SYLVICOLID^ — THE WARBLERS. 305 



The same writer noticed the first of this species at Fort Mojave, April 24, 

 He regarded tlieir habits as varying in some respects from those of the 'frkhas, 

 as they prefer dry localities, and hunt for insects not only in low bushes but 

 also in trees, like the Bcndroica:. Dr. Cooper twice describes their eggs as 

 white, which is inaccurate. He thinks that some of them winter in the 

 warmer portions of California. He regards them as shy, if watched, seeking 

 the densest thickets, but brought out again by their curiosity if a person 

 waits for them, and the birds will approach within a few feet, kee2:iing up a 

 scolding chirp. 



Tlie nests of this species obtained l)y Dr. Kennerly from Puget Sound 

 were all built on the ground, and were constructed almost exclusively of 

 beautifully delicate mosses, jieculiar to that country. They are shallow nests, 

 with a diameter of four and a height of two inches, the cavity occupying a 

 large proportion of the nest. Its walls and base are of uniform thickness, 

 averaging about one inch. The nests are lined with finer mosses and a few 

 slender stems and fibres. 



Mr. Eidgway found these Warblers breeding in great numbers, June 23, 

 1869, at Parley's Park, Utah, among the Wahsatch Mountains. One of 

 these nests (S. I., 15,238) was in a'buncli of weeds, among the underbru.sh 

 of a willow-thicket along a canon stream. It was situated about eiglit inches 

 from the ground, is cuplike in shape, two iueiies in height, three in diameter, 

 and somewhat loosely constructed of slender strips of bark, decayed stalks of 

 plants, dry grasses, intermixed with a few fine roots, and lined with finer 

 materials of the same. The cavity is one and a half inclies in depth, and two 

 in diameter at the rim. 



The eggs, four in number, are .75 of an inch in length and .50 in 

 breadth. Then- ground-color is a piukish-white, marbled and spotted with 

 purple, IQac, reddish-brown, and dark brown, approaching black. The blotches 

 of the last color vary mucli in size, in one instance having a length of .21 

 of an inch, and liaving the appearance of hieroglyphics. When these spots 

 are large, they are very simrse. 



" This species," ^Ir. Eidgway writes, " inhaluts exclusively the brush- 

 wood along the streams of the mountain canons and ravines. Among 

 the weeds in such localities numerous nests were found. In no case were 

 they on the ground, though they were always near it ; being fixed between 

 upright stalks of herbs, occasionally, perhaps, in a brier, from about one to 

 two feet above the ground. The note of the parent bird, when a nest was 

 disturbed, was a strong chip, much like that of the Cijanosjnza amccna or C. 

 cyanea." He also states that it was abundant in the East Humboldt Moun- 

 tains in August and in September, and also throughout the summer. A 

 pair of fully fledged young was caught on the 21st of July. 



39 



