140 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



manner. There is nothing of the excitable dis- 

 position that is called " Warbler-like." When 

 he is in a mood to sing, back he goes to the top 

 of a cypress and pours forth his song, often for 

 some minutes, standing quietly on one limb of 

 the tree. 



The Sycamore Warbler of the south-central 

 States seems to give his preference to the syca- 

 more trees, and is well named the Sycamore 

 Yellow-throat. Neither is he a very common 

 bird, but his song and beauty are the character- 

 istics that attract people to him. 



GRACE'S WARBLER 



Dendroica graci^ Ha in! 



A (1. V. Xumber .,Im 



General Description. — Length. 5 inches. Upper 

 parts, gray streaked with black : under parts, yellow 

 and white. Bill, shorter than head, slender, tapering 



Drawing by R. I. Brasher 



GRACE'S WARBLER (J nat. size) 

 A pretty bird with graceful r 



gradually to the tip ; wings, iong and pointed ; tail, even 

 or nearly even. 



Color. — Adult M.-^le in Spring and Summer; 

 .Ibovc, slatc-yray. the cron'ii and back, streaked ivith 

 hlnck (sides of crown, sometimes uniformly black) ; 

 wings and tail, dusky with slate-gray edgings, the 

 middle wing-coverts broadly, the greater coverts more 

 narrow'ly, tipped with white, forming two distinct wing- 

 lands ; two outermost tail-feathers with inner webs 

 e.xtensively white at the end (the white occupying 

 more than the end half on outermost feather, which also 

 has the outer web largely white), the third feather 

 also usually with an elongated white patch at the end or 

 near the end ; over the eye a stripe of yellow passing 

 into white beyond eye; a broad dusky loral streak and 

 a narrow dusky streak at corner of mouth; sides of 

 head and sides of neck, plain slate-gray; spot bclozv eye. 

 cheek, chin, throat, and cliest. lenion-yellozn; remaining 

 under parts, white, with sides of chest and breast, sides, 

 and flanks, streaked with black; bill, black; iris, brown; 

 legs and feet, dusky-brown. Adult Female: Similar 

 to the adult male but duller in color ; gray of upper 

 parts, strongly tinged with brown, the black streaks on 

 back, indistinct (sometimes obsolete) ; white wing- 

 bands, narrower; yellow of stripe over eye, throat, etc.. 

 paler; white of under parts, rather duller, and blackish 

 streaks on sides, etc., less distinct. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: High in pine trees, 50 to 

 60 feet up; composed of vegetable fiber, straws, string, 

 bud scales, and insect webs. Eggs : 3 or 4, lightly 

 spotted with reddish-brown. 



Distribution. — • Southwestern United States and 

 adjacent parts of northwestern Alexico; northward 

 through mountains of New Mexico and Arizona to 

 southern Colorado, where abundant in coniferous 

 forests ; winters in Mexico. 



Grace's Warbler was discovered in 1864 by 

 the great naturalist. Dr. Elliott Coues, who gave 

 the bird his sister's name. It is a pretty name 

 and was a pretty compliment of a kind which 

 ought to have been paid oftener by American 

 ornithologists to their wonien relatives and 

 friends — in fact, at least as often as there were 

 pretty names available. 



Also it is a pity that Americans see so little 

 of this Warbler, because its appearance and its 

 ways are as pretty as its name. But these are 

 facts which are appreciated only by the compara- 

 tively few persons who visit or live in the south- 

 western part of this great country, especially 

 the regions near the Mexican boundary. The 

 bird is, indeed, one of the commonest of its 



