EASTERN ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER 91 



fabrics, one within the other, of nearly the same materials. The external 

 portions of these nests were composed almost entirely of long, coarse strips of 

 bark loosely interwoven with a few dry grasses and stems of plants. Within 

 it is a more elaborately interwoven structure of finer dry grasses and mosses. 

 These are softly and warmly lined with hair and fur of small animals. 



E. A. Preble (1908) reported a nest found near Fort Eesolution 

 that "was placed among thick grass on a sloping bank, and was com- 

 posed outwardly of grass and Equisetum stems, with a layer of finer 

 grass and with an inner lining of hair." 



Several nests have been reported from points farther south as being 

 of this warbler, but these are probably all referable to the Rocky 

 Mountain subspecies Vermivora celata orestera. 



Eggs. — The orange-crowned warbler lays from 4 to 6 eggs to a set, 

 probably most often 5. Dr. Brandt (1943) describes his Alaska eggs 

 as follows : "The Qg.g is short ovate in outline, the surface moderately 

 glossy, and the shell delicate. The ground color is white and is promi- 

 nent because the markings obscure but one-fifth of its area. These 

 spots are very small, and are peppered over the broad end in an ill- 

 defined wreath, while over the smaller two-thirds the ^gg is almost 

 immaculate. In color the markings range from hydrangea red to 

 ocher red; and underlying these are a few weak spots of deep dull 

 lavender." Probably a series of the eggs would show all the variations 

 shown in eggs of the other races. The measurements of 50 eggs, in- 

 cluding those of the Rocky Mountain race, average 16.2 by 12.7 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 18.3 by 13.2, 

 17.0 by 14.2, and 14.7 by 12.2 millimeters (Harris). 



Plumages. — Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the juvenal plumage as 

 "above, brownish olive-green. Wings and tail olive-brown, broadly 

 edged with bright olive-green, the median and greater coverts tipped 

 with buff. Below, greenish buff paler and yellower on abdomen and 

 crissum. Lores and auriculars grayish buff." 



The first winter plumage is acquired by a postjuvenal molt that 

 involves the contour plumage and the wing coverts but not the rest 

 of the wings or the tail. The sexes are alike in the juvenal plumage 

 and much alike in all plumages, except that the female is always 

 duller ; in her first winter plumage the orange crown is lacking, and it 

 is more or less suppressed and sometimes wholly lacking in subsequent 

 plumages. Dr. Dwight ( 1900) describes the young male in first winter 

 plumage as "above, bright olive-green, mostly concealed on the pileum 

 and nape with pale mouse-gray edgings that blend into the green. The 

 crown brownish orange concealed by greenish feather tips. Wing 

 coverts broadly edged with dull olive-green, sometimes the greater 

 coverts with faint whitish tips. Below, pale olive-yellow, grayish 

 on the chin and sides of neck with very indistinct olive-gray streaking. 



