120 BULLETIN 203, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



cotton woods and willoAvs, or sometimes among the pines; but in the 

 summer it is found among the low scrub oak brush on the hillsides. 



Bailey and Niedrach (1938) write attractively of Virginia's 

 warbler in its Colorado haunts : 



In the broken prairie where the yellow pines have taken their stand upon the 

 crest of the tableland, and in the rocky canyons clothed with the scraggly scrub 

 oaks slipping down to narrow grass-grown creek-bottoms, Virginia's Warbler 

 chooses its nesting grounds. 



Plants seem to burst into life during the early weeks in May. * * • The 

 flowers of the scrub oaks tinge the hillsides with a greenish-yellow bloom; the 

 green of bursting leaves and grasses soon blends with the nodding blossoms of 

 the pasque-flower; the beautiful pink plume sways on the hillside, and yellow 

 blossoms of the Oregon grape thrust forth among the holly-like leaves, making 

 one think of flowering Christmas wreaths. It is then that the Virginia's War- 

 blers are at the height of their activity. Their colors are the grays and yellows 

 of the new vegetation. The males perch among scrub-oak branches and yellow 

 pines, where they are usually concealed, and do their utmost to outsing their 

 towhee neighbors. 



In Nevada, Eidgway (1877) first observed this warbler "among 

 the cedar and piiion groves on the eastern slope of the Kuby Moim- 

 tains. * * * On the Wahsatch and Uintah Mountains it was more 

 abundant, being particularly plentiful among the scrub-oaks on the 

 foot-hills near Salt Lake City. They lived entirely among the bushes, 

 which there were so dense that the birds were difficult to obtain, even 

 when shot." 



In the Charleston Mountains, Nev., according to A. J. van Rossem 

 (1936), "the distribution appeared to be limited to the so-called Upper 

 Sonoran associations of mahogany and Gambel oaks, and therefore 

 the species is considered characteristic of that zone, although the ex- 

 tremes of altitude at which it was found were 6,300 and 9,000 feet. 

 Because of the relative scarcity of oaks, by far the greater number 

 were found in mahogany which here grows as low, dense forest, instead 

 of in the more familiar shrub form in which it is usually known." 



In the Great Basin region. Dr. Jean M. Linsdale (1938) found 

 Virginia's warblers in a variety of situations, such as "in sage on 

 rocky, pifion-covered slope 100 yards from a stream ; in sage on top of 

 ridge; at tip of mountain mahogany tree; in plum thicket; singing 

 and foraging through upper foliage of tall birches close to creek ; in 

 cotton woods and pinons close to creeks ; singing in dead shrub 10 feet 

 high at base of rock slide ; in aspen ; in thickets of sage, elder. Ephedra^ 

 and Sym,phoricarpos ; in willow ; on ground among rocks at crest of 

 ridge." The altitudes ranged from 6,500 to 8,000 feet, with the larg- 

 est number between 7,000 and 7,500 feet. 



In southern Arizona, this warbler, according to Mr. Swarth ( 1904) — 



proved to be very abundant during the spring migration, particularly in the lower 

 parts of the mountains ; but the most of them seem to go farther north, and but 



