GOLDEN-CHEEKED WARBLER 317 



ing as low as the shin oak brush, which averages four to five feet. It is quite 

 probable that future observations will show, that some favorite insect food 

 which comprises a portion of their "bill of fare," is found among the cedar 

 foliage. 



Spnnff. — The golden-cheeked warblers arrive in central Texas about 

 the middle of March, sometimes a little earlier or later. The adult 

 males precede the young males and females by about 5 days. Mr. Att- 

 water (Chapman, 1907) says: "The song of the male is the first unmis- 

 takable notification of its arrival and within a few days it is quite com- 

 mon and the females are also observed. In the localities described the 

 Golden-cheeked Warbler is by no means a rare bird, and it is by far 

 the most abundant of the few Warblers, which breed in the same 

 region." 



Nesti?ig.—W. H. Werner was apparently the first to find the nest of 

 the golden-cheeked warbler, in Comal County, Tex., in 1878, about 

 which he wrote to Mr. Brewster (1879) : "The four nests that I have 

 found were similar in construction, and were built in forks of perpen- 

 dicular limbs of the Juniperus virginiana^ from ten to eighteen feet 

 from the ground. The outside is composed of the inner bark of the 

 above-mentioned tree, interspersed with spider-webs, well fastened to 

 the limb, and in color resembling the bark of the tree on which it is 

 built, so that from a little distance it is difficult to detect the nest." 

 Two of these nests were examined by Mr. Brewster both so much alike 

 that the following description of one will suffice : 



It is placed in a nearly upright fork of a red cedar, between two stout branches 

 to which it is firmly attached. Although a large, deep structure, it by no means 

 belongs to either the bulky, or loosely woven class of bird domiciles, but is, on 

 the contrary, very closely and compactly felted. In general character and 

 appearance it closely resembles the average nest of the Black-throated Green 

 Warbler {Dendroica virens). It is, however, of nearly double the size, in fact, 

 larger than any Wood Warbler's nest (excepting perhaps that of D. coronata) 

 with which I am acquainted. It measures as follows : external diameter, 3.50 ; 

 external depth, 3.45 ; internal diameter, l.GO ; internal depth, 2.00. The exterior 

 is mainly composed of strips of cedar bark, with a slight admixture of fine grass- 

 stems, rootlets, and hemp-like fibres, the whole being kept in place by an occa- 

 sional wrapping of spider-webs. The interior is beautifully lined with the hair 

 of different quadrupeds and numerous feathers; among the latter, several 

 conspicuous scarlet ones from the Cardinal Grosbeak. The outer surface of the 

 whole presents a grayish, inconspicuous appearance, and from the nature of the 

 component materials is well calculated to escape observation. Indeed, it must 

 depend for concealment upon this protective coloring, as it is in no way shel- 

 tered by any surrounding foliage. 



Attwater (Chapman, 1907) says: 



Of over fifty nests of this bird which I have examined, most of them were 

 securely placed in perpendicular forks of the main limbs of cedar trees, about 

 two-thirds up in the tree; average fifteen feet from the ground. My higliest 

 record is twenty-one feet, and lowest six feet. I have also found them in similar 



