104 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



though nicely cupped and lined, are rather bulky affairs externally 

 for a warbler to build." Howell (1917) writes: 



The usual nesting site of the Lutescent Warbler is on the ground, but I have 

 never heard of sordida building in such a situation. On the smaller barren 

 islands, such as the Coronados and Todos Santos (where it is common), they 

 build in a bush or tangle of vines, a foot or so above the ground, and the nest 

 is always mainly constructed of gray moss, where this is to be had, lined with 

 a little fine grass. On the larger islands, where there are good-sized trees, the 

 site chosen may be a thicket of vines several feet above the bed of a stream, a 

 small shrub, say four feet up, or perhaps an oak as much as fifteen feet above the 

 ground. In such case the nest is quite substantially made of leaves, twigs, bark, 

 rootlets, and often a little sheep wool. Three or four eggs constitute a set, 

 and at least two broods of young are raised each year. 



A most unusual nesting site for a dusky warbler is described by 

 Clinton G. Abbott (1926) . It was— 



a decorative fern basket inside a small lath house adjoining the home of 

 Mrs. A. P. Johnson, Jr., at 2470 C Street, San Diego. * * * Her house is 

 in one of the older residential sections of the city, known as Golden Hill. The 

 homes here are large and surrounded by more or less extensive grounds, but 

 the whole aspect is distinctly urban, with streets everywhere paved. Broadway, 

 with double trolley tracks, is only one block away. The lath house, sixteen by 

 twenty-four feet in size, was filled with a luxuriant growth of cultivated plants. 

 A rectangular path within was marked at its corners by four wire fern baskets 

 suspended about four feet from the ground. In one of these were the remains of 

 the two previous years' nests, and in the basket diagonally opposite was the 

 inhabited nest, which contained three eggs. Although the eggs were manifestly 

 not fresh, there was no bird about and they seemed cool to my touch. I waited 

 about for fully ten minutes and was beginning to fear that disaster had over- 

 taken the home, when I heard a low, scolding note overhead. Then down from 

 between the slats hopped the dainty little warbler, and, with no concern whatso- 

 ever, she took her place upon the eggs, although I was standing in full view 

 close by. [The nest was] cosily placed in the moss at the base of the ferns. 



We soon discovered that not only was the bird practically fearless in the 

 ordinary sense, but that she would even allow us to touch her without leaving 

 her nest. She would permit us to raise her from her eggs with no greater pro- 

 test than a pecking at the intruding finger. If she was not sitting sufficiently 

 broadside for a good photograph, it was possible to arrange her the way we 

 wanted her ! Sometimes, if our familiarity was beyond her patience, she would 

 merely hop among the foliage behind the nest, wait there for a few minutes, and 

 then nestle back on her eggs. 



Eggs. — Three eggs seem to constitute the average set for the dusky 

 warbler, with occasionally only two or as many as four. Mr. Rowley 

 tells me that, out of at least two dozen nests examined, he found only 

 two sets of four ; one nest had only one newly hatched young, and two 

 or three nests held two well-incubated eggs. The eggs are apparently 

 indistinguishable from those of the mainland races. The measure- 

 ments of 27 eggs average 17.0 by 13.2 millimeters ; the eggs showing 

 the four extremes measure 18.5 by 13.5, 17.6 by 14.0, and 16.0 by 12.7 

 millimeters. 



