three it is higher. "The pitch of songs varies from G‴ to F sharp‴′, or five and a half tones. Single songs rarely vary more than one and a half or two tones. They are from 1²⁄₅ to 2 seconds in length. The quality is rather musical, and some individuals have almost as sweet a tone as the yellow warbler. In my experience field students often confuse the songs of these two species.

“The nesting song may be heard commonly on the breeding grounds. I have several records from the Adirondacks. This song is in three or four parts, each part of three or four notes, and a little lower in pitch than the preceeding part. Two-note phrases are not commonly heard in the nesting song.”

Francis H. Allen’s rendering of the song is not very different from the first one of Mr. Saunders', though he noted some variation, and mentions in his notes an aberrant song, which “doubled the common song, which in this case had a first part consisting of only a single phrase, thus; chip-ee-(trill) chip-ee-(trill).”

Field marks.—The gray head, white eye ring, olive-green back, bright yellow under parts, and the absence of wing bars, with no white in the tail, are the distinguishing marks of the eastern Nashville warbler. The Connecticut warbler has a white eye ring but it has a gray throat, whereas the Nashville is bright yellow from chin to abdomen. The chestnut crown patch is not very conspicuous in the male and is less so, or entirely lacking, in the female; the female is duller yellow below and browner above than the male.

Enemies.—Like other ground-nesting birds, this warbler has the usual four-footed enemies to contend with, but its nest is quite well hidden. Perhaps its worst bird enemy is the cowbird, although Friedmann (1934) listed it as an uncommon victim of this parasite and had only six records of it, the nests containing from one to two eggs of the cowbird.

Fall.—As soon as the molting season is over and the young birds are freshly clad in their winter dress the migration begins in Massachusetts. This takes place in August, and the last stragglers may be seen passing through in early October.

In Ohio, according to Mr. Trautman (1940), the first migrants are seen about the first of September, the peak of the migration coming during the latter half of that month when from 10 to 100 could be found in a day, and after the 10th of October only an occasional bird remains. He writes: “As with many other transient warblers the southward migration of the Nashville Warbler covered a greater period of time than did the spring movement, which usually lasted less than 30 days, whereas the fall movement generally extended more than 45 days. * * * In spring the species frequented the upper half of large trees and was more numerous in tall trees of woodlands than it was in smaller groups or rows of tall trees. In fall the species tended to inhabit the middle section of large trees, and it also resorted to the taller bushes and saplings, especially the larger hawthorn trees.”

The fall migration route is apparently a reversal of the spring route southwestward into Mexico and Central America where it spends the winter.

Winter.—The Nashville warbler is evidently very common in winter in certain parts of Mexico, for Dr. C. William Beebe (1905) says: “At times there were twenty and thirty in sight at once near our camp in the Colima lowlands.” These may have been the western race.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—Southern Canada to Guatemala.

Breeding range.—The eastern Nashville and the western Nashville (formerly the Calaveras) warblers breed north to southern British Columbia (Tahsis Canal and Beaver Creek, Vancouver Island; Pemberton, Lillooet, and Revelstoke); northern Idaho (Clark Fork); northwestern Montana (Fortine); east-central Saskatchewan (Cumberland House); southern Manitoba (Duck Mountain, Lake St. Martin, and Hillside Beach); central Ontario (Casummit Lake, Lake Nipigon, and Lake Abitibi); and southern Quebec (Lake Baskatong, Quebec, Kamouraska, Mingan, and Natashquan River). East to southeastern Quebec (Natashquan River and the Magdalen Islands); and Nova Scotia (Baddeck, Halifax, and Barrington). South to Nova Scotia (Barrington); Maine (Ellsworth and Bath); northeastern Massachusetts (Haverhill and Beverly); southern Connecticut (Norwich); northern New Jersey (Moe and Beaufort Mountain); northeastern Pennsylvania (Dingman’s Ferry, Mount Riga, and Highland Falls); northern West Virginia (Stony River Dam, Canaan Mountain, and Cranesville Swamp); northeastern Ohio (Pymatuming Lake); southern Michigan (Ann Arbor); northeastern Illinois (Deerfield); southern Wisconsin (Lake Koshkonong); central Minnesota (Onamia and Detroit Lakes); reported to breed in northeastern Nebraska but no specific records; northwestern South Dakota (Cave Hills); northern Idaho (Falcon); northwestern Oregon (Powder River Mountains, probably); probably western Nevada (Lake Tahoe); and south-central California (Greenhorn Mountains). West to central and western California (Greenhorn Mountains, Paicines, and Yreka); western Oregon (Pinehurst, Gold Hill, Depoe Bay, and Portland); western Washington (Mount Adams, Tacoma, and Blaine); and southwestern British Columbia (Friendly Cove and Tahsis Canal).

There are several records of the occurrence of this species in spring migration in southern Saskatchewan (Regina, East End, and Maple Creek); and in fall at Lake Kimawan, Alberta, west of Lesser Slave Lake. These records imply the existence of a breeding range north of any yet discovered.

Winter range.—The Nashville warbler and races are found in winter north to central Durango (Chacala); western Nuevo León (Monterrey) and southern Texas (Somerset and Matagorda County). East to southern Texas (Matagorda County, Rio Hondo, and Brownsville); eastern Puebla (Metlatoyuca); western Veracruz (Jalapa); Chiapas (Chicharras); and central Guatemala (Barillos, Panajachel, and San Lucas). South to Guatemala. West to western Guatemala (San Lucas and Sacapulas); Oaxaca (Tehuantepec); Guerrero (Acapulco); Colima (Manzanillo); and Durango (Durango and Chacla).

The Nashville warbler has been recorded as wintering occasionally in southern Florida, but in view of the extreme rarity of the species in southeastern United States it seems best to consider the record hypothetical until specimens are collected.

Like other species that winter regularly in the Tropics, the Nashville warbler can resist low temperatures as long as food is available. Evidence of this is seen in the daily presence of one in a garden in New York City from December 16, 1918, to January 9, 1919 (perhaps longer). Another was noted almost daily from January 1 to March 1, 1938, at a feeding table in Arlington, Va. The latter bird was caught and brought to the U. S. Biological Survey for confirmation of the identification, and was banded. On January 31, 1890, a specimen was picked up in Swampscott, Massachusetts, that had apparently been killed by a shrike about two weeks before.

The ranges as outlined apply to the entire species which includes two geographic races; the eastern Nashville warbler (V. r. ruficapilla) breeds from eastern Saskatchewan and Nebraska eastward; and the western Nashville warbler (V. r. ridgwayi) breeds west of the Rocky Mountains.

Migration.—Some early dates of spring arrival are: West Virginia—French Creek, April 23. District of Columbia—Washington, April 20. Pennsylvania—Beaver, April 25. New York—Canandaigua, April 25. Massachusetts—Taunton, April 24. Vermont—Rutland, April 27. Maine—Presque Isle, May 2. Quebec—Kamouraska, May 2. New Brunswick—Scotch Lake, May 8. Mississippi—Rosedale, April 26. Tennessee—Memphis, April 16. Kentucky—Bardstown, April 28. Indiana—Indianapolis, April 24. Ohio—Oberlin, April 19. Michigan—Ann Arbor, April 25. Ontario—Toronto, April 29. Texas—San Antonio, March 27. Arkansas—Delight, April 14. Missouri—St. Louis, April 21. Iowa—Davenport, April 26. Illinois—Chicago, April 25. Wisconsin—Madison, April 25. Minnesota—Red Wing, April 29. Manitoba—Winnipeg, May 2. Arizona—Tucson, April 6. Montana—Missoula, April 25. Idaho—Coeur d’Alene, April 29. California—Buena Park, March 3. Oregon—Prospect, April 20. Washington—Tacoma, April 23. British Columbia—Okanagan Landing, April 21.

Late dates of spring departure are: West Virginia—Wheeling, May 24. District of Columbia—Washington, May 20. Pennsylvania—Jeffersonville, May 20. Mississippi—Rosedale, May 6. Tennessee—Nashville, May 19. Kentucky—Bowling Green, May 19. Indiana—Richmond, June 1. Texas—Ingram, May 10. Arkansas—Monticello, May 9. Missouri—Columbia, May 28. Iowa—Grinnell, June 2. Illinois—Rockford, May 30. Kansas—Lake Quivira, May 21. Nebraska—Red Cloud, May 24. South Dakota—June 1. Arizona—Otero Canyon, Baboquivari Mountains, April 29. California—Cabezon, May 7.

Late dates of fall departure are: British Columbia—Okanagan Landing, September 13. Washington—Port Chehalis, October 11. California—Los Angeles, October 8. Idaho—Bayview, September 12. Montana—Bozeman, September 12. Arizona—Fort Verde, September 28. Manitoba—Shoal Lake, September 26. North Dakota—Fargo, October 15. South Dakota—Mellette, October 4. Nebraska—Blue Springs, October 1. Kansas—Lawrence, October 8. Minnesota—St. Paul, October 25. Wisconsin—Racine, October 6; Madison, November 1. Iowa—Marshalltown, October 14. Missouri—Columbia, October 19. Arkansas—Winslow, October 14. Texas—Cove, November 15. Ontario—Ottawa, October 7. Michigan—Sault Ste. Marie, October 7. Illinois—Springfield, October 2. Ohio—Toledo, October 29. Kentucky—Lexington, October 16. Tennessee—Memphis, October 3. Mississippi—Deer Island, October 16. Quebec—Hatley, October 18. Maine—Portland, October 13. New Hampshire, Center Ossipee, October 23. Massachusetts—Danvers, October 12. New York—New York, October 17. Pennsylvania—Philadelphia, October 17. District of Columbia—Washington, October 14. West Virginia—Bluefield, October 19.

Early dates of fall arrival are: California—Los Angeles, August 9. Arizona—Patagonia, August 8. North Dakota—Rice Lake, August 18. South Dakota—Yankton, August 2. Kansas—Lake Quivira, August 31. Iowa—Iowa City, August 18. Missouri—Montier, August 8. Arkansas—Winslow, September 8. Texas—Rockport, September 1. Illinois—Glen Ellyn, August 16. Indiana—Bloomington, August 26. Ohio—Cleveland, August 2. Kentucky—Versailles, August 13. Tennessee—Marysville, September 1. Massachusetts—Martha’s Vineyard, August 17. New York—Rhinebeck, August 13. Pennsylvania—Pittsburgh, August 28. District of Columbia—Washington, September 5. West Virginia—French Creek, September 7.

The Nashville warbler is a rare species in the lower Mississippi Valley; there are only three records for Louisiana; and it is almost unknown in the Atlantic States south of the Chesapeake Bay.

Casual records.—Four specimens have been collected in Greenland: One at Godthaab, about 1835; two at Fiskenaes, October 10, 1823, and August 31, 1840; and one marked “West Greenland,” between 1890 and 1899. The three latter were all immature birds. A specimen was collected in Bermuda on September 16, 1907.

Egg dates.—Maine: 27 records, May 8 to August 7; 15 records, May 27 to June 14, indicating the height of the season.

Minnesota: 11 records, May 7 to June 15.

Quebec: 32 records, May 28 to July 4; 18 records, June 19 to 29.

California: 23 records, May 17 to July 30; 12 records, May 21 to June 5 (Harris).

VERMIVORA RUFICAPILLA RIDGWAYI van Rossem

WESTERN NASHVILLE WARBLER

HABITS

This western form of our well-known eastern Nashville warbler, often called the Calaveras warbler, was discovered by Robert Ridgway in the East Humboldt Mountains, Nev., on September 6, 1868, and given the subspecific name gutturalis. He (1902) describes it as similar to the eastern bird, “but olive-green of rump and upper tail-coverts brighter, more yellowish, yellow of under parts brighter, lower abdomen more extensively whitish, and greater wing-coverts lighter, more yellowish olive-green.” He gives as its range: “Western United States, breeding on high mountains, from the Sierra Nevada (Calaveras Co., California) to British Columbia (Vernon, Nelson, Okanogan district, etc.), eastward to eastern Oregon (Fort Klamath), northern Idaho (Fort Sherman), etc.; southward during migration to extremity of Lower California, and over western and northern Mexico, and southeastward to Texas (San Antonio; Tom Green County; Concho County).” The 1931 A. O. U. Check-List says that this form winters “in Mexico south to Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Jalisco, and Colima.”

Dr. Walter K. Fisher wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907): “The Calaveras Warbler is a characteristic denizen of the chaparral and is found on both slopes of the Sierra Nevadas about as far south as Mt. Whitney. It frequents the belts of the yellow, sugar, and Jeffrey pines, and ranges up into the red fir zone. During the height of the nesting season one may see them flitting about among thickets of manzanita, wild cherry, huckleberry, oak and buck brush, almost always in song; and while the female is assiduously hunting among the dense cover of bushes, the male is often singing in a pine or fir, far above mundane cares. * * * I have observed this Warbler at lower altitudes on the west slope among small black oaks, in company with Hermit Warblers.”

Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood (1896) first saw it in the Sierras at 3,500 feet elevation, but more commonly at 3,700 feet. “At 5,000 feet we found them most common, and from 7,000 to 9,000 feet they gradually disappeared, apparently going as high up as the black oak, in which trees they were generally seen, skipping about in search of insects.”

Grinnell and Storer (1924) say: “The Calaveras Warbler is common during the summer months in the black oaks and maples along each side of the Yosemite Valley and in similar situations elsewhere on the western flank of the Sierra Nevada. Among all the warblers to be seen in the Yosemite Valley during the summer months the present species is the only one which does not forage and nest in the same niche. The Calaveras seeks its food and does its singing well up in trees, but places its nest immediately upon the ground.”

C. W. and J. H. Bowles (1906) write of its haunts in Washington:

Like the hermit warbler, a bird of the higher altitudes in the mountains of California, the Calaveras warbler, on reaching the cooler climate of the northwest, is to be found as a rule only on the driest prairies. Here the birds frequent the scattered clumps of young oaks and fir trees that have reached a height of some three or four feet, and which border the large tracts of dense fir timber. It is a noteworthy fact that, while these birds are not often to be found more than a hundred yards outside of the forests, they are seldom or never seen inside of the dividing line where the heavy timber meets the prairie. Also they do not encroach upon the hillside territory of the lutescent warbler, which bird in turn does not appear on the prairies but confines itself to the brush-covered uplands.

Nesting.—Dr. Osgood (1896) found three nests of the western Nashville, or Calaveras, warbler near Fyffe in the Sierras; two of these were concealed under dead leaves, one of which was partially concealed by a little sprig of cedar at the foot of a cedar stump, and the other was under a little tuft of “mountain misery”; the third was in a thick patch of “mountain misery” and was “well embedded among the roots of this little shrub, and shaded by its thick leaves.”

In the Yosemite Valley, Grinnell and Storer (1924) found a nest in what must be an unusual situation:

The location was only about 75 feet from the much traveled south road on the Valley floor and at the base of the talus pile of huge boulders. The nest was in the face of one of the larger of these boulders, partly in a diagonal fissure. It was on the north side of the rock and so never received any direct rays of sunlight. The whole face of the boulder was covered densely with yellow-green moss which in places was overlaid by olive-gray lichens. The nest was 43 inches from the base of the rock and about 60 inches from the top. Another nest was found in a hollow of the ground at the base of an azalea bush, near an old road along the hillside. The creek itself was about 50 feet distant. This nest was 3 inches across the outside and about 2 inches high, the cavity being 1¹⁄₄ inches deep. Strips of bark of the incense cedar, plant fibers, and horsehair comprised the building material.

The Bowles brothers (1906) say that the nests are very much like those of the eastern Nashville warbler, as taken by them in Massachusetts. In Washington, “the site chosen is usually at the base of a very young oak, or fir, tho on one occasion we found one built under some blackberry vines at the base of a large fir stub. The nests are sunk well into the ground or moss, and are so well concealed as to defy discovery unless one flushes the bird.”

Eggs.—The eggs of the western Nashville warbler are practically indistinguishable from those of the eastern form. The measurements of 40 eggs average 15.3 by 12.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 16.6 by 13.2, 14.3 by 11.9, and 16.0 by 11.5 millimeters (Harris).

We have no information on the incubation of the eggs or care of the young. The changes in plumage parallel those of the eastern bird. Very little seems to be known about the exact food of the Calaveras warbler, and its voice seems to be the same as that of the Nashville, but the following accounts of its habits seem worth quoting. Grinnell and Storer (1924) write:

The forage range of this warbler lies chiefly in trees other than conifers. Such trees as the black oak and big-leafed maple renew their foliage every spring and the Calaveras Warblers find excellent forage in the insects and larvae which feed upon this tender new leafage during the spring and summer months. Less often these birds may be found in golden oaks and occasionally in Douglas spruces. They usually forage 25 to 40 feet above the ground, keeping within the stratum of new foliage, but they have been seen as low as 10 feet and as high as 70 feet above the earth. When within the foliage their yellow and green coloration makes it difficult to locate them, especially as the birds do not move about as rapidly as some of the other warblers. At times a Calaveras Warbler will poise on rapidly beating wings to capture some insect otherwise out of reach.

Dr. J. C. Merrill (1888) calls them “restless, shy, and very difficult to shoot”, and says further, “When alarmed, as they very easily are, the males move rapidly through the trees, often flying a hundred yards or more at once, and were it not that their constant song indicates their movements, it would be impossible to follow them. I have frequently followed one for half an hour or more before I could even catch a glimpse of it, and my pursuit of any particular one was more often unsuccessful than the reverse. * * * I have never found a land bird more wary and difficult to shoot. But as soon as the young leave the nest this extreme shyness disappears, and the parents are readily approached and observed as they busily search for food for their young family.”

Dr. William T. Shaw, who collected a specimen of this warbler in northwestern Washington, says in his notes: “This warbler, a singing male, was noticeably a percher upon high, isolated cedar poles when singing, having three or four favorite ones in his territory, which was a hillside grown to a height of about 15 feet with second-growth deciduous trees, following fire. He sang from a height of from 30 to 40 feet up near the top of these old widely-scattered, fire-blasted, weather-bleached trees, clearly out in the open and isolated from green sheltering foliage beneath him, in such a location as one is accustomed to seeing lazuli buntings perch when they sing.” Dr. Shaw thought the first part of the song suggested that of Macgillivray’s warbler, and the latter notes reminded him of “those heard among the inspirational notes in the song of the lazuli bunting.”

The Bowles brothers (1906) say that, in the spring, the males have at times a very pleasing habit while singing, “that of hovering thru the air for a distance of fifteen or twenty yards. The manner of flying at these times is very slow and closely resembles that of one of the marsh wrens, but the beak is turned upwards and the feathers on the swelling throat separate until it seems almost certain that the bird will sing himself into some serious bodily mishap.”

VERMIVORA VIRGINIAE (Baird)

VIRGINIA’S WARBLER

Plate 18

HABITS

This warbler was discovered by Dr. W. W. Anderson, at Fort Burgwyn, New Mexico, and was described by Baird, in a footnote in The Birds of North America, by Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence (1860). The footnote occurs under the explanation of plates in the second volume. The warbler was named for Mrs. Virginia Anderson, wife of the discoverer.

Its range during the breeding season covers portions of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, mainly in the mountain regions, and it retires to Mexico for the winter. It seems to be more abundant in Colorado than elsewhere, breeding from the foothills, where it is a characteristic bird and perhaps the most abundant of the wood warblers, up to 7,500 to 8,000 feet in the mountains. On the spring migration, it is abundant along the valley streams, among the cottonwoods and willows, or sometimes among the pines; but in the summer it is found among the low scrub oak brush on the hillsides.

Bailey and Niedrach (1938) write attractively of Virginia’s warbler in its Colorado haunts:

In the broken prairie where the yellow pines have taken their stand upon the crest of the tableland, and in the rocky canyons clothed with the scraggly scrub oaks slipping down to narrow grass-grown creek-bottoms, Virginia’s Warbler chooses its nesting grounds.

Plants seem to burst into life during the early weeks in May. * * * The flowers of the scrub oaks tinge the hillsides with a greenish-yellow bloom; the green of bursting leaves and grasses soon blends with the nodding blossoms of the pasque-flower; the beautiful pink plume sways on the hillside, and yellow blossoms of the Oregon grape thrust forth among the holly-like leaves, making one think of flowering Christmas wreaths. It is then that the Virginia’s Warblers are at the height of their activity. Their colors are the grays and yellows of the new vegetation. The males perch among scrub-oak branches and yellow pines, where they are usually concealed, and do their utmost to outsing their towhee neighbors.

In Nevada, Ridgway (1877) first observed this warbler “among the cedar and piñon groves on the eastern slope of the Ruby Mountains. * * * On the Wasatch and Uintah Mountains it was more abundant, being particularly plentiful among the scrub-oaks on the foothills near Salt Lake City. They lived entirely among the bushes, which there were so dense that the birds were difficult to obtain, even when shot.”

In the Charleston Mountains, Nev., according to A. J. van Rossem (1936), “the distribution appeared to be limited to the so-called Upper Sonoran associations of mahogany and Gambel oaks, and therefore the species is considered characteristic of that zone, although the extremes of altitude at which it was found were 6,300 and 9,000 feet. Because of the relative scarcity of oaks, by far the greater number were found in mahogany which here grows as low, dense forest, instead of in the more familiar shrub form in which it is usually known.”

In the Great Basin region, Dr. Jean M. Linsdale (1938) found Virginia’s warblers in a variety of situations, such as “in sage on rocky, piñon-covered slope 100 yards from a stream; in sage on top of ridge; at tip of mountain mahogany tree; in plum thicket; singing and foraging through upper foliage of tall birches close to creek; in cottonwoods and piñons close to creeks; singing in dead shrub 10 feet high at base of rock slide; in aspen; in thickets of sage, elder, Ephedra, and Symphoricarpos; in willow; on ground among rocks at crest of ridge.” The altitudes ranged from 6,500 to 8,000 feet, with the largest number between 7,000 and 7,500 feet.

In southern Arizona, this warbler, according to Mr. Swarth (1904)—

proved to be very abundant during the spring migration, particularly in the lower parts of the mountains; but the most of them seem to go farther north, and but few, compared with the numbers seen in April and the early part of May, remained through the summer to breed. The earliest arrival noted was on April 10th and soon after they were quite abundant, mostly in the oak region below 5000 feet, remaining so throughout April and up to the first week in May, at which time the migrating birds had about all passed on. All that were seen after that I took to be breeding birds, for they gradually moved to a higher altitude, (6000 to 8000 feet) and were nearly all in pairs. About the middle of April, 1902, I found a few virginiae, together with other migrating warblers, in the willows along the San Pedro River, some fifteen miles from the mountains.

Nesting.—Ridgway was evidently the first to record the nest of Virginia’s warbler, finding it near Salt Lake City on June 9, 1869. “The nest was embedded in the deposits of dead or decaying leaves, on ground covered by dense oak-brush. Its rim was just even with the surface. It was built on the side of a narrow ravine at the bottom of which was a small stream. The nest itself is two inches in depth by three and a half in diameter. It consists of a loose but intricate interweaving of fine strips of the inner bark of the mountain mahogany, fine stems of grasses, roots, and mosses, and is lined with the same with the addition of the fur and hair of the smaller animals” (Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, 1874).

Shortly afterwards, a nest was found on June 1, 1873, in Colorado, by C. E. Aiken. It was reported by Aiken and Warren (1914) as “the first nest of this species known to science. * * * This was sunk in the ground in a tuft of bunch grass growing in a clump of oak brush, with the dead grass hanging over and completely concealing the nest, which was reached through a small round hole like a mouse hole through the protecting grass.”

Dr. Linsdale (1938) reports a nest found in Nevada, at an elevation of 7,700 feet, that “was at the lower edge of a clump of grass 20 inches tall and 2 feet across. The surrounding hillside was of small rocks lying at a maximum angle of rest. A few similar grass clumps were scattered near, about 10 feet apart. The surrounding trees were mountain mahogany and chokecherry. The nest was composed entirely of grass and was in a depression in the loose soil. It was well concealed by dead grass at the base of the tuft.”

In the Huachuca Mountains, Ariz., Mr. Swarth (1904) found a nest that “was built on a steep sidehill about ten feet from a much traveled trail, and was very well concealed; being under a thick bunch of overhanging grass, and sunk into the ground besides, so as to be entirely hid from view. This was at an elevation of about 8,000 feet, which seems to be about the upward limit for this species in this region.”

We found Virginia’s warbler fairly common there in the middle reaches of the canyons, around 7,000 feet, and found a nest being built at the base of a bush of mountain misery; Mr. Willard collected it with a set of three eggs on June 4, 1922; it was made of leaves and strips of bark and was lined with horsehair.

Another nest before me, from the Huachucas, has a foundation of moss and lichens, dry leaves, and strips of cedar bark, over which are finer strips of the bark and shreds of dry weed stalks and grasses, with a lining of still finer fibers; it is a shallow nest, its diameter being 3 by 3¹⁄₂ inches outside and 2 inches inside.

Eggs.—While 4 eggs seem to constitute the usual set for Virginia’s warbler, as few as 3 and as many as 5 have been reported. These are ovate to short ovate and only slightly lustrous. They are white, finely speckled or spotted with shades of reddish brown, such as “chestnut” and “auburn,” intermingled with faint specks of “pale vinaceous-drab.” Some eggs are profusely spotted over the entire surface, while others have the markings concentrated at the large end. The measurements of 40 eggs average 15.9 by 12.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 17.0 by 12.4, 16.0 by 13.0, 14.2 by 12.2, and 16.3 by 11.2 millimeters (Harris).

Young.—On the period of incubation and on the development and care of the young we have no information except the following observations of Bailey and Niedrach (1938): “The hatching time of many species of Colorado birds seems to coincide with an abundance of larvae feeding upon plants among which the birds are nesting. We have noticed time and again, that pests are numerous upon the vegetation when the fledglings are in the nest, but a few weeks later, after the little fellows have taken wing and are able to move to other parts, the caterpillars have gone into the pupa stage.” At a nest they were watching, they observed that both parents shared the work of feeding the young, averaging a trip every 6 minutes.

A. J. van Rossem (1936) took young birds that were not fully grown on July 10, and others on July 13 that had nearly completed the postjuvenal molt, from which he inferred that two broods might be raised in a season. H. S. Swarth (1904) noted that the young birds began to appear in the Huachuca Mountains about the middle of July, after which both old and young birds moved down into the foothills.

Plumages.—The young Virginia’s warbler in juvenal plumage is plain grayish brown above; the throat, chest, and sides are paler brownish gray; the abdomen and center of the breast white; the upper and under tail coverts are dull greenish yellow; there is no chestnut crown patch; and the greater and median wing coverts are tipped with dull buffy. The sexes are alike.

The postjuvenal molt begins early in July and is often complete before the end of that month. The first winter plumage is similar to that of the adult female at that season. In this plumage the sexes are not very different, and the crown patch is not much in evidence or is altogether lacking in the young female; both sexes are browner and with less yellow than in the adult plumage, and the female is duller than the male.

A partial prenuptial molt occurs between February and May, mainly about the head, during which the chestnut crown patch is at least partially assumed and the young birds become almost indistinguishable from adults. There is, however, considerable individual variation in the advance toward maturity.

Subsequent molts consist of a complete postnuptial molt in July and August, and a partial prenuptial molt in early spring. The adult male in the fall is browner above and on the flanks, and the yellow on the chest is duller than in the spring, while the chestnut crown patch is concealed by brownish gray tips. The female, also, is browner than in the spring, with little if any yellow on the chest and with the crown patch similarly concealed. In spring birds there is much individual variation, perhaps owing to age, in the amount of yellow on the breast, throat, and chin. Some females are nearly as brightly colored as are the duller males, some have very little yellow on the chest and some lack the chestnut crown patch.

Food.—Our information on the food of Virginia’s warbler is limited to the observation of Bailey and Niedrach (1938) who saw a pair of these warblers feeding their young on the caterpillars that eat the foliage of the trees and shrubs on their nesting grounds. It is significant that after these caterpillars are no longer available the warbler leaves its breeding haunts and moves down into the foothills, perhaps in search of other food; and it would be interesting to learn what that food is. It has been seen foraging on the ground, as well as in the foliage, and flying up into the air to capture insects on the wing.

Behavior.—Virginia’s warbler is a shy, retiring species, spending most of its time not far above the ground in the thick underbrush, where it is not easily seen, as its colors match its surroundings. It is also very lively and active, almost constantly in motion, except when it mounts to the top of some dead bush or small tree to sit and sing.

Voice.—Dr. Chapman (1907) quotes C. E. Aiken as follows: “The male is very musical during the nesting season, uttering his swee ditty continually as he skips through the bushes in search of his morning repast; or having satisfied his appetite, he mounts to the top of some tree in the neighborhood of his nest, and repeats at regular intervals a song of remarkable fullness for a bird of such minute proportions.” Henry D. Minot (1880) calls the "ordinary note, a sharp chip; song, simple but various (deceptively so); common forms are ché-we-ché-we-ché-we-ché-we, wit-a-wiť-wiť-wiť (these terminal notes being partially characteristic of Helminthophagae) and che-wé-che-wé-che-wé, ché-a-ché-a-ché". Dr. Linsdale’s (1938) comments on singing males follow:

The song varied from 7 to 10 notes, being usually 8, and it occupied about 3 seconds. At the beginning the notes were slow and they came more rapidly at the end. About half a minute elapsed between songs. Another bird sang 14 times in 3 minutes and 10 seconds. * * * Singing perches on dead limbs that were rather exposed were the rule, but they were not often as high as the tops of tall trees. * * * On June 16, 1930, near Kingston Creek, 7500 feet, a singing male was followed for an hour, beginning at 7:30 a. m. It sang about every 30 seconds. The territory over which it moved was surprisingly large, estimated as extending 400 yards along the cañon slope and vertically about 150 yards, from near the stream to the base of the broken cliffs. * * * The song, compared with that of the Tolmie warbler had a more rapid rhythm and the notes were thinner and weaker. It could be distinguished from that of the Audubon warbler by the lack of rising inflection at the end. The song was represented by the observer (Miller) as zdl-zdl-zdl-zdl, zt-zt-zt-zt.

Field marks.—Virginia’s warbler, with its plain gray upper parts, is an inconspicuous bird, and its shy, retiring habits make it difficult to observe. The chestnut crown patch is not prominent and is often invisible. The yellow on the chest and throat of the male is quite variable and in the female and young much reduced or lacking. The best field marks are the dull yellow rump and upper and under tail covers, which are more or less conspicuous in old and young birds at all seasons.

Enemies.—O. W. Howard (1899) says that “the nests of the bird, like those of other ground-nesting birds of this locality, are destroyed by jays and snakes. The jays steal both eggs and young. Often a whole band of these winged wolves will sweep down on a nest and in less time than it takes to tell it they will devour the contents and destroy the nest, the pitiful notes of the helpless parents being drowned by the harsh notes of the marauders.”

Frank C. Cross writes to me that Robert J. Niedrach showed him a nest of this warbler that contained a young cowbird and one young warbler.

Winter.—By the last of August or early September, Virginia’s warblers have retired from their northern breeding haunts, to spend the winter in southern Mexico. Dr. C. William Beebe (1905) writes: “Occasionally in the mornings, numbers of tiny grayish warblers came slowly down the walls of the barranca, feeding as they descended, taking short flights, and keeping close to ground among the dense underbrush. These birds lingered at the camp for a time, and then, with soft, low chirps, all passed on to the water, where they alighted on the sand and drank. Then, as if at some silent signal, all flew up and returned quickly, still keeping close to the ground, zig-zagging their way upward in a long line, like tiny gray mice.” These were, of course, Virginia’s warblers.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—Western United States to Southern Mexico.

Breeding range.—Virginia’s warbler breeds north to central eastern California (White Mountains); central and northeastern Nevada (Kingston Creek, Ruby Mountains, and East Humboldt Mountains); northern Utah (Salt Lake City, Parley’s Park, Packs Canyon, and Ashley); possibly southeastern Idaho (Joe’s Gap, Bear Lake County; one specimen from Bancroft, Bannock County); and northern Colorado (probably Little Snake River, Moffat County, and Estes Park). East to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado (Estes Park, Denver, Manitou, Fountain, and Beulah); in migration has occurred east to Limon, and Monon in Baca County close to the Kansas line; and central New Mexico (Tierra Amarilla, Lake Burford, Sandia Mountain, and Apache, probably). South to southwestern New Mexico (Apache); and southeastern Arizona (Paradise and the Huachuca Mountains). West to southeastern and central Arizona (Huachuca Mountains, Santa Catalina Mountains, and Prescott); and eastern California (Clark Mountain and White Mountains; casually in migration to Lemon Grove).

Winter range.—In winter Virginia’s warbler is found in west central Mexico from northern Jalisco (Bolanas); and Guanajuato (Guanajuato), to Morelos (Yautepec); and Guerrero (Talpa and Chilpancingo).

Migration.—A late date of spring departure is: Sonora—Moctezuma, May 10.

Early dates of spring arrival are: Texas—Socorro, April 20. New Mexico—Cooney, April 10. Colorado—Estes Park, May 2. Arizona—Madera Canyon, Santa Rita Mountains, April 2. Utah—Vernal, May 5. Nevada—South Twin River, April 30.

Late spring migrant in Brewster County, Tex., May 13.

Late dates of fall departure are: Utah—Vernal, September 20. Arizona—Tombstone, September 11. Colorado—Boulder, September 21. New Mexico—Koehler Junction, September 11. Texas—El Paso, September 16.

Early dates of fall arrival are: Arizona—Toprock, July 23. Texas—Toyavale, August 21. Sonora—Guadalupe Canyon, August 31.

Casual records.—Two specimens of Virginia’s warbler have been taken in western California: in San Diego County, on September 3, 1931; and at Prisoner’s Harbor, Santa Cruz Island, on September 8, 1948. Virginia’s warbler has been reported as occurring in Nebraska and Kansas, but there is no record of a specimen having been taken in either State.

Egg dates.—Arizona: 10 records, May 17 to June 21; 5 records, May 25 to June 4.

Colorado: 6 records, June 1 to 26.

Nevada: 3 records, June 8 to 15.

VERMIVORA CRISSALIS (Salvin and Godman)

COLIMA WARBLER

CONTRIBUTED BY JOSSELYN VAN TYNE

HABITS

Described in 1889 from a single specimen collected by W. B. Richardson in the Sierra Nevada de Colima, Mexico, this handsome warbler was, in 1932, still known from only a dozen museum specimens, and not a word had been recorded on its habits. In that year a University of Michigan expedition found the Colima warbler to be common in the higher forests of the Chisos Mountains of southwestern Texas and made the first discovery of its nest and eggs. The basis for the inclusion of this warbler in the A. O. U. Check-List had been a single specimen collected by Frederick M. Gaige in the Chisos in 1928 (Van Tyne, 1929).

The range of the Colima warbler has been recorded only very sketchily, but Bangs (1925) was probably correct in surmising that the specimens from southern Mexico (Colima and Michoacán) were migrant birds. The closely related Virginia’s warbler, which nests in the Rocky Mountain States, winters mainly in Michoacán, Guerrero, and Jalisco. Recently R. T. Moore (1942) added a second, more southerly, locality in Michoacán and one in eastern Sinaloa to the known southern range of the Colima warbler. The breeding range is apparently restricted to the highlands of northeastern Mexico and the Chisos Mountains of southwestern Texas. In Texas the Colima warbler occurs at altitudes between 6,000 and 7,500 feet (Van Tyne, 1936); in Coahuila, apparently, only above altitudes of approximately 7,500 feet (Burleigh and Lowery, 1942). Records from the southern part of its range, however, show a greater altitudinal spread. The type specimen was taken in Colima at about 8,000 feet, and R. T. Moore (1942) reports two November specimens, one taken at 9,500 feet in northeastern Michoacán, the other at 5,200 feet in Sinaloa. These represent the extremes of the known altitudinal range.

Courtship.—Mating behavior has been observed during the first few days of May and sets of eggs noted May 15 (just completed) and May 20 (highly incubated). The only recorded specimen in juvenal plumage was collected July 20. Peet observed pursuit behavior in the Chisos Mountains on May 4 (within a few days of nest building), which may have had some courtship significance, but nothing definite is known of the courtship habits. Sutton noted copulation twice on May 1 in the Chisos, and the gonads of specimens collected that day were much enlarged; there was no indication that the females had begun incubating.

Nesting.—Two nests, both in the Chisos Mountains, have been described. The first (discovered in 1932) was lodged between small rocks and deeply imbedded in dead oak leaves on the sloping bank of a dry stream bed. A dense ground cover of vines and other herbaceous plants arched completely over it, leaving an entrance only on the northwest side, toward the stream. The nest had a basic structure of loosely woven fine grasses, the outside reinforced with pieces of green moss and the rim with strips of cedar bark; the cavity (5 centimeters across the rim and 4 centimeters deep) was lined with fine grass, a little fur, and a few hairs (Van Tyne, 1936). The other nest, which was “on the ground, under a little bunch of oak leaves, at the edge of a talus slope, almost at the very base of the cliffs” (Sutton, 1935), was similar, but its basic structure included dry leaves, and the site was concealed by only a partial canopy of leaves (Van Tyne and Sutton, 1937).

Nest building was observed in the Chisos Mountains on May 7, 1932 (Van Tyne, 1936):

As I was crossing the dry stream bed about a hundred yards below Boot Spring, I suddenly saw within twenty-five feet of me a female warbler with nest material in her bill. I stopped instantly and, remaining motionless, was greatly relieved to see the warbler continue undisturbed by my presence. In a moment she dropped to the ground and entered the nest, which was on the sloping right bank of the stream about six feet back from the margin of the rocky stream bed. After working for about twenty seconds the warbler left the nest and flew down the stream bed a hundred and fifty feet. In twelve minutes she was back with more nest material to repeat the performance. Subsequent excursions for building material during the ensuing hour were of three, twelve, six, and twenty-two minutes’ duration. Each time she worked at the nest only fifteen to twenty seconds, until the last trip (at 11:43 A. M.) when she worked about two minutes and then departed, probably to feed, for she did not return again while I watched. Each trip to the nest had been made undeviatingly, without any hesitation, from the stream bed or from the forest to the west. Alighting almost directly above the nest, without a pause she dropped through the branches by three or four stages and promptly entered the nest, placed the material, and snuggled down working it into place. After a few moments she seemed to have completed this to her satisfaction, and, leaving the nest, she flew up to the branches ten or twelve feet above, fed for a few moments on the insects among the fresh green leaves of the little oaks and maples, and went away for more material.

When it was evident that the nest building was over for the time I went over to the nest and, examining it more closely, found that it was nearly built. The following day, May 8, it seemed to be finished.

Eggs.—Two complete clutches have been found, each containing four eggs. Four eggs collected and measured were 18 by 13.3, 18 by 13.5, 18 by 13.5, and 18.5 by 14 millimeters. They were creamy white, speckled, and blotched in a wreath at the larger end with “vinaceous fawn,” “light brownish drab,” and “cinnamon drab.”

Egg laying, in the one instance observed, was at daily intervals (May 12-15); the first egg was laid four days after completion of the nest. Incubation had begun May 16, the day after the last egg was laid. The length of the incubation period is not known. Females collected on May 12 (Peet), May 17 (Van Tyne), and May 20 (Sutton) had well-marked incubation patches; males collected at the same time had no patch.

Plumages.—The Colima warbler differs from its nearest relative, the Virginia’s warbler, in being larger; darker, less gray, above; crown paler; rump and upper tail coverts darker and richer in color; yellow of throat and breast absent or, if present, more green and more diffuse; sides and flanks more brownish; crissum darker, more aniline yellow; sexes much more nearly alike. The adult female Colima warbler is slightly darker than the male and is more brown below. It is apparently never yellow on the breast.

The juvenal plumage (known from only one specimen) differs from the adult plumage in lacking the crown spot and in having two buffy wing bars. The rump is also much more yellow (less green) and the crissum is more yellow (less orange). The young Colima warbler differs from the young Virginia’s warbler in having a larger bill, darker plumage, and a less ochraceous rump.

The fall plumage differs from that of the spring in being “darker and browner throughout, the gray of head a good deal obscured by deep olive or light brownish olive; crown patch orange rufous; under parts darker with whitish area in middle of belly more distinct and under tail-coverts duller, more nearly aniline yellow” (Bangs, 1925).

George Miksch Sutton’s fine color plate (Van Tyne, 1936, frontispiece) of the Colima warbler is apparently the only published figure of the species.

Behavior.—In Texas, the Colima warbler was observed feeding on insects (which were not identified), but nothing further has been recorded about its food. All observers seem to agree that it is not a shy bird, although in its preferred cover, the female seems elusive and nests are difficult to find. Sutton has remarked that they are “rather deliberate, even vireo-like in their movements” (Van Tyne and Sutton, 1937). In the Chisos Mountains, they frequented especially the young maples and deciduous oaks along the banks of the dry, boulder-strewn stream bed, and elsewhere on the steep mountain slopes their preference for clumps of small oaks was noted.

Voice.—The call note of the Colima warbler is a very sharp, almost explosive psit. Its common song is a continuous trill, like that of the chipping sparrow, but shorter (lasting 3 to 4 seconds), more musical, and ending with two separate notes slightly lower in scale. A second, rarer, and more varied song is so clear that it can be heard for three or four hundred feet through the woods although it does not seem loud when heard from nearby. It is perhaps this song that Brandt (1940) describes as resembling the song of the eastern redstart. E. C. Jacot (MS.) reports that the males usually start singing when “a person approaches the territory of a pair, and continues to sing until the intruder has passed.” In the Chisos Mountains, Tex., the males were persistent singers. Once several sang even after a dense fog had silenced most other species. They sang usually from bushes and small trees between periods of feeding and moving about but sometimes remained for a while on a higher perch (up to 20 feet), singing at frequent intervals.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—Chisos Mountains, Tex., and mountains of northeastern Mexico; probably winters in Colima, Michoacán, and Sinaloa.

The Colima warbler has been recorded from: Texas (Chisos Mountains); Coahuila (Sierra Guadalupe and Diamante Pass); Tamaulipas (Miquihuana); Michoacán (Patamba and Sierra Ozumatlan); Sinaloa (5 miles north of Santa Lucia); Colima (Sierra Nevada).

Egg dates.—Texas: 2 records, May 15 and 20.

VERMIVORA LUCIAE (Cooper)

LUCY’S WARBLER

Plates 18, 19

HABITS

Dr. J. G. Cooper discovered this tiny and inconspicuous warbler at Fort Mojave, on the Arizona side of the Colorado River, in the spring of 1861, and named it in honor of Miss Lucy Baird, daughter of Prof. Spencer F. Baird. It might well have been named the mesquite warbler, as its distribution coincides very closely with that of this tree, which seems to furnish its favorite home, most of its nesting sites, and much of its foraging area.

Harry S. Swarth (1905) wrote of conditions then existing:

South of Tucson, Arizona, along the banks of the Santa Cruz River, lies a region offering the greatest inducements to the ornithologist. The river, running underground for most of its course, rises to the surface at this point, and the bottom lands on either side are covered, miles in extent, with a thick growth of giant mesquite trees, literally giants, for a person accustomed to the scrubby bush that grows everywhere in the desert regions of the southwest, can hardly believe that these fine trees, many of them sixty feet high and over, really belong to the same species. This magnificent grove is included in the Papago Indian Reservation, which is the only reason for the trees surviving as long as they have, since elsewhere every mesquite large enough to be used as firewood has been ruthlessly cut down, to grow up again as a scraggly bush.

But this magnificent forest did not long remain in its pristine glory. When I was in Arizona with Frank Willard in 1922, we had looked forward with keen anticipation to visiting the mesquite forest, where he had told me that we should find a thick stand of big trees covering a large area, and some wonderful bird life. We were disappointed in the forest, for the Papago Indians had been cutting down the larger trees unmercifully and had made a network of cart roads all through it for hauling out the firewood. There were only a few large trees left, more or less scattered, and between them many open spaces in which were thickets of small mesquites and thorn or patches of medium-sized mesquites and hackberries. But we were not disappointed in the bird life, for here and in other parts of Pima County, wherever there were mesquites, we found Lucy’s warblers really abundant and breeding. The forest fairly teemed with bird life, from the graceful Mexican goshawks soaring overhead to the Gambel’s quails whistling on the ground. The constant cooing of the white-winged doves was almost too monotonous, but the rich song of the Arizona cardinal, mingled with the voices of the orioles, towhees, wrens, and vireos made a delightful chorus, among which the sweet song of Lucy’s warbler was prominent.

Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1914) writes, referring to the Colorado Valley: “On the California side, both at Riverside Mountain and above Blythe, Lucy warblers were numerous, and very closely confined to the narrow belt of mesquite. The singing males, each representing the forage area and nesting site of a pair, were spaced out very uniformly, so that an estimated strip of about 200 yards in length belonged to each. The birds foraged out to a limited extent from the mesquites towards the river into the arrowweed and willows, and away from the river at the mouths of washes into the ironwoods and palo verdes. But the metropolis was always most emphatically the mesquites.”

Nesting.—M. French Gilman (1909) had considerable experience with the nesting habits of Lucy’s warbler along the Gila River in Arizona, of which he says:

Four general types of nesting sites were noticed, in the following order of frequency: in natural cavities, under loose bark, in woodpecker holes, and in deserted Verdins’ nests. Of 23 nests observed, 12 were in natural cavities, 4 under loose bark, 4 in woodpecker holes, and three in Verdins’ nests. Natural cavities were of various kinds. Some were where a limb had been broken off; others in the crack made by a large branch splitting from the trunk; and again a decayed spot furnisht a sufficient hollow to conceal the nest. In all cases the site was in a sheltered or protected position; that is, the trunk leaned enough to shade the entrance from above. A mesquite tree was usually selected, tho others were taken. Of the nests observed, 15 were in mesquites, 5 in palo verde, 2 in ironwood, and one in catsclaw. * * *

The nests were small and compact and well hidden in their cavity. Only twice did protruding material betray the location. In one case nesting material protruded from a woodpecker hole, and the other was a bulky nest that showed from each side of a split branch. This last nest I thought must belong to a House Finch, but investigation showed warbler ownership. Nests were made of bark, weeds, and mesquite leaf-stems, and lined with fine bark, horse and cow hair, a few feathers and sometimes a little rabbit fur. The site averaged six and one-half feet from the ground, the lowest being 18 inches and the highest 15 feet. * * *

In nest-building the female seems to do all the work, her mate sometimes accompanying her on trips to and from the tree, but more frequently flitting about the tops of adjacent trees, occasionally uttering his little warble. One pair I watcht had a nest in a Texas Woodpecker hole in a palo verde tree about 15 feet from the ground. The female brought material to the nest three times in two minutes, then a seven minute interval, followed by two trips in three minutes. The male accompanied her on two trips then made himself scarce. He indulged in no singing and both birds were silent, tho in many cases one or both gave the call note at intervals.

Others have mentioned nests of Lucy’s warblers in verdins’ nests, probably all old winter nests of the male verdin, relined to suit the warbler. O. W. Howard (1899) records such a nest and adds: “Other nests were placed in crevices along river banks where roots of trees were sticking out and one or two were found in natural cavities of the Giant Cactus, or in woodpecker holes therein.” We found a nest with young in a cavity in the bleached skeleton of a fallen giant cactus, where I set up my camera and took several photographs of the bird feeding the young. A very pretty nest of this warbler is in the Thayer collection in Cambridge; it was evidently built in the fork of a mesquite limb, supported by a cluster of old and fresh, green twigs; it is made externally of the leaves, petioles, fine green twigs, and flower clusters of the mesquite and is decorated with a few feathers of the white-winged dove; it is lined internally with fine fibers, white cows' hair and black horsehair, and more dove feathers; it measures 4 by 3 inches in outside diameter and 2 by 1¹⁄₃ inside; the outside height is nearly 3 inches, and the inside cup is about 1³⁄₄ inches deep. A set in my collection was taken from a hole 3 feet above the base of a sandy bank along a wash near the San Pedro River, in Arizona.

Eggs.—Lucy’s warbler lays from 3 to 7 eggs, but the set usually consists of 4 or 5; the larger sets are rare, but O. W. Howard has found two sets of 7, and several sets of 6 have been recorded. The eggs are ovate to short ovate and have very little lustre. The white or creamy white ground color is finely speckled with shades of “chestnut,” “bay,” or “auburn.” The eggs that have markings in the darker shades of “chestnut” and “bay” frequently have a scattering of minute spots of “brownish drab” that are often lacking on eggs with the lighter markings of “auburn.” The spots are usually concentrated at the large end. The measurements of 50 eggs average 14.6 by 11.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 16.5 by 11.5, 14.6 by 12.0, 13.2 by 11.2, and 13.7 by 10.7 millimeters. (Harris.)

Young.—The period of incubation seems to be unknown, and I can find no information on the development and care of the young. Evidence points to the conclusion that incubation and brooding are performed entirely by the female, and that at least two broods are reared in a season. Mr. Swarth (1905) says that “several broods are probably raised, as unfinished nests and incomplete sets were found at the same time that broods of young as large as the adults were seen flying about.”

Plumages.—Ridgway (1902) says that the young in juvenal plumage are “essentially like adults, but much clearer white beneath; no trace of chestnut on crown; upper tail-coverts ochraceous-buff instead of chestnut; middle and greater wing-coverts tipped with whitish or pale buffy, producing two rather distinct bars.” He might have added that the tertials are edged with cinnamon, and that the primaries and rectrices are edged and tipped with white.

There is apparently a partial postjuvenal molt, some time during the summer, when all the plumage except the flight feathers, remiges, and rectrices, is renewed. Young birds now become very similar to adults, but can be recognized by the juvenal wings and tail until the edgings wear off. I can find no evidence of a prenuptial molt in either young or old birds. I have seen adults in complete postnuptial molt in August. Fall birds are tinged with brown above and with pale brownish buff below; the chestnut crown patch is concealed by very broad brownish gray tips. Females are not always distinguishable from males, but usually the chestnut on the crown and upper tail coverts is paler and more restricted.

Food.—Nothing definite seems to have been published on the food of Lucy’s warbler, but it is evidently largely, if not wholly, insectivorous, as it is often seen foraging in the foliage and flower clusters of the mesquites and in other trees. Dr. W. P. Taylor tells me that he has seen it feeding on the pendant sprays of ocotillo flowers, probably gleaning insects or other materials from the exterior. In late spring when the mesquites, palo verdes, the various cacti, and even the saguaros burst into full bloom, these gorgeous desert plants are a blaze of color and attract myriads of insects.

Behavior.—Mr. Gilman (1909) says that “shyness about the nest seems to be characteristic of these birds.” He was seldom able to flush one from its nest. "In three cases only, did the parent birds show what might be called proper amount of solicitude when the nest was approacht. Some of them seemed rather touchy about their nests, leaving them if the nest were toucht even so lightly.” Some nests, with incomplete sets, were deserted after they had been inspected; but others were not. “They took good care not to sing in the nest tree, preferring to confine their performances to trees some distance away. The male would frequently meet me several rods from the nest and flit from tree to tree singing at short intervals. Once I made a complete circuit of the nest tree and he accompanied me the entire distance. This was an exceptional case of course. While going from tree to tree and singing, the bird usually tried to keep hidden as much as possible and was rather successful in the effort.”

However nest-shy the bird may be when there are eggs in the nest that she does not want discovered, the bird that I watched was not at all shy about her nest, nor was she lacking in parental devotion. For, although my camera stood within a few feet of the nest and I was standing beside it in plain sight, she came repeatedly to feed her young. I should say that these birds are more retiring than shy.

W. L. Dawson (1923) writes: “Albeit an active creature and zealous in song, the Lucy Warbler becomes almost invisible in its habitual setting, and the difficulty of detection is heightened by the bird’s instinctive wariness. Again and again I have known a bird which had seemed quite engrossed in song to fall silent at the stir of a footstep a hundred yards away.”

Voice.—Mr. Dawson (1923) says: “The Lucy Warbler is a loud and industrious singer, but the song has a curious generic quality very difficult to describe. It is Warbler song, rather than the song of the Lucy Warbler. It is, perhaps, most like that of the Pileolated Warbler (Wilsonia pileolata) in quality. After that, it reminds one of the Yellow Warbler’s song, having the same vivacious cadence, but not being so sharply piercing. Again its breathless, haphazard quality suggests one of the Buntings; and I once followed its tantalizing seductions for half an hour under the delusion that I was on the track of the coveted Beautiful Bunting (Passerina versicolor pulchra).”

Dr. Grinnell (1914) says that the song “resembles the song of the Sonora yellow warbler in length and frequency of utterance and somewhat in quality, but with a distinct hurried and lisping effect reminding one of the song of the Lazuli bunting.” Several others have noted the resemblance to the song of the yellow warbler. Mrs. Florence Merriam Bailey (1923) puts the song in syllables as follows: “whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, whee-tee, wheet, and its call was a faint chip.”