318 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



positions in small black oak, mountain oak, walnut and pecan trees. * * • 

 The favorite nesting haunts are isolated patches or clumps of scrubby cedars, 

 with scant foliage, on the summits of the scarped canon slopes, and in the 

 thick cedar "brakes." In cedar the older growth of trees is always selected, and 

 no attempt at concealment is made. I have never found a nest in a young 

 thrifty cedar with thick foliage. 



The male is always to be heard singing in the vicinity of the nest, and the 

 old nesting localities, and occasionally the same tree is selected apparently and 

 returned to one year after another. 



Nearly all the nests reported by others were in cedars and were 

 similar in construction to those described. There are five nests of 

 the golden-cheeked warbler in the Thayer collection in Cambridge, 

 of which only one was in a cedar; two were in Spanish or mountain 

 oaks and two in live oaks ; four of these had more or less admixture 

 of lichens, mosses, bits of dry leaves, and plant down in the bases, 

 and feathers of quail, cardinal and other birds in the linings. The 

 smallest nest in the series measures externally 2i/^ inches in diameter 

 and 2 inches in height ; it is very neatly and firmly woven. 



Plumages. — Ridgway (1902) describes the juvenal plumage of the 

 golden-cheeked warbler as follows : "Pileum, hindneck, back, scapu- 

 lars, rump, and upper tail-coverts plain grayish brown or brownish 

 gray ; sides of head, chin, throat, chest, and sides pale brownish gray ; 

 rest of under part white, the breast very indistinctly streaked with 

 pale gray ; wings and tail essentially as in adults, but middle coverts 

 with a mesial wedge-shaped mark of dusky." 



Apparently there is a partial post juvenal molt early in the sum- 

 mer, which is similar to that of other wood warblers. This produces 

 the first winter plumages, in which the sexes are recognizable and 

 much like the respective adults at that season. In the young male the 

 upper parts are streaked with olive-green and black, the upper tail 

 coverts are margined with olive-green and gray, and the white tips 

 of the median wing coverts have narrow, black shaft streaks instead of 

 the dusky wedges seen in the juvenal coverts. Ridgway (1902) says 

 of the young female : "Similar to the adult female but pileum, hind- 

 neck, back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts plain olive-green, 

 or with very indistinct narrow streaks of dusky on pileum and back ; 

 throat and chest pale grayish (the feathers dusky beneath surface), 

 the former tinged with yellow anteriorly ; sides and flanks indistinctly 

 streaked w^ith dusky." 



I have seen no specimens showing a prenuptial molt, which is prob- 

 ably finished before the birds arrive in Texas. The first and subse- 

 quent nuptial plumages may be largely produced by wear, as the fall 

 and winter plumages are much like those of spring birds, but are 

 concealed by the tips and margins of the feathers. However, it would 

 be strange if there were no prenuptial molt, especially in young birds. 



