BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER 277 



old, (being bleached and very soft) moss and feathers; and lined with feathers 

 (one had evidently been lined from a dead Stellar jay), horse, cow and rabbit 

 hair or fur, and sometimes the very fine stems of the flowers of some kind of 

 moss. The male has never been seen to assist either at nest-building or 

 incubation. 



In the Yosemite region, wliere Grinnell and Storer (1924) found 

 the black-throated gray warbler in fair numbers among the golden 

 oaks on the north walls of the Valley, they found a nest "placed 5 feet 

 6 inches above ground in a mountain lilac {Ceanothus integerrimus) 

 bush against a main stem." 



From southern California, James B. Dixon writes to me : "This bird 

 breeds sparingly from 2,500 feet to the tops of our mountain ranges 

 in San Diego, Kiverside and San Bernardino Counties. During my 

 observations since 1898, 1 have seen but five nests. One was in a live 

 oak tree, two in manzanita bushes and two in golden oak saplings." A 

 nest in Kiverside County, at 5,500 feet elevation, was in "a scrub 

 growth area which was well wooded with sapling golden oak and 

 manzanita, buck thorn, and other sparsely growing bushes." The 

 nest was "located 12 feet from the ground in a deep, vertical crotch 

 of a golden oak sapling, and could be seen from only one angle, much 

 like the nest of a gnatcatcher or wood pewee." Another nest was 

 found "in the dense growth of a young manzanita bush. * * * The 

 locations of the two nests were extremely different, one was carefully 

 concealed in a comparatively bare oak sapling, and the other in the 

 dense foliage of a rank-growing young manzanita bush." 



In the Huachuca Mountains of Arizona, I found but one nest of the 

 blackthroated gray warbler. It was 5 feet up in the main crotch of 

 a small oak growing on a steep slope on the side of a branch of Ramsey 

 Canyon; the slope was sparsely covered with scrub oaks and other 

 bushes, with a scattering of tall pines ; the nest was so well concealed 

 that I could not get a clear photograph of it. Howard (1899) found 

 three nests in these mountains in upright forks of oak saplings, 

 and says: "I found other nests, some placed in large white oaks 

 and some in sj^camores and have known the birds to build high 

 up in pines." One of his nests from these mountains, in the Thayer 

 collection, was found only 18 inches up in a young fir tree in a thicket ; 

 lying against the main stem, it was supported, surrounded, and well 

 concealed by live twigs. Four other nests in this collection, were all 

 taken in the Huachuca and Chiricahua mountains from oaks at heights 

 ranging from 6 to 16 feet above ground. All much alike, their 

 decidedly gray appearance makes them less visible among the gray 

 branches. They are made of light gray, old, shredded stems of dead 

 weeds and grasses, very fine gray plant fibers and a few dead leaves, 

 bits of string, and thread, all firmly bound with spider's web and 



981873—53 19 



