GOLDEN PILEOLATED WARBLER 643 



mer was limited closely to alder and willow thickets bordering ponds, 

 along streams and in and around the edges of moist meadows. These 

 two plants, alder and willow, appeared to furnish the chief factors 

 favoring the initial choice of this habitat, rather than any of the 

 plants associated with them." Such haunts seem to be favored by the 

 species in other parts of its western range. 



Spring. — Rathbun tells me that it arrives in western Washington 

 about the first of May. "It differs in some ways from the rest of the 

 warblers: there is no straggling in their arrival; a goodly number 

 come all at once, followed by the regular run of the birds until all 

 have settled down. In the Olympic region, at least, they stick quite 

 close to the tidewater. Sometimes one can stand on the beach facing 

 the ocean and hear the warbler's song directly behind in the woods ; 

 this is one of the very few birds of which this can be said." 



Nesting. — Rathbun describes in his notes two nests found near 

 Seattle. One was located about a foot above the ground "in a salal 

 shrub that grew by the side of an old path through the rather dense 

 forest, with a quite heavy undergrowth. The nest consisted, out- 

 wardly, entirely of dry, dead leaves, next to which were finer and softer 

 ones of the same character and a little shredded inner bark of a cedar, 

 the lining being fine rootlets and a few horsehairs." The other was 

 "built quite close to the ground on a slight elevation in a mass of dead 

 bracken, being so well concealed that it was found only by flushing the 

 female. It was composed outwardly of dead leaves and decayed weed 

 stalks with a little green moss interwoven, this forming a base on 

 which rested the main part of the nest, consisting of fine, dry weed 

 stalks and shredded strips of the soft inner bark of a cedar, next 

 being very soft, dry leaves, with a lining of fine, dry grasses. The 

 whole structure was beautiful, the material being well interwoven 

 and the construction neat. The outside height was 4 inches, outside 

 diameter 6, inside diameter 2, and inside depth 1% inches. The loca- 

 tion was well within a growth of young firs, widely scattered so that 

 rather open spaces existed, overgrown with bracken." 



James B. Dixon tells me that he found the golden pileolated warbler 

 nesting in Mono County, Calif., at elevations betwen 7,000 and 9,200 

 feet. And in the Yosemite region, Grinnell and Storer (1924) found 

 a nest that "was in a depression in an earth bank at the base of two 

 azalea stems. It was overhung by these stems and also by a mat of 

 dead brakes, which concealed the eggs from view above. The foun- 

 dation of the nest was of loosely laid dead leaves, and this graded into 

 the rest of the structure, which was composed of leaves and grass 

 blades. The fine lining was chiefly of deer hair. The structure 

 measured about 3i/^ inches in diameter outside, and the cavity was 2 

 inches across and 1% inches deep." 



