198 THE TOLMIE WARBLER. 



ll matters nut wliether it be a hillside in King Count}-, a lonesome spring draw 

 in the hills of Klickitat, or the borders of a swamp in Okanogan, if only there 

 be cover and plenty of it. No inore persistent skulker haunts the shrujjbery 

 than this war}-, suspicious, active, and very competent Wood W^arbler. Yet 

 even he, when he thinks no one is looking, emerges fr(jm his shrubljery depths, 

 selects a topmost twig and Ijreaks out in song, — a song which is neither 

 diffident nor uncertain. Sheep sheep shee[^ shear shear sheep, he announces 

 in a brisk, business-like tone, totalh' de\'oid of musical (|ualit\'. And when _\ou 

 have heard him once, or, say, a hundred times, you have learned all that may be 

 known of the Tolmie \Varbler — out of cover. Those who know the Dickcissel 

 of the middle West will at once be struck with the close similarity of its song, 

 altho it must be admitted that the Warbler's is lighter in quality and less 

 wooden. Practically, the only variety is in the number of syllables and in the 

 number and distribution of the r's ; thus. Sheep, sheep, shear, shear, slieep; 

 Sheep, sheep, shear, shear, sheep, sheep; and, a shade more emphatic, Jiek, 

 jick. jiek, pick, shear, sheep. 



For all we see so little of the Tolmie Warbler, the converse is by no 

 means true. That is to say, the bird does see a great deal of us if we frequent 

 the thickets. Whenever there is anything doing in his vicinity, the W'arbler 

 promptly and silently threads the intervening mazes, takes observations of the 

 disturber from every angle, and retires with, at most, a disapproving ehiiek. 

 In the fall of the year discipline is somewhat relaxed, and a little judicious 

 screeping in the shrubbery will call up platoons of these inquisiti\-e W^arblers. 



Owing partly to the caution of the sitting female, and more to the density 

 of its cover, the nest of the Tolmie Warbler is not often found. When ap- 

 proached the bird glides away silently from her nest, and begins feeding osten- 

 tatiously in the neighboring bushes. This of itself is enough to arouse suspi- 

 cion in an instructed mind, for the exhibition is plainly gratuitous. But the 

 brush keeps the secret well, or, if it is forced, we find a bulky, loose-built affair 

 of coarse dead grasses and rootlets, lined with black rootlets or horse-hair, 

 and placed either in an upright fork of a bush, or built around the ascending 

 stems of rank herbage at a few inches or at most two or three feet from the 

 ground. Eggs, usuallv four in number, are deposited about the first week in 

 June, and Tolmie babies swarm in July and August, quite beyond the expecta- 

 tion of our oological fore season. 



A word of explanation regarding the change of name from Macgillivray 

 to Tohnie is in order. Townsend discovered the bird and really published it 

 first, saying,* "I dedicate the species to my friend, W. T. Tolmie, Esq. of Fort 

 Vancouver." Audubon, being entrusted with Townsend's specimens, but dis- 

 regarding the owner's prior rights, published the bird independently, and tardi- 



"Narrative," April 1839, p. 343. 



