HERMIT WARBLER 327 



or less yellowish and the back is more olivaceous. The two white 

 wing bars are also common to several other species. Its song is said 

 to be distinctive. 



Fall. — The fall migration of the hermit warbler begins early. 

 Bowles (1906) says that, in Washington, "about the middle of July 

 both young and old assemble in good-sized flocks and frequent the 

 water holes in the smaller growths of timber. At such times I have 

 never seen them associating with any other kinds of birds." W. W. 

 Price wrote to Mr. Barlow (1901) of the migration in the Sierra 

 Nevada : 



The adults are very rare during June and July in the neighborhood of my 

 camp at Silver Creek, but late in July and early in August a migration of the 

 young birds of the year takes place and the species is very abundant every- 

 vphere in the tamaracks from about 6000 to 8000 feet. A hundred or more may 

 be counted in an hour's walk at my camp, 7000 feet, on Silver Creek, They 

 are very silent, uttering now and then a 'cheep,' and always busy searching among 

 the leaves and cones for insects. Among some fifty collected in the first week 

 in August, 1896, there were only two or three adults. The young males have 

 the most coloring, but they in no way approach adult plumage. These great 

 flights of the hermit warbler are intermingled with other species, Hammond 

 flycatcher, Calaveras and lutescent warblers, Cassin vireo, and sometimes 

 Louisiana tanagers and red-brested nuthatches. Each year the flight has been 

 noted, it comes without warning of storm or wind, and after a few days dis- 

 appears to be seen no more. 



In the Huachuca Mountains of Arizona, according to Swarth 

 (1904), "they reappeared in August, but at this time were seen only 

 in the pines above 8500 feet. It is rather singular, and in contradic- 

 tion to the idea that in the migrations the old birds go first in order 

 to show the way, that the first secured in the fall was a young female, 

 taken August Tth. The young birds then became very abundant, and 

 on August 14th the first adult female was taken ; and not until August 

 19th was an adult male seen. The adults then became nearly as 

 abundant as the juveniles, and both together were more numerous 

 than I have ever seen them in the spring, on several occasions as many 

 as fifteen to twenty being seen in one flock." 



Winter. — Dr. Skutch writes to me : "The hermit warbler is a moder- 

 ately abundant winter resident in the Guatemalan highlands, found 

 chiefly between 5,000 and 10,000 feet above sea level, but ranging 

 downward to about 3,500 feet on the Pacific slope and possibly some- 

 what lower on the Caribbean slope, where pine forests push down 

 into the upper levels of the Tropical Zone. These treetop birds are 

 usually found in the mixed flocks of small birds, of which Townsend's 

 warblers form the predominant element. During the early part of 

 their sojourn in Guatemala, I sometimes saw two, three, or more 

 hermits in the same flock ; but in February and March, there was as 



