:::::::::^v TWO BIRD- LOVERS IN MEXICO B::::::::: 



blance to those with which we were familiar in field 

 and meadow at home. Archij^jnis was surely here, and 

 our identical Vanessa ant'iopa. What a world of differ- 

 ence one's personal point of view makes ! A Mexican 

 in New York State would exclaim with wonder that the 

 mariijosas of Mexico had strayed to so distant a land. 



The Pileolated Warbler and the Western Gnat- 

 catcher were two small friends which we first met at 

 the edge of the barranca. They were cheerful little 

 bodies, forever busy searching leaves and twigs and 

 flowers for tiny insects. Perhaps to this unflagging 

 activity was due the fact that they seemed able to find 

 a substantial living in all sorts and conditions of places. 

 The Pileolated Warbler — so like our W^ilson Black- 

 cap, but of a brighter yellow — never became com- 

 mon, and yet in every list of birds we made, whether 

 of upland, marsh, cactus desert, harranca., or tropical 

 jungle, he was sure to have a place. He was not par- 

 ticular as to his winter home, but found everywhere 

 enough to keep his black-crowned little head busy 

 picking and picking, interpolating a sharp cJiip! now 

 and then, between mouth fuls. 



But his co-sojourner, the Western Gnatcatcher, four 

 inches or so of bluish gray and white energy, w^as 

 many times more numerous, and, if possible, even more 

 cosmopolitan. The characteristic ff/anr/.' ti/anr/f j/sss! 

 which they first twanged for us in tbe mes(piite, found 

 an echo wherever we rode or camped, from tableland 



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