276 BULLETIN 2 03, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



did this bird tolerate conditions on dry slopes, but it was practically 

 limited to them. The pairs were scattered far apart, but because this 

 type of habitat takes up so much of the total area, this warbler must 

 rank high among all the summer resident birds on the basis of 

 numbers." 



This warbler is a common breeding bird in the mountains of south- 

 ern Arizona. In the brushy foothills and canyons of the Huachucas, 

 we found it between 4,000 and 7,000 feet in altitude, in the oak belt 

 about halfway up the canyons, principally among the scrub oaks and 

 manzanita bushes. In New Mexico, according to Mrs. Bailey (1928), 

 it is found in summer at slightly higher levels, 5,500 to 8,000 feet, in 

 the oak and pinyon pine country. 



Nesting. — In Washington, the black- throated gray warbler seems to 

 nest in fir trees exclusively, at heights ranging from 7 or 8 feet up to 

 50 feet above the ground. Kathbun has sent me the data for seven 

 nests, all in firs, at heights ranging from 7^/2 to 35 feet; they were all 

 on horizontal branches and from 4 to 10 feet out from the trunk. He 

 describes in his notes a typical nesting site as follows : "From a distance 

 I saw a fir tree the character of which, from my experience, was 

 favored by this warbler as a nesting place. It was of considerable 

 size, one of a number scattered along the edge of the forest, and had 

 considerable undergrowth beneath. After a very careful examination 

 I located the nest near the extremity of one of the large lower limbs, 

 at a distance from the trunk of 9 feet and at a height above the ground 

 of 23 feet. The nest was placed at the side of the limb and was 

 securely attached at a point where grew several small twig-like 

 branches." He says that this bird is very regular in its nesting 

 date, the average date for fresh eggs is between June 3 and 8, and that 

 the nest is always a neat one. He describes a typical nest as follows : 

 "Plant fibers, dry grasses and a few very small weed-stalks were all 

 neatly woven together to form the walls of the nest. The lining was 

 a few feathers — two being those of the ruffed grouse, with others from 

 sparrows, the quill of each being worked into the walls of the nest; 

 next to this lining were soft and very fine plant fibers, with a few 

 horsehairs." 



C. W. Bowles (1902) mentions a nest in southern Oregon that "was 

 six feet up in a manzanita bush in a patch of bushes of the same 

 variety about three acres in extent." But he adds that — 



the nests were from three feet and thi'ee inches to twenty-five feet from the 

 ground, oaks seeming the favorite in southern Oregon and fir near Tacoma. The 

 usual situation is in a small clump of leaves that is just large enough to almost 

 completely conceal the nest, and yet so very small that a crow or jay would never 

 think of anything being concealed in them. * * * The nests externally are 

 about 3 X 2% inches and internaly 1% x 1% inches in diameter and depth. They 

 are composed externally of grass and weed-stalks, that must be several seasons 



