THE CALAVERAS WARBLER. 177 



you are seized, as like as not, witli a sense of low birth, and feel like retiring 

 in confusion lest \-ou offend royalty. 



These gentle despots are bound for the mountains : and since their 

 realms are not prepared for them till June, they have ample leisure to discuss 

 the fare of wayside stations. They enter the State from the South during 

 the last week in April — Wallula, April 23d, is my earliest record; but May 

 2 1st records an unanxious company at the foot of Lake Chelan. As the 

 season advances they take up cjuarters on brushy mountain sides, or in the 

 deciduous skirts of fierce mountain torrents. Here while the female skurries 

 about thru the l)uck-l;)rusli or vine-maple thickets in search of a suitable 

 nesting site, the male mounts a fir tree and occupies himself with song. 



I f you are spying on this sacred function, the bird first peers down at 

 you uneasily, then throws his head back and sings with great animation : 

 CJioopy, clioopy, clioopy cliiirr (tr). The trill is composed of a dozen or 

 so of large notes which the ear can easily distinguish, but which because of 

 the vivacious utterance one cannot quite count. The pitch of the finale is 

 sustained, but there is a slight decrease in volume. If forced to descend, 

 the singer will join his mate in shar]) chips of protest, somewhat similar to 

 those of the Audubon ^^'arbler, althn not quite so clear-cut or inflexible. 



While the Calaveras Warliler is a bird of the mountains and lives at 

 an_\- height where suitable cover is afforded, it is a curious fact that it some- 

 times prefers the tim]:)ercd lowlands of Puget Sound, and may be found in 

 some seasons in considerable numbers about the southern prairies. Mr. 

 Bowles has found them commonly in scrub-oak patches which border the 

 fir gro\-es and timbered lakes: and yet during some }'ears they have been 

 unaccountably absent fmm the entire region. 



Near Tacoma this Warbler places its nest at the base of a young oak 

 or fir tree, where the spreading branches have protected the grass and gath- 

 ered weeds. The nest is sunk well into the ground or moss, and is so well 

 concealed as to defy discovery unless the bird is flushed. When frightened 

 from the nest the female instantly disappears, and return.s only after some 

 considerable interval. Then she approaches with the greatest caution, ready 

 to dart away again upon the first sign of movement on the ]iart of the in- 

 truder. The male, if he happens to be about at all, neither joins the defense 

 nor consoles his mate in misfortune, but sets upon her furiously and drives 

 her from bush to bush, as tho she had wilfully deserted their treasures. 



At sea-level two sets of eggs are laid in a season, one fresh about May 

 18th, the other about June 25th. In the mountains, however, the second 

 nesting, if indulged in at all, is thrown very late. I took a set of three fresh 

 eggs from a carelessly constructed nest placed in the top of an elk-weed 

 (BcJiiiiopanax horridum) at a height of three feet, on the 22d dav of 

 July, 1900. 



