RED-FACED WARBLER 605 



to appear, about the middle of August, they are as numerous as 

 ever." 



Nesting. — Although not the first to report it. Dr. Mearns (1890) 

 was the first naturalist to find the nest of the red-faced warbler. He 

 describes the event as follows : 



On the 19th of June, 1886, 1 was encamped on a southern slope of the MogoUon 

 Mountains, about five miles within the pine belt, in what has been designated 

 the Great San Francisco Forest. Following a small stream into a little caiion 

 between whose rocky walls stood groups of towering spruces and of aspens, the 

 ground beneath thickly sprinkled with violets, strawberries, honeysuckles, and 

 columbines, 1 entered a side ravine and had stooped to gather some flowering 

 honeysuckles when a little bird was flushed from its nest upon the side of the 

 bank, close to the trunk of a large spruce. Alighting in a young spruce tree, 

 it uttered a sharp, hard chip. It was the first Red-faced Warbler I had ever 

 seen ; and its red face, black cap, gray back, and white rump suggested to my 

 mind a miniature of the European Bulfinch. The bird was so fearless, and the 

 place so confined, that I had some difliculty in securing the specimen in good 

 condition. The male was not seen. After a close search an old nest was dis- 

 covered on the ground ; and I was about to conclude that it belonged to my bird 

 and was as yet unfinished, when I descried a small opening close beside it among 

 the stones and pine needles; on parting some blooming honeysuckles (Lonicera 

 ciliosa) and moss, I discovered the nest, — most artfully concealed. In it were 

 four eggs, containing small embryos which were easily extracted, the shells being 

 thick and hard. The nest rested on a mass of dry leaves and spruce needles, 

 and was entirely covered up and concealed by the honeysuckles. It is well built, 

 being composed of a neatly felted mass of plant-stems and strips of fine bark, 

 lined with soft vegetable fibres and cow-hairs. 



W. W. Price (1888) was the first to report and describe a nest of 

 the red-faced warbler, which he found in Ramsey Canyon in the 

 Huachucas on May 31, 1888 ; his nest "was placed on sloping ground 

 in a slight hollow and contained four fresh eggs." He had seen the 

 bird fly to a clump of columbine which grew on the bank of a creek. 



A few sprays of the columbine hid the nest so completely that had not the 

 bird been frightened and directly oft' from it, I should not have found it. * * * 

 The structure was a very poor attempt at nest-building, and made of such 

 loose material that it crumbled to fragments on being removed. The chief 

 substance was fine fibrous weed stalks, while the lining consisted of fine grass, 

 rootlets, plant fibres, and a few hairs. Skeleton leaves and bits of fine bark 

 were scattered sparingly throughout the nest. Leaves and other rubbish had 

 drifted with the wind or had been scratched up all around, to a level with 

 the rim, so that one could hardly see where the nest proper left off. Inside 

 the nest was about two and one half inches wide by one and one half inches 

 in depth ; outside it was about five inches wide by three inches in depth. The 

 ground on which the nest was placed was so damp that the bottom part of it 

 was badly decayed. 



In the same region, Swarth (1904) found a nest that "was well 

 concealed under an old rotten log, on a steep bank by the side of a 

 trail, and could never have been seen had not the bird darted from 



