HERMIT WARBLER 323 



Nesting. — The first undoubted nests of the hermit warbler were 

 found by C. A. Allen in Blue Canon, California, two in 1886 and one 

 about eight years previously, about which he wrote to "William "Brew- 

 ster (1887) : "All three nests were similarly placed; — in 'pitch pines,' 

 from twenty-five to forty feet above the ground, on thick, scraggy 

 limbs, where they were so well concealed that it would have been 

 impossible to find them except by watching the birds, as was done in 

 each instance." One of these nests held two eggs on June 4, but they 

 were destroyed before they could be collected; the other two nests 

 contained three young each. One of the nests with three young was 

 sent to Brewster, who writes : 



The nest with young, taken June 7, 1886, is now before me. It is composed 

 of the fibrous stalks of herbaceous plants, fine dead twigs, lichens {Eveniia 

 vulpina), and a little cotton twine, and is lined with soft inner bark of some 

 coniferous tree and fine long hairs, apparently from the tail of a squirrel. The 

 bright, yellow Evernia, sprinkled rather plentifully about the rim, gives a touch 

 of color to the othei*wise cold, gray tone of the exterior and contrasts agreeably 

 with the warm, reddish-brown lining. Although the materials are coarse and 

 wadded, rather than woven, together, the general effect of this nest is neat and 

 tasteful. It does not resemble any other Warbler's nest that I have seen, but 

 rather recalls the nest of some Fringilline bird, being perhaps most like that of 

 the Lark Finch. It measures externally 4.50 inches in width by 2 inches in 

 depth. The cavity is 1.25 inches deep by 2.50 inches wide at the top. The walls 

 at the rim average nearly an inch in thickness. 



Chester Barlow (1901), who has had considerable experience with 

 the nesting of the hermit warbler in the central Sierra Nevada, refers 

 to the records up to that time as follows : 



On .June 10, 1896, Mr. R. H. Beck collected a nest and four eggs from a limb 

 of a yellow pine 40 feet up, near the American River at 3,500 feet altitude. 

 The nest was reached by means of a ladder carried a long distance up the moun- 

 tain. (See Nidologist, IV, p. 79). On June 14, 1898, I had the good fortune to 

 discover a nest opposite the station at Fyffe, it being built at the end of a small 

 limb of a yellow pine 45 feet up. The nest was located by searching at random 

 and contained four eggs about one-fourth incubated. This nest was described 

 at length in The Ank (XVI, pp. 156-161.) * * * While walking through the 

 timber at Fyflfe on June 8, 1899, Mr. H. W. Carriger came upon a nest of this 

 species but 2% feet up in a cedar sapling. It contained four eggs, advanced in 

 incubation. (See CONDOR I, pp. 59-60). A nest containing young about four 

 days old found by Mr. Price's assistant at FyfEe on June 11, 1897, was placed 

 twelve feet up near the top of a small cedar, next to the trunk and well con- 

 cealed. Thus it is probable that Fyflfe has afforded more nesting records of this 

 species than has any other part of the state. 



Of the nest described in The Auk, Barlow (1899) says: 



The nest was 45 feet from the ground in a yellow pine, built four feet from 

 the trunk of the tree on an upcurved limb 18 inches from the end. * * * The 

 nest is not fastened to the limb, resting merely upon the limb and pine needles and 

 is wider at the bottom than at the top, its base measuring four inches one way 

 and three inches the other. It is very prettily constructed, the bottom layer 



