602 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



one afternoon whereupon her mate appeared next forenoon with a new female 

 and, on the succeeding day, this pair started constructing a new nest near the 

 site of the old one. Ou tlie following day the male was trapped and on the 

 next day what we assumed was the remaining female appeared with a new 

 male and afforded every evidence of mating. This particular pair was located 

 at one of the extreme ends of the territory covered. Another pair was under 

 observation at the other end of the territory, where the male was first trapped ; 

 two days later the female appeared with a new mate whereupon she was trapped 

 and, on the following day, the same male appeared with a new female. 



Voice. — ^Many writers have referred to chats as mimics; whether 

 the various notes heard from chats are really imitations or are parts 

 of the birds' own elaborate vocabularies is open to question. However 

 that may be, we have the following list of possible imitations heard 

 by Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) : 



Facsimiles that were heard and checked within a few days in late May and 

 early June were as follows: gray squirrel (the "coughing" note) ; young turkey 

 (of which many were herded around the ranch at Dale's to feed on grasshoppers) ; 

 willow woodpecker (the high-pitched "whinnying") ; Bullock oriole (the harsh 

 call-note only) ; crow (the caw, repeated four to six times, or, sometimes, just 

 once, accurately given) ; ash-throated flycatcher (call-note) ; wren-tit (without 

 the terminal trill, but accurate in pitch and timbre — no wren-tits were seen 

 within six miles of this place [Dale's] ) ; Pacific nighthawk {pe-drk, perfectly 

 rendered) ; California jay (one of the staccato calls) ; Steller jay (a staccato 

 note) ; flicker (the kuk-kuk-kuk note) ; yellow-billed magpie (perfect, though 

 magpies were not fouud by us in the near neighborhood) ; meadow-lark (a 

 call-note) ; slender-billed nuthatch (yank, loud nasal note) ; robin (cluck-cluck, 

 note of mild alarm). 



EUTHLYPIS LACRIMOSA TEPHRA <Bonaparte) 



WESTERN FAN-TAILED WARBLER 



HABITS 



The casual occurrence of this species at Santo Domingo, northern 

 Baja California, where, according to Grinnell and Lamb (1927) 

 a single specimen was taken by Lamb on December 31, 1925, entitles 

 this primarily Mexican species to a place on our list. The bird 

 "was on the ground in a damp spot beneath a pepper tree on the 

 Hamilton ranch. Had been seen several times previously the same 

 day, flying nervously from object to object on the ground, at times 

 flirting its tail sidewise and uttering a single lisping whistle." 



The following description of the juvenal plumage, which Ridgway 

 (1902) did not describe, is given by Dickey and van Rossem (1938) : 



"Upperparts, including sides of head and wing coverts, uniform 

 'dark neutral gray' ; chin, throat, and chest, 'hair brown' or 'fuscous' ; 

 flanks similar but more sooty; median underparts, including under 

 tail coverts, pale 'primrose yellow,' mingling with the color of the 

 chest in the form of broad streaking or mottling; wings and tail 

 essentially as in adult, but rectrices more pointed. 



