TOWNSEND'S WARBLER 283 



conifers, a habit that seems to be followed even during rainy and 

 stormy days. I am of the opinion that it must nest at a considerable 

 height, for on several occasions I have seen the birds carrying material 

 into trees at a height of over one hundred feet." 



Taylor and Shaw (1927) write: "On entering the great forest of 

 the Pacific Northwest, with its solitude, the deep-shaded grandeur of 

 its brown-barked pillars and its stillness, one can almost imagine 

 himself in a different world. Incessantly repeated, apparently from 

 the very crowns of the trees, comes the song of the Townsend warbler, 

 denizen of upper foliage strata. Found in early summer from Alaska 

 south to the State of Washington, the Townsend warbler finds on 

 Mount Rainier approximately the southern limit of its breeding 

 range." Similar haunts seem to have been chosen wherever the species 

 has been found breeding. 



Spring. — The spring migration, apparently directly northward 

 from Mexico, seems to be quite prolonged. Dr. Alexander F. Skutch 

 tells me that the last of the winter visitors do not leave Guatemala 

 until about the first of May. Professor Cooke (1904) says that "an 

 early migrating Townsend warbler was seen on April 9 in the 

 Huachuca Mountains of Arizona. Migrants from Mexico begin to 

 enter southern California April 14 to 20. * * * First arrivals 

 have been reported from Loveland, Colo., May 11, 1889." And "the 

 average date of the first seen during five years at Columbia Falls, 

 Mont., is May 7." Mrs. Amelia S. Allen writes to me from Berkeley, 

 Calif., that Towsend's warbler is an abundant fall and spring migrant 

 in California, where it is also a common winter visitant. "In the 

 spring they begin to increase about the middle of March, when singing 

 flocks go through the live oak trees, feeding on the small oak worms. 

 They become less conspicuous after the middle of April, but if there 

 are rains in the first half of May to delay migrations, occasional flocks 

 are seen. My latest date is May 17, 1915." 



Rathbun, in his Washington notes, writes : "In the spring of 1916, 

 in the Lake Crescent region, a great majority of the individuals came 

 in two distinct waves. The first occurred on April 28 and this lasted 

 for two days, on the second of which the birds were less numerous. 

 After an interval of a day on which we failed to see any of these 

 warblers, there followed a second wave, on May 1, much larger 

 than the one preceding. It consisted of hundreds of these warblers, 

 together with individuals of other species, the main body of which 

 followed the belt of deciduous trees along the shore of the lake. This 

 fact we verified by ascending the adjacent mountain side to a con- 

 siderable elevation during the movement, where we found but few 

 birds. Descending to the lake level to note the migration, we found 

 the birds close to the ground, the trees being of small size. As 



