HERMIT WARBLER • 533 



The Hermit Warbler is a bird of the coniferous forests at middle 

 altitudes. Pines and firs afford it suitable forage range and safe nesting 

 sites. The birds keep fairly well up in the trees, most often at 20 to 50 

 feet from the ground. The Hermit may thus be found in close association 

 Avith the Audubon Warbler, although the latter ranges to a much greater 

 altitude in the mountains. 



The song of the male Hermit Warbler, while varying somewhat with 

 different individuals, is sufficiently distinct from that of the other warblers 

 of the region to make possible identification by voice alone. This song is 

 most nearly like that of the Audubon Warbler but usually not so clear 

 or mellow. A male bird observed at Chinquapin seemed to say seezle, 

 seezle, seezle, seezle, zeek, zeek; just that number of syllables, over and 

 over again. The quality was slightly droning, but not so much so as that 

 of the Black-throated Gray Warbler. Another song, clearer in quality, 

 heard in Yosemite Valley, was written ter'-ley, ter'-ley, ter'-ley, sic' , sic', 

 thus much more nearly like the song of the Audubon AVarbler. Other tran- 

 scriptions ranged between these two as to timbre. A rendering set down 

 at Glacier Point June 16, 1915, was as follows: ser-weez' , ser-weez', ser- 

 iveez' , ser' , ser' . The marked rhythm throughout, and the stressed terminal 

 syllables, are distinctive features of the Hermit's song. The call note is 

 a moderate tchip, used by both sexes. 



A Hermit Warbler watched in Yosemite Valley on June 22, 1915, by 

 Miss Margaret W. Wythe (MS) was foraging in the upper parts of the 

 trees and never came to the lower branches. Starting from near the trunk 

 of a pine it would work out to the tip of one branch before going to another. 

 Its demeanor while foraging was much more deliberate than that of any 

 of the other warblers. 



The only nest of the Hermit Warbler which came to our notice was 

 discovered by Miss Wythe (MS) on June 28, 1915, in Yosemite Valley. 

 She was following up some rather insistent chirping notes which came 

 from a pine tree beside a road, when a young bird of this species, already 

 fledged enough to be out of the nest, was seen. • The yellow on its head 

 w^as clearly in evidence, but the black chin spot was only beginning to 

 show. The tail was only half an inch in length. The young bird, when 

 first seen, had an insect in its bill, which it soon swallowed. Other similar 

 notes were heard close by and soon the two parents were seen, one of which 

 flew to the tree and evidently fed another member of the brood. Most 

 of the time the birds remained in the outer portions of the trees, where 

 the thick needle tufts screened them from view. Later the nest was located, 

 15 or 18 feet above the ground in what then proved to be plain view for 

 an observer stationed below. The materials of which it was composed 

 appeared gray in comparison with the green foliage of the pine. 



