Chapter IX: Part 9

As one considers the Thrushes, Wrens, and Sparrows of our northern clime, he is apt to grumble a little at the niggardliness of Mother Nature in the matter of providing party clothes. The dark mood is instantly dispelled, however, at the sight of this vision of loveliness. Black, white, and gray-blue make a very tasty mixture in themselves, as the Black-throated Gray Warbler can testify, but when to these is added the splendor of five golden garnishes, crown, gorget, epaulets, and culet, you have a costume which Pan must notice. And for all he is so bedecked, _auduboni_ is neither proud nor vain,—properly modest and companionable withal.

Westerly, at least, he is among the first voices of springtime, and by the 10th of March, while all other Warblers are still skulking silently in the Southland, this brave spirit is making the fir groves echo to his melody. The song is brief and its theme nearly invariable, as is the case with most Warblers; but there is about it a joyous, racy quality, which flicks the admiration and calls time on Spring. The singer posts in a high fir tree, that all may hear, and the notes pour out rapidly, crowding close upon each other, till the whole company is lost in a cloud of spray at the end of the ditty. At close quarters, the “filling” is exquisite, but if one is a little way removed, where he catches only the crests of the sound waves, it is natural to call the effort a trill. At a good distance it is even comparable to the pure, monotonous tinkling of Junco.

I once heard these two dissimilar birds in a song contest. The Warbler stood upon a favorite perch of his, a spindling, solitary fir some hundred feet in height, while the Junco held a station even higher on the tip of another fir a block away. Here they had it back and forth, with honors surprisingly even, until both were tired, whereupon (and not till then) an Oregon Towhee ventured to bring forth his prosy rattle. It was like Sambo and his “bones” after an opera.

The range of Audubon’s Warbler is about coextensive with that of evergreen timber in Washington. It does not, however, frequent all the more open pine woods of the lower foot-hills in the eastern part of the State, nor does it occur habitually in the deeper solitudes of the western forests. Considered altitudinally, its range extends from sea-level to timber-line. And altho it is at home in the highest mountains, it is equally so in the city park and in the shade trees about the house. Under such varied conditions, therefore, its habits must vary widely.

We do not know to what extent it is resident, that is, present the year around, but believe that it is quite extensively so. One may be in the woods for a dull week in January, and see never a Warbler; but on a bright day in the same region he may encounter numbers of them. I have seen them playing about the dense firs on Semiahmoo Point (Lat. 49°) on Christmas Day, and I feel sure that large numbers of them spend the winter in the tree-tops, possibly moping, after the well known fashion of the Sooty Grouse.

It is these winter residents which become active in early spring. In the vicinity of Tacoma, where they have been studied most carefully, it is found that April is the typical nesting month, and one at least of the four eggs of a nest found April 9th, 1905, must have been deposited in _March_. Along about the 25th of April great numbers of Audubons arrive from the South, and one may see indolent companies of them lounging thru the trees, while resident birds are busy feeding young. These migrants may be destined for our own mountains as well as British Columbia. East-side birds are likewise tardy in arrival, for pine trees are inadequate shelter for wintry experiments.

The absorbing duty of springtime is nesting, and to this art the Audubons give themselves with becoming ardor. The female does the work, while the male cheers her with song, and not infrequently trails about after her, useless but sympathetic. Into a certain tidy grove near Tacoma the bird-man entered one crisp morning in April. The trees stood about like decorous candlesticks, but the place hummed with Kinglets and clattered with Juncoes and Audubons. One Audubon, a female, advertised her business to all comers. I saw her, upon the ground, wrestling with a large white chicken-feather, and sputtering excitedly between tussles. The feather was evidently too big or too stiff or too wet for her proper taste; but finally she flew away across the grove with it, chirping merrily. And since she repeated her precise course three times, it was an easy matter to trace her some fifteen rods straight to her nest, forty feet up on an ascending fir branch.

When the nest was presumed to be ripe, I ascended. It was found settled into the foliage and steadied by diverging twigs at a point some six or seven feet out along the limb. None of the branches in the vicinity were individually safe, but by dint of standing on one, sitting on another, and clinging to a third, I made an equitable distribution of avoirdupois and grasped the treasure. Perhaps in justice the supporting branches should have broken just here, but how could you enjoy the rare beauty of this handsome structure unless we brought it to you?

The nest is deeply cup-shaped, with a brim slightly turned in, composed externally of fir twigs, weed-tops, flower-pedicels, rootlets, catkins, etc., while the interior is heavily lined with feathers which in turn are bound and held in place by an innermost lining of horse-hairs. One feather was left to curl daintily over the edge, and so partially conceal the eggs,—four spotted beauties.

These Warblers are connoisseurs in feathers, and if one had all their nests submitted to him, he could make a rough assignment of locality for each according to whether feathers of Oregon Ruffed Grouse, Franklin Grouse, Ptarmigan, or domestic fowls were used.

In the wet region the birds appear to nest in fir trees only, and they are as likely to use the lowermost limb as any. There is little attempt at concealment, and Bowles reports a nest only ten feet high over a path used daily by hundreds of people in Tacoma. On the dry side of the mountains the Warblers avail themselves freely of deciduous trees and bushes for nesting sites. A nest on Cannon Hill in Spokane was placed at the lowermost available crotch of a young elm tree near the sidewalk and not ten feet up—as bold as a Robin!

According to Mr. Bowles, Audubon Warblers evince a great fondness for their chosen nesting haunts, and will return to them year after year, often to the same tree, and sometimes to the same branch. “They are the most solicitous of all the Washington Warblers concerning their eggs, sometimes coming to meet the intruder as he climbs toward the nest. At such times the alarm note of the female soon brings the male, when, should the nest contain incubated eggs or young, both birds crawl among the branches, frequently within reach, with wings and tail spread, in absolute forgetfulness of their own safety.”

Incubation is accomplished in twelve days; and one or two broods are raised, according to locality and length of season.

We lose sight of most of the birds, especially the smaller ones, after the heyday of springtime, but here is one who, because he has forsworn wandering, is making delicate overtures of confidence toward mankind. This year, especially, now that the dense tract of woods north of the University has been cut out, they linger about our neighborhood with the matter-of-factness of Bluebirds. The young ones play about the eaves or make sallies at passing flies from the window-sills, and yawn with childish insouciance if mamma suggests, by a sharp _tchip_, that enemies may lurk behind the curtains. They know it’s only habit with her, and she doesn’t believe it herself. The adult attire is duller now, and only the yellow rump-patch remains for recognition by a friend. The year is waning, no doubt of that, but October sunshine is good enough for us—or November rains. Let them flit who will! Washington is good enough for us, you in your fir house and I in mine.

No. 76.
BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 665. Dendroica nigrescens (Towns.).

Description.—_Adult male in spring and summer_: A supraloral spot of
yellow; remaining plumage black, white and blue-gray; head, throat and
chest black interrupted by superciliary stripes and broad malar
stripes of white; remaining upperparts blue-gray, marked with black in
inverted wedge-shaped spots on back, scapulars and upper tail-coverts;
wings and tail black edged with bluish ash, the middle and greater
coverts tipped with white, forming two conspicuous wing-bars, the four
outer rectrices blotched with white on inner webs in sharply
decreasing area, the outermost chiefly white, the fourth merely
touched; sides white streaked with black or striped black-and-white;
remaining underparts white. _Adult female_: Like male but duller, the
black of crown partly veiled by blue-gray skirting, that of throat
reduced by white tips of feathers. _Young birds_ resemble the female
but the black of crown and throat is almost entirely hidden by
blue-gray and white respectively, and the area of the tail blotches is
much reduced. Length about 5.00 (127); wing 2.44 (62); tail 1.97 (50);
bill .36 (9.2); tarsus .69 (17.5).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; black and white and blue-gray
coloration distinctive.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a rather loosely built structure of dead grasses,
silky plant fibers, moss, etc., placed midway on horizontal limb of
conifer 25-50 feet from ground; measures, externally, 3 inches wide by
2 deep, internally 1¾ wide by 1 deep. _Eggs_: 4, creamy white, marked,
chiefly about the larger end with spots and small blotches of varying
shades of brown, lavender and black. Av. size, .83 × .63 (21 × 16).
_Season_: last week in May and first week in June; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States (north to Colorado, Utah and
Washington), and British Columbia west of the Cascades; breeding
southward to Southern California, southern Arizona and Lower
California; south in winter thru Mexico and States of Oaxaca and Vera
Cruz.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident and migrant west of the Cascade
Mountains.

Migrations.—_Spring_: Seattle-Tacoma c. April 12. _Fall_: c. Sept. 1
(Blaine).

Authorities.—_Sylvia nigrescens_ Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila.
VII. 1837, 191 (“forests of the Columbia River”). C&S. L¹. D¹(?). Ra.
Kk. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. B. E.

Black and white and gray are sober colors in themselves, but a skillful arrangement of all three has produced a handsome bird, and one whose dainty dignity requires no meretricious display of gaudy reds and yellows. Warblers are such tiny creatures at best that Nature has given little thought to their protective coloration. This plain-colored bird does not, therefore, shun the greenery of fir and fern, and yet we feel a peculiar fitness when he chooses for a song station some bare dead limb, gray and sober like himself.

Last year the first arrival in Seattle seated himself upon a projecting limb of a dead cedar which commanded the quiet sylvan depths of Cowan Park, and left him fairly abreast of the Fifteenth Avenue viaduct. Here he divided his time between song and enjoyment of the scene, sparing a friendly glance now and then for the admiring bird-man. His manner was complaisant and self-contained, and I felt that his little vocal offerings were a tribute to the perfect morning rather than a bid for applause.

The song of the Black-throated Gray is quite unpretentious, as Mrs. Bailey says,[25] “a simple warbler lay, _zee-ee-zee-ee, ze, ze, ze_, with the quiet woodsy quality of _virens_ and _cœrulescens_, so soothing to the ear.” It is this droning, woodsy quality alone which must guide the ear of a listener in a forest, which may be resounding at the same time to the notes of the Hermit, Townsend, Audubon, Lutescent, and Tolmie Warblers. Occasionally even this fails. An early song which came from a young male feeding patiently among the catkins of some tall, fresh-budding alders, had some of the airy qualities of the Kinglet’s notes, “_Deo déopli, du du du, deo déo pli, deo deo pli, deo deo pli_”—a mere fairy sibilation too fine for mortal ears to analyze. Another said boldly, “_Heo flidgity; heo flidgity_,” and “_Heo flidgity, chu wéo_.”

This Warbler is of rather irregular distribution in the western part of the State, where alone it is found. A preference is shown for rather open woodland or dense undergrowth with wooded intervals. The fir-dotted prairies of the Steilacoom area are approved, and the oak groves have their patronage. During the August migration I have found the bird almost abundant at Blaine. They are curious, too, and by judicious screeping I succeeded in calling the bird of the accompanying illustration down within five feet upon the overhanging limb of an apple tree.

Of their nesting Mr. Bowles says: “In Washington these Warblers are strictly confined to the large coniferous timber of the prairie country, during the breeding season placing their nests midway out on a fir limb, at from 25 to 50 feet above the ground. Strangely enough, however, in Oregon they almost always nest low down in the deciduous trees, sometimes only three or four feet up in a bush. In Washington the nests are always placed directly on a limb, while in Oregon my brother, Mr. C. W. Bowles, found them mostly in upright crotches.

“The nest is rather a loosely-built little structure, measuring externally three inches wide by two inches deep, internally one and three-quarters inches wide by one deep. It is composed of dead grass, silky plant fibers, moss, etc., with an ample lining of different kinds of hair and feathers;—a pretty little nest, tho scarcely as artistic as that of the Audubon Warbler.

“The eggs are laid during the last week in May and the first week in June, and are invariably four in number. They are creamy white in color, marked chiefly around the larger end, with spots and small blotches of varying shades of brown, lavender, and black. Eggs in my collection from Washington average .83 × .63 inches in dimensions, while eggs from Oregon average .67 × .50 inches, the largest egg from Oregon being smaller than the smallest Washington egg. In shape the eggs vary from long to short ovate, and only one set is laid in a season.

“The parent birds are very shy in the vicinity of the nest, the female leaving at the first sign of danger and keeping out of sight.

“In Oregon, my brother noted that the male often accompanied the female while she was collecting building material, continuously scolding, but never assisting her in any way. In that section the nests were greatly preyed upon by that prince of egg-robbers, the California Jay.”

No. 77.
TOWNSEND’S WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 668. Dendroica townsendi (Towns.).

Description.—_Adult male_: Pileum, hindneck, lores and auriculars,
chin, throat and upper chest black; supraloral region continuous with
broad superciliary, a spot under eye and a malar stripe broadening
behind (and nearly meeting end of superciliary on side of neck)
yellow, breast yellow heavily streaked on sides with black, the black
streaks thickening and merging with black of chest in front,
scattering on flanks and reappearing on under tail-coverts; upper
sides and flanks and remaining underparts posteriorly white as to
ground; back, scapulars and rump yellowish olive-green streaked with
black shading into black of head on hindneck; upper tail-coverts
abruptly bluish gray; wings and tail blackish with some edgings of
light gray; two white wing-bars formed by tips of middle and greater
coverts; three outer pairs of tail feathers blotched with white on
inner webs in descending ratio. Bill black with paler tomia; feet and
legs brown; iris brown. _Adult male in fall and winter_: Areas and
intensity of black much reduced, pileum and hindneck with much
skirting of olive green thru which black appears mesially on feathers;
auriculars entirely concealed by olive green feather-tips; black of
chin and throat nearly concealed by yellow and streaks of sides
reduced; black streaks of upperparts more or less concealed; upper
tail-coverts color of back. _Adult female_: Very similar in coloration
to adult male in fall; throat often more or less black, pileum
sometimes more extensively black but black streaking of upperparts
still further reduced. _Young birds in first autumnal plumage_ have no
clear black, and the yellow of throat and underparts is paler. Length
about 5.00 (127); wing 2.64 (67); tail 1.97 (50); bill .34 (8.6);
tarsus .74 (18.8).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; black on crown, cheeks and throat in
high plumage; in low plumage extensively yellow on sides of head
enclosing area of darker (olive-green)—yellow of throat combined with
this character may afford clew to identification of winter specimens.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a well built, bulky but rather shallow structure,
chiefly of cedar bark with a few slender fir twigs interwoven; lined
with stems of moss flowers; placed at moderate heights in young fir
trees well out on limb or settled against trunk. _Eggs_: 4, white,
wreathed and speckled with brownish and lilac. Av. size, .61 × .51
(15.5 × 12.9). _Season_: first week in June; one brood.

General Range.—Western North America breeding from the mountains of
southern California north to Alaska and east to Idaho; during
migrations eastward to Rocky Mountains and southward to Guatemala,
Lower California, etc.

Range in Washington.—Not uncommon spring and fall migrant on both
sides of the Cascade Mountains, summer resident in coniferous timber,
probably thruout the State; partially resident in winter on Puget
Sound.

Migrations.—_Spring_: Seattle April 20, 1907; Ahtanum (Yakima Co.) May
4, 1906, June 5, 1899; Chelan May 25, 1905. _Fall_: August. _Winter
records_: Seattle Dec. 31, 1905; Tacoma Dec. 4, 13, 15, 21 and 29,
1906.

Authorities.—_Sylvia townsendi_ “(Nuttall),” Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat.
Sci. Phila. VII. pt. II. 1837, 191 (“forests of the Columbia River”).
C&S. Rh. Ra. D². B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. C. E.

What a morning that was at the old parsonage in the Ahtanum valley, when the shade trees of the five acre enclosure were lit up by the presence of a dozen of these fairies! Waste acres of sage lay around, or fields of alfalfa and growing wheat, hardly more inviting, but the eye of the leader, winging languidly from the South, at early dawn had spied a patch of woodsy green, and had ordered a halt for the day in our comfortable-looking box-elders and insect-harboring apple trees. To be sure it was absurdly late for migrants, June 5th, but they appeared more like an embassage of foreign grandees, who deigned to make requisition upon our hospitality, than mere birds with threats of family cares ahead. So while they sought breakfasts of aphis and early worm, or disported among the branches in the growing sunshine, I attended their movements in rustic wonder. Now and then a member of the party paused to adjust his golden trappings, or to settle the black head-piece with a dainty shake. It was, indeed, a notable occasion for the bird-man, inasmuch as these dandies were in “higher” plumage than any yet recognized by the best bird-books of the day,[26] in that the shining black, supposedly confined to the lower throat, now occupied the very chin as well.

There was a little conversational lisping in a foreign tongue, in which the ladies of the party were included; and after breakfast the males ventured song.

Seventy-eight days later, viz., on the 23d of August, a southward bound party visited our orchard. The males were still in song, and it was difficult to believe that all the joys and sorrows of wedlock and child-rearing had intervened; yet such was probably the case.

A bird sighted at Chelan on the 25th day of May, 1905, haunted a pine and a balm tree at the foot of the Lake, singing constantly. The song ran, _dzwee, dzwee, dzwee, dzwee, dzweetsee_, the first four notes drowsy and drawling, the fourth prolonged, and the remainder somewhat furry and squeaky. The bird hunted patiently thru the long needles of the pine, under what would seem to an observer great difficulties. Once he espied an especially desirable tidbit on the under side of a needle-beset branch. The bird leaned over and peered beneath, until he quite lost his balance and turned a somersault in the air. But he returned to the charge again and again, now creeping cautiously around to the under side, now clinging to the pine needles themselves and again fluttering bravely in the midst, until he succeeded in exhausting the little pocket of provender, whatever it was.

In June, 1906, we found these birds in the valley of the Stehekin, and again in the valley of the Cascade River, near Marblemount, breeding, undoubtedly, in both places. Here we allowed the notes, _oozi, woozi lêooli_ to pass for some time, unchallenged, as those of the Hermit Warbler, but finally caught a _townsendi_ in the act at fifteen feet. There is, to be sure, a lisping, drawling, obstructed quality in the opening notes not found in the typical Hermit song, and possibly not at all, but the lilt at the end, _lêooli_, is inseparable from the Hermit Warbler, and I do not take it kindly of _townsendi_ to mix up the game so.

Upon returning to the valley of the Stehekin in June, 1908, Mr. Bowles found the Townsend Warbler a not uncommon breeder. On the 20th of that month he discovered two nests, each containing four newly hatched young. Both were placed about twelve feet up in young fir trees, one about five feet out on a limb, the other close against the main trunk. In each instance the brooding female allowed a close approach; then dropped straight to the ground and disappeared. The birds were extremely shy at first but after an hour or so became sufficiently accustomed to the human presence to return to their duties within a few minutes after being flushed. But repeated visits failed to discover the males in the vicinity of their nests, and, indeed, they seemed to be wholly occupied with minstrelsy in the tree-tops.

On the 31st of December, 1905, I saw a Townsend Warbler in the pale winter plumage in Madrona Park, on the border of Lake Washington. He was with a group of Audubon Warblers feeding in the alders, but attention was instantly attracted to the _tsip_ note, which was sharper and more clear-cut than that of the Audubon; and it had, moreover, a sort of double quality, or central turn, _tsiip_ or _chiip_. This record of winter residence was further confirmed by specimens taken at Tacoma by Mr. Bowles the following December.

No. 78.
HERMIT WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 669. Dendroica occidentalis (Townsend).

Synonym.—Western Warbler.

Description.—_Adult male in breeding plumage_: Forehead, crown and
sides of head and neck, broadly, rich lemon yellow, sharply defined
below by black of chin, throat and upper chest, less sharply above by
black of occiput or hindneck; this in turn shading thru mingled olive
and black into gray of remaining upperparts; upper plumage more or
less tinged with olive-green and streaked more or less broadly with
black; wings and tail black with grayish edgings; middle and greater
coverts tipped with white forming two conspicuous wing-bars,—outermost
part of tail-feathers chiefly white on both webs, next pair white on
terminal half of inner web and third pair marked with longitudinal
spot near tip; black of chest with convex posterior outline sharply
defined from white of remaining underparts. Bill black; legs and feet
dark brown; iris brown. _Adult male in fall and winter_: Yellow of
crown veiled by olive green; black of throat veiled by whitish tips;
black streaking of upperparts less conspicuous. _Adult female in
spring_: Like male in spring but duller, yellow of head less
extensive, gray of upperparts dominating; black streaks reduced or
obsolete; black of throat, etc., absent, white or dull yellowish
instead; sometimes dusky spot of various proportions on chest. _Young
birds_ like adult female but yellow of crown veiled by olive and sides
washed with brownish. Length of adult about 4.90 (124.4); wing 2.65
(67.3); tail 2.20 (55.9); bill .40 (10.2); tarsus .44 (11.3).

Recognition Marks.—Smaller Warbler size; yellow mask of male outlined
against black of throat and hind neck distinctive—female and young
more difficult but distinctive pattern of mask with white wing-bars
usually suggestive.

Nesting.—_Nest_: saddled on horizontal branch of fir tree at a good
height; a compact structure of fir twigs, mosses and vegetable down,
lined with fine grass and horse-hair; measures, outside, 4 wide by 2¾
deep, inside, 2 wide by 1¼ deep. _Eggs_: 4 or 5, dull white heavily
blotched and spotted with various shades of red-brown and lavender.
Av. size, .69 × .53 (17.5 × 13.5). _Season_: c. June 1; one brood.

General Range.—Pacific coast district and Cascade-Sierra system with
its outliers north to British Columbia; “in winter south into Lower
California and through Arizona over Mexican plateau to highlands of
Guatemala.”

Range in Washington.—Not common summer resident, in heavier coniferous
timber only.

Authorities.—_Sylvia occidentalis_ Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci.
Phila. VII. 1837, 190 (“forests of the Columbia River”). C&S. L¹. D¹.
B.

Specimens.—C.

There is a piece of woodland south of Tacoma which we call the Hermit Woods, because here on any May day may be heard the voice of this exalted Warbler. The proper hour in which to approach this forest is early morning, before the winds have begun to stir in its dim aisles, and while the hush of its nightly peace is upon everything—save the birds. The soft moss muffles the footsteps, so that the devotee may move about unheralded from shrine to shrine, as he pays silent homage to each, in turn, of those morning stars of song, the Wood Warblers. There is Audubon with his hastening melody of gladness. There is Black-throated Gray with his still drowsy sonnet of sweet content. Then there is Hermit hidden aloft in the shapeless greenery of the under-dawn,—his note is sweetest, gladdest, most seraphic of them all, _Lilly, lilly, lilly, leê o leet_. It is almost sacrilege to give it form—besides it is so hopeless. The preparatory notes are like the tinkle of crystal bells and when our attention is focused, lo! the wonder happens,—the exquisite lilt of the closing phrase, _leê-oleet._

In broad daylight it is the same. The singers remain in the tree-tops and tease the imagination with thoughts of a domestic life lived upon a higher plane than that of earth, an exalted state where all is beatific and serene. And try you never so hard, with glasses of a high power, it is a good hour’s work to obtain a satisfactory sight of one of the uplifted creatures.

In despair, one day, I determined to penetrate this supramundane region where the Hermit is at home, and selected for the purpose a well branched tree in the center of the forest and some hundred and fifty feet in height. The tree was, fortunately, of the tougher sort, and permitted ascent to a point where the stem might be grasped with the finger and thumb of one hand. It was a treat to see the forest as a bird does. The surface viewed from above was surprisingly uneven. Here and there strong young trees, green and full of sap, rose to the level of mine, but the majority were lower, and some appeared like green rosettes set in a well of green. Others still, rugged and uneven as to limb, towered above my station by fifty or seventy-five feet. My first discovery upon reaching the top was that the bulk of the bird chorus now sounded from below. But a few singing Hermits did occupy stations more lofty than mine. One I marked down—rather, up—fifty feet above and a hundred yards away. He sang away like a contented eremite from a single twig, and I was reverently constructing his high biography and trying to pick out his domicile from the neighboring branches, when flash! he pitched headlong two hundred feet and was seen no more.

Mr. Bowles has hit upon a clever scheme for decoying the haughty Hermits. He resorts to the vicinity of some Cassin Vireo’s nest containing young, and studies the throng of small birds, which the masterly scolding of the Vireos invariably attracts. Upon one such occasion, having lured down an inquisitive pair, he noticed a peculiar trait: “After examining me closely and apparently deciding that I was a new kind of stump, the female commenced feeding; but her attention was soon attracted to a last year’s nest of a Russet-backed Thrush. She at once flew to it and, hopping in, crouched down and commenced trampling the bottom, turning around, putting the material on the sides into shape with her bill, and altogether acting as tho she had nest-building well under way. This was about the middle of May, and, as I subsequently discovered, almost a month too early for her to lay her eggs.”[27]

The nest of this species is still rare. The only one taken in Washington was found by Mr. Bowles, June 11, 1905, in a fir tree near Tacoma, and contained five eggs, the only set of five yet recorded. The nest was placed at a height of twenty feet on a horizontal limb six feet from the trunk of the tree. Mr. Bowles had seen the tail of the bird from below as it projected over the brim of the nest, and prepared himself to inspect “another of those Audubons.” When, instead of the yellow crown-patch of an Audubon, he saw the lemon-yellow head of a Hermit, the oölogist nearly fainted from surprise and joy. The bird sat so close that the collector was obliged to lift her from the nest, and she then flew only a few feet, where she remained, chipping and spreading her wings and tail. The male at no time put in an appearance.

The nesting range of this species is still imperfectly made out. We found it common at Newport in Stevens County, and among the pines and larches of the Calispell range. We counted them common in the valley of the Stehekin also, but soon encountered that peculiar plagiarism of song, on the part of the Townsend Warbler, which queered all our local conclusions. In order, therefore, to guide the student in further investigations. I record a few variant song forms which I have clearly traced to the Hermit Warbler: _Zeegle, zeegle, zeegle, zeet_, fuzzy and low like that of _D. nigrescens_—this was heard at Tacoma and is recognized by C. W. Bowles as being the type form of southern Oregon songs; _dzee dzeé, tzibid-zeedzeé, dzee dzeé_, in a sort of sing-song rollick: _dzudzudzudzudzeêo zeêo zeet_—first syllables very rapid, musical; nasal turn to accented notes very like the “ping” note of the Creeper song, and occupying much the same position save that it is repeated; _days, days, days, days zeêt_—the first notes lisping, with slight accelerando, and the nasal ringing quality reserved for the last.

No. 79.
TOLMIE’S WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 680. Oporornis tolmiei (Townsend).

Synonym.—Macgillivray’s Warbler.

Description.—_Adult male in spring and summer_: Fore-parts in general,
including head and neck all around and chest, blackish slate or slate
gray; extreme forehead and lores jet black; feathers of lower chest
slate-black narrowly fringed with ashy gray; extreme chin usually
white; a sharp touch of white on upper eyelid behind and a longer one
on lower lid; remaining plumage bright greenish yellow to olive-green,
clearest yellow, canary to olive-yellow, on breast and remaining
underparts, centrally, and on bend of wing, shading thru yellowish
olive green on sides to olive-green of upperparts; outer primary edged
with white on outer web. Bill dusky brown above, paler below; feet and
legs light brown; iris brown. _Adult male in fall and winter:_:
Similar but feathers of auriculars and hindneck and sometimes crown
tipped with dull brown; ashy skirtings of throat and chest more
extensive, sometimes nearly concealing the black. _Adult female in
spring_: Like male but slate of hood replaced by dull brownish gray
(mouse gray) above and by pale brownish gray on chin, throat and
chest. In _fall_ plumage still more extensively gray below. _Young
females_ lack the hood altogether being simply olive green on crown,
yellow on throat, etc. Length about 5.50 (139.7); wing 2.44 (62); tail
2.16 (55); bill .45 (11.4); tarsus .85 (21.6).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; slaty hood of male distinctive;
contrast of color between chest and breast usually apparent. A
frequenter of thickets, with a sharp _tsick_ or _chuck_ note of alarm.

Nesting.—_Nest_: in thickets in upright crotch of bush from six inches
to three feet from ground; a bulky affair of coarse dead grass,
rootlets and trash, lined with fine black rootlets and horse-hair;
measures, outside, 4½, wide by 2½ deep, inside, 2½, wide by 1¼ deep.
_Eggs_: 3-5, usually 4, dull white, heavily marked around larger end
with reddish browns and lavender. Av. size, .70 × .54 (17.8 × 13.7).
_Season_: first week in June; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States and British Columbia breeding
south to Arizona and western Texas; east during migrations to western
Nebraska, etc.; south in winter to Cape St. Lucas and over whole of
Mexico and Central America to Colombia (Bogota).

Range in Washington.—Summer resident in dense thickets thruout the
State from sea level to about 2,000 feet elevation.

Authorities.—_Sylvia tolmiei_ Townsend, Narrative, April 1839, 343
(Columbia River). C&S. L¹. Rh. D¹. Sr. Ra. D². Ss². Kk. J. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. E.

We shall have to import the word “chaparral” if we are to characterize with any brevity the sort of cover this Warbler loves. A great confusion of willow, alder, dogwood, syringa, ocean-spray, and huckleberry is his delight. It matters not whether it be a hillside in King County, a lonesome spring draw in the hills of Klickitat, or the borders of a swamp in Okanogan, if only there be cover and plenty of it. No more persistent skulker haunts the shrubbery than this wary, suspicious, active, and very competent Wood Warbler. Yet even he, when he thinks no one is looking, emerges from his shrubbery depths, selects a topmost twig and breaks out in song,—a song which is neither diffident nor uncertain. _Sheep sheep sheep shear shear sheep_, he announces in a brisk, business-like tone, totally devoid of musical quality. And when you have heard him once, or, say, a hundred times, you have learned all that may be known of the Tolmie Warbler—out of cover. Those who know the Dickcissel of the middle West will at once be struck with the close similarity of its song, altho it must be admitted that the Warbler’s is lighter in quality and less wooden. Practically, the only variety is in the number of syllables and in the number and distribution of the r’s; thus, _Sheep, sheep, shear, shear, sheep; Sheep, sheep, shear, shear, sheep, sheep_; and, a shade more emphatic, _Jick, jick, jick, jick, shear, sheep_.

For all we see so little of the Tolmie Warbler, the converse is by no means true. That is to say, the bird does see a great deal of us if we frequent the thickets. Whenever there is anything doing in his vicinity, the Warbler promptly and silently threads the intervening mazes, takes observations of the disturber from every angle, and retires with, at most, a disapproving _chuck_. In the fall of the year discipline is somewhat relaxed, and a little judicious screeping in the shrubbery will call up platoons of these inquisitive Warblers.

Owing partly to the caution of the sitting female, and more to the density of its cover, the nest of the Tolmie Warbler is not often found. When approached the bird glides away silently from her nest, and begins feeding ostentatiously in the neighboring bushes. This of itself is enough to arouse suspicion in an instructed mind, for the exhibition is plainly gratuitous. But the brush keeps the secret well, or, if it is forced, we find a bulky, loose-built affair of coarse dead grasses and rootlets, lined with black rootlets or horse-hair, and placed either in an upright fork of a bush, or built around the ascending stems of rank herbage at a few inches or at most two or three feet from the ground. Eggs, usually four in number, are deposited about the first week in June, and Tolmie babies swarm in July and August, quite beyond the expectation of our oölogical fore season.

A word of explanation regarding the change of name from Macgillivray to Tolmie is in order. Townsend discovered the bird and really published it first, saying,[28] “I dedicate the species to my friend, W. T. Tolmie, Esq. of Fort Vancouver.” Audubon, being entrusted with Townsend’s specimens, but disregarding the owner’s prior rights, published the bird independently, and tardily, as it happened, as _Sylvia macgillivrayi_, by which specific name it was long known to ornithologists. Macgillivray was a Scotch naturalist who never saw America, but Tolmie was at that time a surgeon and later a factor of “the Honorable the Hudson Bay Company,” and he clearly deserves remembrance at our hands for the friendly hospitality and coöperation which he invariably extended to men of science.

No. 80.
GRINNELL’S WATER-THRUSH.

A. O. U. No. 675 a. Seiurus noveboracensis notabilis Ridgw.

Description.—_Adults_: Above sooty olive-brown, singularly uniform;
below white or tinged with pale yellow, everywhere (save on abdomen,
centrally, under tail-coverts and extreme chin) streaked with sooty
olive, the streaks small and wedge-shaped on throat, increasing in
size posteriorly on breast, sides and flanks (where nearly confluent
on buffy ground); a superciliary stripe continuous to nostril pale
buffy; a crescent-shaped mark of same shade on lower eyelid; cheeks
and auricular region finely streaked with pale buffy and color of
back. Bill dark brown above, lighter below; feet pale; iris brown.
_Young birds_ are finely barred with buffy above and have two buffy
wing-bars; underparts heavily and indistinctly streaked with dusky on
pale yellow ground. Length 6.00 (152) or over; wing 3.00 (76); tail
2.10 (53.3); bill .53 (13.5); tarsus .85 (21.7).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; plain brown above; white (or pale
yellow) heavily streaked with dusky below; a prominent buffy stripe
over eye.

Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. _Nest_: on the ground or in
roots of upturned tree; of moss and leaves, lined with fine rootlets
and tendrils. _Eggs_: 4 or 5, white or creamy white, speckled, spotted
or wreathed with reddish browns. Av. size, .80 × .60 (20.3 × 15.2).
_Season_: May 20-June 10; one brood.

General Range.—Western North America; breeding from Minnesota, western
Nebraska and the northern Rocky Mountains north to Alaska and Siberia
(East Cape); southward during migrations over Western States and
Mississippi Valley, less commonly thru Atlantic coast States, to West
Indies, Mexico, Central America and Colombia.

Range in Washington.—Conjectural—should be not uncommon migrant.

Authority.—_S. noveboracensis_, Baird, Review Am. Birds, 1865, 215
(“Camp Moogie, Washington”).

Specimens.—P (Alaskan). Prov.

While we have only one record, and that an old one, there is every reason to suppose that this species traverses our borders annually, since it breeds in the middle mountain districts of British Columbia (Rhoads), is abundant in Alaska (Nelson), and migrates southward thru the western United States (Ridgway). The Water-thrush should be looked for in May along the shaded banks of streams, but may possibly be found along more open margins, consorting with Pipits, with which it shares a restless habit of jetting, or curtseying, whimsically.

No. 81.
WESTERN YELLOW-THROAT.

A. O. U. No. 681 a. Geothlypis trichas occidentalis Brewster.

Description.—_Adult male in spring and summer_: Above grayish
olive-green, brighter (less gray) on upper tail-coverts and tail,
inclining to brownish on crown and hindneck; an obliquely descending
facial mask of black involving forehead, lores, space about eyes,
cheeks and (more narrowly) sides of neck; along the posterior margin
of this mask a narrow sharply contrasting area of clear ash or white;
chin, throat and breast rich yellow (inclining to gamboge); sides of
breast and sides heavily shaded with olive-gray and breast more or
less washed with same; lower breast and below between yellow and
palest olive-gray; under tail-coverts and bend of wing clear yellow.
_Adult male in autumn_: Occiput more decidedly brown; upperparts
clearer olive-green. _Young male in first autumn_: Mask of adult
merely indicated by black underlying sooty-brown on sides of head;
coloration of underparts duller. _Adult female in spring_: Like adult
male but without black mask and ashy edging; crown and sides of head
olive gray; forehead tinged with brown; region above and about eye
notably paler; coloration of underparts duller and paler, sometimes
clearly yellow on under tail-coverts alone. _Young female in first
autumn_: Similar to adult but underparts still duller and dingier,
breast and sides heavily washed with brownish olive. Length of adult
about 5.00 (127); wing 2.26 (57.5); tail 2.19 (55.8); bill .44 (11.3);
tarsus .83 (21).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; black mask and white fillet of male
distinctive. The female is a much more difficult bird to
recognize—perhaps best known by peculiar sordid olive-brownish-yellow
shade of underparts. The pale orbital area also assists, but one must
live with these birds to know them infallibly.

Nesting.—_Nest_: of coarse grasses lined with fine grass and
horse-hair; placed 1-2 feet high in tussock of grass or rank herbage,
usually near water; outside 4½ wide by 3½ deep, inside 2¼ by 1½.
_Eggs_: 4 or 5, dotted and spotted or, rarely, streaked with blackish
and lavender. Av. Size, .70 × .56 (17.8 × 14.2). _Season_: May 20-June
10; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States and British Columbia, except
Pacific coast district, east to western portions of the Great Plains;
breeding southward into Mexico and northern Lower California; in
winter south to Cape St. Lucas and western Mexico.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident east of the Cascade Mountains;
found chiefly in rye-grass districts and in vicinity of water.

Migrations.—_Spring_: Ahtanum (Yakima Co.) March 29, 1900.

Authorities.—Dawson, Auk, XIV. April, 1897, 179. D². Ss¹. Ss². J.

Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov.

Coarse grass, stunted bushes, water, and sunshine seem to be the chief requirements of this very individual bird. To obtain the first-named, especially if represented by his favorite rye-grass, he will forsake water within reasonable limits; but his preference is for a grassy swamp clotted with bushes, and he does not overlook any considerable area of cat-tails and tulés. Yellow-throat is a restless, active little body, and he is among the first to come forward when you enter the swamp. His method is hide-and-seek and the game would all be his, if he did not reveal his presence from time to time by a harsh accusing note, a sort of Polish, consonantal explosion, _wzschthub_,—a sound not unlike that made by a guitar string when struck above the stop. If you attempt to follow the bird, the game ends in disappointment. But if the observer pauses, curiosity gets the better of the bird, and he is soon seen peering out from a neighboring bush, roguery only half hidden by his highwayman’s mask.

The female, having no mask, keeps to the background, but she is not less interested than her mate in the progress of events. When the scout returns to report, there is often a curious outbreak of discussion, in which the husband, as like as not, finds it necessary to defend his opinion with a perfect torrent of _wzschthubs_.

Yellow-throat’s song is one of the few explicit things in the swamp. Mounting a weed-stalk, he rubs out, _Witchity, witchity, witchity_, or “_I beseech you, I beseech you, I beseech_.” Rhythm is the chief characteristic of this song, and altho a given bird appears to be confined to a single type, the variety of “feet” offered by a swamp is most entertaining. _Reésiwitte, reésiwitte, rit’_, was the cadence of a Douglas County bird; while _chitooreet’, chitooreet’, chitooreet’, chu_, heard at Chelan, reminded me of the Kentucky Warbler (_Oporornis formosa_). The bird has also an ecstacy song, “a confused stuttering jumble of notes” poured out in hot haste in mid-air.

Like an echo from “the different world” came the song of a bird at Brook Lake. We had just been listening to the unwonted notes of a Desert Sparrow (_Amphispiza bilineata deserticola_) some hundreds of miles out of its usual range, and were not unprepared for shocks, when _Hoo hee, chink i woo chu tip_ fell upon the ear. What! a Slate-colored Sparrow here in the sage brush! Or is it, maybe, a Vesper, grown precise? Again and again came the measured accents, clear, strong, and sweet. Not till I had seen the mandibles of a Western Yellow-throat, and that repeatedly, moving in perfect rhythm to the music, could I believe so small a bird the author of this song. For fifteen minutes the Warbler brought forth this alien strain, _Hee-o chiti wo, chu tip_ or _Hee oo chitiwew chu tipew_ without once lapsing into ordinary dialect. Wherever did he get it?

My nests have nearly all been found in June and, I guess, they may have contained second sets, for the bird sometimes reaches Yakima County as early as March 29th. One was sunk in a tussock of grass within eight inches of the swamp water, and I nearly stepped on the female before she flew. Another was lashed at a height of two feet to a group of rank weeds, some forty feet removed from a lazy brook. A third, shown in the illustration, we found while dragging over a dense patch of rye-grass, some three hundred yards from water. The nest was composed entirely of the flattened and macerated leaves of old rye-grass gleaned from the ground, with a scanty lining of horse-hair. It was simply set, or wedged, in between the stiff, upgrowing stalks of grass at the height of a foot, and was not attached in any manner to its supports. The male bird, strange to say, was covering the eggs, of which two belonged to that contemptible shirk, the Cowbird.

No. 82.
THE PACIFIC YELLOW-THROAT.

A. O. U. No. 681 c. Geothlypis trichas arizela Oberholser.

Synonym.—Puget Sound Yellow-throat.

Description.—_Adults_: Very similar to _G. t. occidentalis_ and with
corresponding changes but throat, etc., rich lemon yellow (inclining
to greenish, whereas _occidentalis_ inclines to orange); more yellow
in grayish olive green of upperparts; ashy border of mask said to
average more narrow (very doubtful). Alleged differences in
measurements are inconsequential.

Recognition Marks.—As in preceding.

Nesting.—Much as in preceding form but birds more nearly confined to
vicinity of water. _Eggs_: 4. Av. size, .76 × .53 (19.3 × 13.5).
_Season_: first week in May, first week in June; two broods.

General Range.—“Pacific coast district, from British Columbia
southward; breeding southward to Los Angeles County, California, and
eastward to Fort Klamath, Oregon; during migration to Cape St. Lucas”
(Ridgw.).

Range in Washington.—Summer resident in fresh and salt water marshes
west of the Cascades.

Migrations.—_Spring_: Tacoma, April 12, 1905, April 6, 1906.

Authorities.—? Audubon, Orn. Biog. V. 1839, 463, part (Columbia
River). _Geothlypis trichas_, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX, 1858,
241, part. (T). C&S. L². Ra. B. E.

Specimens. Prov. B. E.

In our younger days some of us were taught to be seen and not heard. Among the Yellow-throats the children are taught the opposite. A bird that can call “Witch-et-y! Witch-et-y! Witch-et-y!” in a dozen different places thru the swale and in the meantime can keep out of sight while you are looking for him, is a well brought-up Yellow-throat. We were taught to tell the truth, but deceit is drilled into the Yellow-throat children from the time they leave the egg. A human mother insists upon your looking at her children, but at the approach of a visitor the Yellow-throat mother sneaks off the nest and away thru the bushes for the sole purpose of persuading you the home is in the reeds on the other side of the creek. This may be wrong according to our teaching, but it is perfectly right according to the Yellow-throat’s code of morals.

If you want to see Yellow-throat, you must go down along the swale or visit some damp thicket or swamp. He likes the rushes and the reeds where the Red-winged Blackbird and the Tule Wren live. I once found a Red-wing’s nest and a Yellow-throat’s home within a few feet of each other. If you want to see this ground warbler, go to his haunt. He will see you first but lie down quietly among the bushes. He will likely get curious and hop up out of the reeds. You may get just one good look before he darts away into the bushes again.

The male Yellow-throat always wears plain marks of recognition on his face. He has a black mask extending across his forehead and back on the sides of his head. The female goes without a mask and is clothed in subdued tints of yellow and brown.

When the Yellow-throat seeks a home, he finds a thick tussock of grass and hides his nest well in the middle. It is my experience that when you want to find his home, it is better not to look for it. If you keep on tramping thru the swamps and swales, some day you will stumble on one when you least expect it. Once I hunted for several days about a swampy place where I heard the Yellow-throats singing. Not a sign of a nest did I find. Whenever I appeared the birds were on hand as if very anxious to aid me in finding their home. After tiring me with their deceit, they sneaked away fifty yards to the nest. A little later in the season I happened to see the father carrying worms and discovered the young Yellow-throats just about to leave home. William L. Finley.

No. 83.
WESTERN CHAT.

A. O. U. No. 683 a. Icteria virens longicauda (Lawrence).

Synonym.—Long-tailed Chat.

Description.—_Adult male_: Above grayish olive-green; fuscous on
exposed inner webs of wings and tail; a prominent line above lores and
eye, a short malar stripe, and eye-ring, white; enclosed space black
on lores, less pure behind; throat, breast, lining of wings, and upper
sides rich gamboge yellow; lower belly and crissum abruptly white;
sides washed with brownish; bill black; feet plumbeous. _Adult
female_: Very similar; bill lighter; lores and cheek-patch dusky
rather than black; black appreciably lighter. _Young_: Dull olive
above; head markings of adult faintly indicated; below grayish white,
darker on breast, buffier behind. Length 6.75-7.50 (171.5-190.5); wing
3.07 (78); tail 3.01-3.39 (76.5-86); bill .57 (14.5); tarsus 1.04
(26.5).

Recognition Marks.—Strictly “Sparrow” size, but because of bright
color having nearer the size value of Chewink;—the largest of the
Warblers. Bright yellow breast with contrasting white below, with
size, distinctive.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a bulky and often careless structure, 7 inches wide
and 4 inches deep outside, 3 inches wide and 1½ deep inside; of coarse
grasses and weed-stems, lined with finer grasses or rootlets, placed
in upright fork of bush or small tree in thicket. _Eggs_: 4, white,
somewhat glossed and marked irregularly with spots and dots of
lavender and rufous, most heavily, or not, about larger end. Av. size,
.89 × .68 (22.6 × 17.3). _Season_: first week in June; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States from near eastern border of Great
Plains west to the Pacific Coast, breeding north into south-central
British Columbia southward to valley of Mexico; in migration south in
winter to Mexico

Range in Washington.—Summer resident in thickets about springs and
streams of eastern Washington; does not deeply invade mountains; rare
or casual west of Cascades (Tacoma, June 4, 1905, by J. H. Bowles;
Sumas, B. C., May 26, 1897, by Allan Brooks).

Migrations.—_Spring_: May 18, 1900 (Yakima county).

Authorities.—_? Icteria viridis_ (Bonap.), Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat.
Sci., Phila., VII., 1839, 153 (N. W. United States) _Auct._ Cooper and
Suckley, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. p. 288 (“Towns. and Nuttall. Seen at
Walla-Walla, Washington Territory”). Dawson, Auk, XIV., 1897, p. 179.
(T). D¹. D². Ss¹. Ss². B.

Specimens.—(U. of W.) P¹. Prov. B.

Structurally allied to the Wood Warblers, the Chat has yet such a temperamental affinity with the Catbird, that it is difficult, for me, at least, to dissociate the two birds in thought. Both love the thickets; both excel in song; both plague their neighbors by mimicry; and both alike are dearly provoking bundles of contradictions. The Chat is, perhaps, the greater buffoon, as he is certainly the more handsomely dressed of the two. Beyond this we must consider him on his own merits.