i84 THE AUDUBON WARBLER. 



in heiglit, while the Junco held a station even higher on the tip of another fir a 

 block away. Here they had it back and forth, with honors surprisingly even, 

 until both were tired, whereupon (and not till then) an Oregon Towhee ven- 

 tured to bring forth his prosy rattle. It was like Saniljo and his "bones" after 

 an opera. 



The range of .Audubon's Warbler is abuut coextensive with that of ever- 

 green timber in Washington. It does not, however, frec^nent all the more open 

 pine woods of the lower foot-hills in the eastern part of the State, nor does it 

 occur habitually in the deeper solitudes of the western forests. Considered 

 altitudinally, its range extends from sea-level to timber-line. And altho it is at 

 home in the highest mountains, it is ecjually so in the city park and in the shade 

 trees about the house. Under such varied conditions, therefore, its habits 

 must \'ary widely. 



We do not know to what extent it is resident, that is, present the year 

 around, but belie\-e that it is quite extensively so. One may be in the woods 

 for a dull week in January, and see never a Warbler ; but on a bright day in 

 the same region he may encounter numbers of them. I ha\-e seen them pla}-ing 

 about the dense firs on Semiahmoo Point ( Lat. 49° ) on Christmas Day. and I 

 feel sure tliat large numbers of them spend the winter in the tree-tops, possibly 

 moping, after the well known fashion of the Sooty Grouse. 



It is these winter residents which become active in early spring. In the 

 \Mcinity of Tacoma, where they ha\'e been studied most carefully, it is found 

 that April is the typical nesting month, and one at least of the four eggs of a 

 nest foimd April 9th, 1905, must have been deposited in March. Along about 

 the 25111 of April great numbers of Audubons arrive from the South, and one 

 may see indolent companies of them lounging thru the trees, while resident 

 birds are busy feeding young. These migrants may be destined for our own 

 mountains as well as British CoUmibia. East-side birds are likewise tardy in 

 arrival, for pine trees are inadequate shelter for wintry experiments. 



The absorbing dutv of springtime is nesting, and to this art the Audubons 

 give themselves with becoming ardor. The female does the work, while the 

 male cheers her with song, and not infrequently trails about after her, useless 

 but sympathetic. Into a certain tidy grove near Tacoma the bird-man entered 

 one crisp morning in April. The trees stood about like decorous candlesticks, 

 but the place hummed with Kinglets and clattered with Juncoes and Audubons. 

 One Audubon, a female, advertised her business to all comers. I saw her, up- 

 on the ground, wrestling with a large white chicken-feather, and sputtering ex- 

 citedly between tussles. The feather was evidently too big or too stifif or too 

 wet for her ])roper taste ; but finally she flew away across the grove with it, 

 chirping merrily. And since she repeated her precise course three times, it was 

 an easv matter to trace her some fifteen rods straight to her nest, forty feet up 

 on an ascending fir branch. 



