322 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



searching for insects, and were frequently seen hanging from the 

 twigs like Titmice. Their note was uttered at distant intervals, and 

 resembled very much that of the Black-throated Blue Warbler, 

 Sylvia canadensis.'''' 



In northwestern Washington the hermit warbler is not common 

 and is decidedly local in its summer haunts, being regularly found 

 in certain favored regions and entirely absent in other somewhat 

 similar localities. It is partial to a certain type of coniferous forest, 

 and when one learns to recognize the proper environment he is quite 

 likely to find it. D. E. Drown and S. F. Rathbun showed me some 

 typical haunts of this warbler near Tacoma, where J. H. Bowles has 

 found it nesting. This is level land covered with a more or less open 

 growth of firs and cedars, the largest trees, giant Douglas firs, are 

 somewhat scattered and tower above the rest of the forest, some reach- 

 ing a height of 200 feet or more. As the warblers spend most of their 

 time in the tops of these great trees and are very active, it is difficult 

 to identify them even with a good glass, and still more difficult to 

 follow them to their nests. 



Chester Barlow (1901) says that in the central Sierra Nevada, in 

 California, "the hermit warbler is pre-eminently a frequenter of the 

 conifers, although it feeds in the bushes and black oaks in common 

 with other species." In the Yosemite region, according to Grinnell 

 and Storer (1924), "the Hermit Warbler is a bird of the coniferous 

 forests at middle altitudes. Pines and firs afford it suitable forage 

 range and safe nesting sites. The birds keep fairly well up in the 

 trees, most often at 20 to 50 feet from the ground. The Hermit may 

 thus be found in close association with the Audubon Warbler, although 

 the latter ranges to a much greater altitude in the mountains." 



Spring. — Dr. Chapman (1907), outlining the migration of the her- 

 mit warbler, says that it "enters the United States in April being re- 

 ported from Oracle, Arizona, April 12, 1899, and the Huachuca 

 Mountains, Arizona, April 9, 1902. Records of the earliest birds seen 

 in California are Campo, April 27, 1877, and Julian, April 25, 1884. 

 A Hermit Warbler was noted at Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, 

 April 20, 1885." Swarth (1904) says that the first arrivals in the 

 Huachucas "appeared in the very highest parts of the mountains, 

 but a little later they could be found in all parts of the range, and 

 on April 17, 1902, I saw a few in some willows near the San Pedro 

 River." Mrs. Amelia S. Allen's notes from the San Francisco Bay 

 region, give dates of arrival from April 24 to May 10. In north- 

 western Washington, according to Bowles (1906), "the hermits make 

 their first appearance early in May and the fact is only to be known 

 thru their notes; for they frequent the tops of the giant firs which 

 cover large sections of our flat prairie country." 



