316 BULLETIN 2 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Enough remains to b-e learned about this most interesting race to 

 keep students busy. The highly attractive type of habitat, the marked 

 isolation of nesting pairs even in a restricted range, the active char- 

 acter and handsome appearance of the bird itself, all these combine to 

 render Wayne's warbler distinctive and appealing. 



DENDROICA CHRYSOPARIA Sclater and Salvin 

 GOLDEN-CHEEKED WARBLER 



HABITS 



This elegant warbler is confined in the breeding season to a very 

 narrow range in south-central Texas, the timbered parts of the "Ed- 

 wards Plateau" region. It has been reported as breeding in Bandera, 

 Bexar, Comal, Concho, Kendall, Kerr, and Tom Green Counties, and 

 rarely north to Bosque and McLennan Counties. It winters in the 

 highlands of southern jMexico and Guatemala. 



The golden-cheeked warbler was entirely unknow^n to early Ameri- 

 can ornithologists. William Brewster (1879) gives the following 

 brief account of its early history : "The original specimens were pro- 

 cured by Mr. Salvin in Vera Paz, Guatemala. Since that time, with 

 the exception of a male obtained by Mr. Dresser, near San Antonio, 

 Texas, about 1864, no additional ones have apparently been taken. 

 The specimen mentioned by Mr. Purdie was taken by George H. 

 Ragsdale in Bosque County, Texas, April, 1878." The bird is now 

 well known in the limited region outlined above, and many specimens 

 of the birds, their nests, and their eggs have found their way into 

 collections. 



The first comprehensive account of its habits was given to Dr. 

 Chapman (1907) by H. P. Attwater, of San Antonio, Tex. He says 

 of its summer haunts in the counties named above : 



The Goldencbeek is not a bird of the forest, being seldom met with in the tall 

 timbered areas in the wilder valleys along the rivers, or in the tall trees which 

 fringe the streams in the canons ; but its favorite havmts are among the smaller 

 growth of trees, on the rough wooded hillsides, and which covers the slopes and 

 "points" leading up from the caiions, and the boulder strewn ridges or "divides" 

 which separate the heads of the creeks. The trees which compose this gi-ovpth 

 consist chiefly of mountain cedar (juniper), Spanish or mountain oak, black oak, 

 and live oak on the higher ground, and live oak and Spanish oak clumps or 

 thickets on the lower flats among the foothills, interspersed in some localities 

 with dwarf walnut, pecan and hackberry. All these trees grow on an average 

 from 10 to 20 feet high, the cedar often forming almost impenetrable "brakes". 

 Whatever space remains among the oaks and cedars is generally covered with 

 shin oak brush, which is a characteristic feature of the region. The cedar or 

 juniper appears to possess some peculiar attraction for this bird for they are 

 seldom found at any great distance from cedar localities, and they seem to divide 

 the greater part of their time between the cedars and Spanish oaks, searching for 

 insects, with occasional visits to other oaks, walnuts, etc., but seldom descend- 



