190 THE TOWNSEND WARBLER. 



No. 77. 

 TOWNSEND'S WARBLER. 



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



Description. — .Idnlt male: Pileum, hindneck, lores and auricnlars, chin, 

 throat and upper chest black ; supraloral region continuous with broad super- 

 ciliary, 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, scajnilars 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 

 let^s brown ; iris brown. Adult male in fall and leinter: Areas and intensity of 

 black much reduced, pileum and hindneck with much skirting of olive green 

 thru which black appears mesially on feathers; auricnlars 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: A'ery similar in coloration to 

 adult male in fall ; throat often more or less black, pileum sometimes more e.xten- 

 sively black but black streaking of upperparts still further reduced. Young birds 

 in first autumnal' phtniage 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 

 hiwh plumage ; in low ])lumage 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. — Xest: 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 

 ao-ainst trunk. Eggs: 4, white, wreathed and speckled with brownish and lilac. 

 Av. size, .61 X .51 ( 15.5 X 12.9). Season: first week in June; one brood. 



General Range. — \\'estern North America breeding from the mountains of 

 southern California north to Alaska and east to Idaho; during migrations east- 

 ward 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, Tune 5, 1899; Chelan May 25, 1905. Fall: August. JVinter records: 

 Seattle Dec. 31. 1905; Tacoma Dec. 4, 13, 15. 21 and 29, 1906. 



