THE AUDUBON WARBLER. 183 



rootlets, etc., heavily lined with horse-hair and feathers; placed usually on branch 

 of conifer from four to fifty feet up, sometimes in small tree close against 

 trunk, measures 4 inches in width outside by 2^4 in depth; inside 2 by 154. Eggs: 

 3-5, usually 4, dull greenish white sparingly dotted with blackish or handsomely 

 ringed, spotted and blotched with reddish brown, black and lavender. Av. size, 

 .71 .X.54 (18x13.7). Season: April-June; two broods. Tacoma, April 9, 1905, 

 4 eggs half incubated. 



General Range. — Western North America, north to British Columbia, east 

 to western border of the Great Plains, breeding thruout its range ( in higher 

 coniferous forests of California, northern Arizona, etc.), wintering in lower 

 valleys and southward thruout Mexico. Accidental in Massachusetts and in 

 Penns}'lvania. 



Range in Washington. — Common resident and migrant on West-side from 

 tidewater to limit of trees ; less common migrant and rare winter resident ( ?) east 

 of the Cascades. 



Migrations. — Spring: East-side: Yakima, March 11, 1900 (probably winter 

 resident); Yakima, April 13, 1900; Chelan, April 20-24, 1896. West-side: 

 Tacoma, April 24, 1906. 



Authorities. — Sxlz'ia auduboni Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. VII. 

 1837, 191 ( "forests of the Columbia River" ). C&S. L'. Rh. D'. Kb. Ra. D-. Kk. 

 B. E. 



Specimens.— U. of W. P- Prov. B. BN. E. 



AS one considers the Thrushes, Wrens, and Sparrows of our northern 

 clime, he is apt to grumble a little at the niggardliness of Mother Nature in the 

 matter of providing party clothes. The dark mood is instantly dispelled, how- 

 ever, at the sight of this vision of loveliness. Black, white, and gray-blue 

 make a very tasty mixture in themselves, as the Black-throated Gray Warbler 

 can testify, but when to these is added the splendur of five golden garnishes, 

 crown, gorget, epaulets, and culet, }ou have a costume which Pan must notice. 

 And for all he is so bedecked, aiidiiboiii is neither proud nor vain, — ])roperly 

 modest and companionable withal. 



Westerly, at least, he is among the first voices of springtime, and by the 

 loth of March, wdiile all other Warblers are still skulking silentlv in the South- 

 land, this brave spirit is making the fir groves echo to his melody. The song is 

 brief and its theme nearl}- im'ariable, as is the case with most Warblers; but 

 there is about it a joyous, racy quality, which flicks the admiration and calls 

 time on Spring. The singer posts in a high fir tree, that all may hear, and the 

 notes pom^ out rapidlv. crowding close upi.m each other, till the whole companv 

 is lost in a cloud of spray at the end of the ditty. At close quarters, the "fill- 

 ing" is exquisite, but if one is a little way removed, where he catches only the 

 crests of the sound waves, it is natural to call the efi:'ort a trill. At a good 

 distance it is even comparable to the pure, nKinotonous tinkling of Junco. 



I once heard these two dissimilar liirds in a song contest. The W^arbler 

 stood upon a favorite perch of his, a spindling, solitary fir some hundred feet 



