220 HABITS OF Lucy's warbler 



thickets, where they were observed to frequent the tops of the 

 trees, utteriDg their curious notes during their incessant pur- 

 suit of insects. In the course of the two months during which 

 they continued under Ur. Cooper's observations, six specimens 

 were secured, but their mode of nest-building was not ascer- 

 tained. 



Two years subsequently, in March, 18G3, Mr. Holden secured 

 additional specimens near the 34th parallel ; and, in the spring 

 of 1805, Lucy's Warbler fell to my own lot. Whilst rambling 

 one pleasant April morning along the little stream that flows 

 past Fort Whipple, I heard a curious note, which reminded me 

 of that of a Gnatcatcher {Poliojytila)^ and was not long on the 

 alert before I saw one of the modest vocalists, betrayed no less 

 by the restlessness with which the bird skipped about in the 

 budding foliage than by the singularity of its voice. Xot recog- 

 nizing the species, I made the usual sacrifice without delay, 

 and was overjoyed to find, as I turned the dainty bird over and 

 over in my hand, removing every trace of blood and smoothing 

 every ruffled feather, that I had taken a species new to me ; for 

 I had not then learned of Dr. Cooper's prize, and moments of 

 discovery are always moments of pardonable enthusiasm. In 

 the course of the spring, I took a few more specimens, among 

 them the first ones, I think, of the young, which differ in some 

 particulars from the adults. These Warblers, however, did 

 not appear to be very common in the field of my observations; 

 they are rather timid and retiring birds, likely to be long over- 

 looked in the thickets and copses to which they seem so much 

 attached. They reach the vicinity of Fort Whipple, which is 

 pretty high among the mountains, about the middle of April, 

 thus much later than the time of their appearance in lower 

 portions of the Territory, and remain until the latter part of 

 September, if not longer. They certainly breed there ; for I 

 found a newly fledged brood of young, just about to disperse, 

 early in May. This family was reared in a little clump of wil- 

 low bushes along the stream, and seemed so feeble on wing that 

 I attempted to catch one of them alive ; but the little thing was 

 too quick for me, and I shot it after giving up the chase. 

 The nest was, of course, somewhere near at hand, but I failed 

 to find it. 



When penning some notes on this species, which were pub- 

 lished in 186G, I ventured to surmise that the nest would be 

 found not on the ground, but in the crotch of a bush. " Should 



