1 88 



THE BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER. 



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 pro- 

 tective coloration. This plain-colored bird does not, therefore, shun the green- 

 ery 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 f<ir 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 (juitc un])retentious, as Mrs. 

 Bailey says,^ "a simple warbler lay, ccc-cc-^^cc-cc. sc, cc. .zc. with tlie quiet 



woodsy quality of I'irciis and cw- 

 rulescens, 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 

 resiiunding at the same time to the 

 notes of the Hermit, Townsend, 

 Audubon, Lutescent, and Tolmie 

 Warl)lers. Occasionallv even this 



fails 



An earlv song which came 



Taken nctir Blaine. Photo (.retouched) by the .-luthor 



"UPO.X THE ON'ERH.ANGING LUIB OF .•W 



.\PPLE TREE." 



from a young male feeding pa- 

 tiently among the catkins of some 

 tall, fresh-budding alders, had some 

 of the airy c|ualities of the King- 

 let's notes, "Deo dcopli, dit dii dii. dco dco pli. dco dco pli. dco dco pit' — a 

 mere fairy sibilation too fine for mortal ears to analyze. Another said boldly, 

 "Heo flidgity; hco flidgity," and "Hco Hidgity. cliu weo." 



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 wood- 

 land 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 ha\'e 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 over- 

 hanging limb of an apple tree. 



a. Handbook of Birds of W. U. S., p. 419. 



