100 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



after a period of cold or fog. Occasionally the bird was found in patches of 

 Sitka valerian ; at other times in the lower branches of alpine firs. His summer 

 foraging seems for the most part to be done within 10 feet of the ground, though 

 in the fall, when migrating, he apparently takes to the tree tops. 



Nesting.— On May 7, 1911, Samuel F. Kathbun took us over to 

 Mercer Island in Lake Washington. At that time, this interesting 

 island was heavily forested in some places with a virgin growth of 

 tall firs, in which we saw the sooty grouse and heard it hooting, later 

 finding its nest in an open clearing. Wliile walking through another 

 open space among some scattered groups of small fir trees, Mr. Beck 

 flushed a lutescent warbler from her nest in a hummock covered with 

 the tangled fronds of dead brakes {Pteridiv/m aquilinum). The nest 

 ■vn as so well concealed in the mass of dead ferns that we had difficulty in 

 finding it. It was made of dead grasses and leaves, deeply imbedded 

 in the moss of the hummock, and was lined with finer grasses and 

 hairs. It held four fresh eggs. Tliree days later, Dr. Wetmore took 

 a set of five fresh eggs at Kedmond. This nest was located beside a 

 woodland path at the edge of a swamp; it was well hidden on the 

 ground, under a stick that was leaning against a log. It was made of 

 similar materials and was lined with white horsehair. 



Mr. Rathbun mentions three nests (MS.) , found in that same vicin- 

 ity ; one was well hidden under some fallen dead brakes ; and the other 

 two were beautifully concealed in the centers of small huckleberry 

 bushes. 



William L. Finley (1904b) records six Oregon nests. The first 

 "was tucked up under some dry ferns in the bank of a little hollow 

 where a tree had been uprooted. * * * The second nest was on a 

 hillside under a fir tree, placed on the ground in a tangle of grass and 

 briar." Another was "in a sloping bank just beside a woodland path. 

 A fourth nest was tucked under the overhanging grasses and leaves in 

 an old railroad cut." He found two nests in bushes above ground. 

 He saw a female carrying "food into the thick foliage of an arrow- 

 wood bush. A cluster of twigs often sprouts out near the upper end 

 of the branch and here, in the fall, the leaves collect in a thick bunch. 

 In one of these bunches, 3 feet from the ground, the warbler had tun- 

 neled out the dry leaves and snugly fitted in her nest making a dark 

 and well-protected home." He found another nest 2 feet up in a 

 bush, within a few yards of the ocean beach. 



Henry W. Carriger, of Sonoma, Calif., (1899) mentions two more 

 elevated nests of the lutescent warbler. He writes : 



On May 31, 1897, I found a nest of the Lutescent Warbler placed three feet 

 from the ground in a bunch of vines. * * * On May 3, 1899, * * * i 

 flushed a bird from a nest in an oak tree, and was surprised to see it was n 

 Lutescent Warbler. The nest was six feet from the ground and three feet from 



