WESTERN NASHVILLE WARBLER 117 



bushes, the male is often singing in a pine or fir, far above mundane 

 cares. * * * i have observed this Warbler at lower altitudes on 

 the west slope among small black oaks, in company with Hermit 

 Warblers." 



Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood (1896) first saw it in the Sierras at 3,500 feet 

 elevation, but more commonly at 3,700 feet. "At 5,000 feet we found 

 them most common, and from 7,000 to 9,000 feet they gradually dis- 

 appeared, apparently going as high up as the black oak, in which trees 

 they were generally seen, skipping about in search of insects." 



Grinnell and Storer (1924) say: "The Calaveras Warbler is com- 

 mon during the summer months in the black oaks and maples along 

 each side of the Yosemite Valley and in similar situations elsewere on 

 the western flank of the Sierra Nevada. Among all the warblers to 

 be seen in the Yosemite Valley during the summer months the present 

 species is the only one which does not forage and nest in the same 

 niche. The Calaveras seeks its food and does its singing well up in 

 trees, but places its nest immediately upon the ground." 



C. W. and J. H. Bowles (1906) write of its haunts in Washington: 



Like the hermit warbler, a bird of the higher altitudes in the mountains of 

 California, the Calaveras warbler, on reaching the cooler climate of the north- 

 west, is to be found as a rule only on the driest prairies. Here the birds fre- 

 quent the scattered clumps of young oaks and fir trees that have reached a height 

 of some three or four feet, and which border the large tracts of dense fir timber. 

 It is a noteworthy fact that, while these birds are not often to be found more 

 than a hundred yards outside of the forests, they are seldom or never seen in- 

 side of the dividing line where the heavy timber meets the prairie. Also they 

 do not encroach upon the hillside territory of the lutescent warbler, which bird 

 in turn does not appear on the prairies but confines itself to the brush-covered 

 uplands. 



Nesting. — Dr. Osgood (1896) found tliree nests of the western Nash- 

 ville, or Calaveras, warbler near Fyffe in the Sierras; two of these 

 were concealed under dead leaves, one of which was partially concealed 

 by a little sprig of cedar at the foot of a cedar stump, and the other 

 was under a little tuft of "mountain misery"; the third was in a thick 

 patch of "mountain misery" and was "well embedded among the roots 

 of this little shrub, and shaded by its thick leaves." 



In the Yosemite Valley, Grinnell and Storer (1924) found a nest 

 in what must be an unusual situation : 



The location was only about 75 feet from the much traveled south road on 

 the Valley floor and at the base of the talus pile of huge boulders. The nest 

 was in the face of one of the larger of these boulders, partly in a diagonal fissure. 

 It was on the north side of the rock and so never received any direct rays of 

 sunlight. The whole face of the boulder was covered densely with yellow-green 

 moss which in places was overlaid by olive-gray lichens. The nest was 43 inches 

 from the base of the rock and about 60 inches from the top. Another nest was 

 found in a hollow of the ground at the base of an azalea bush, near an old road 



981873—53 9 



