196 THE HERMIT WARBLER. 



Mr. Bowles has hit upon a clever scheme for decoying the haughty Hermits. 

 He resorts to tlie 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 incjuisitive 

 pair, he noticed a peculiar trait : "After examining me closel)' 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 com- 

 menced trampling the bottimi, 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 alxiut the middle of May, and, as I subsecjuently 

 discovered, almost a month too early for licr tn lay her cggs."^ 



The nest of this species is still rare. The only one taken in \\'.'ishington 

 was found bv Mr. Bowles, June ii, 1905, in a fir tree near Taconia, and con- 

 tained five eggs, the only set of five yet recorded. The nest was placed at a 

 height of twentv feet on a horizontal limb six feet from the trunk of the tree. 

 Mr. Bowles had seen the tail nf the Ijird from Ijclow as it i)rojected over the 

 brim of the nest, and prepared himself to inspect "another of those Audu- 

 bons." W'hen, instead of the }'ellow crown-patch of an Audubon, he saw the 

 lemon-yellow head of a Hermit, the oologist 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, chipi)ing and 

 spreading her wings and tail. The male at no time ])ut 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, there- 

 fore, to guide the student in further investigations, I record a few wariant 

 song forms which I have clearly traced to the Hermit \\'arbler : Zccglc. 

 cccglc. zccglc, ncct, fuzzy and low like that of D. iiigrcscciis — this was heard 

 at Tacoma and is recognized by C. W. Bowles as being the type form of 

 southern Oreg(^n songs: dcce dzcc, tzibid-zccdzce, d::cc dccc in a sort of sing- 

 song rollick: dcudcud::ndzudccco ccco acct — first syllables very rapid, musical: 

 nasal turn to accented notes very like the "ping" note of the Creeper song, and 

 occu]")ying much the same position save that it is repeated : days, days, days. 

 da\'s .ccct — the first notes lisping, with slight accelerando, and the nasal ring- 

 ing quality reserved for tlie last. 



a. The Condor, Vol. VIII., March 1906, p. 41. 



