SYLVICOLID.E — THE WARBLERS. 259 



streak brown ; the third brown, with a terminal narrow white streak. Bill black ; feet 

 brown. Length, 4.70 ; wing, 2.30 ; tail, 2.10. 



IIab. Western and Middle Provinces of United States. Migratory soutliward into 

 Western Mexico (Oaxaca) ; Orizaba (winter, Sumichrast). 



Female (53,373, East Humboldt Mountains, Nev., July 14). Similar to 

 the male, but crown ash medially streaked with black, instead of continuous 

 black ; the streaks on back narrow and inconspicuous ; the black of the 

 throat confined to the jugulum, appearing in spots only on anterior half. A 

 young female (N"o. 53,376, East Humboldt Mountains, August 10) is plain 

 brownish-ash above, lacking entirely the streaks on the back, and those on 

 sides of crown extremely obsolete. There is no black whatever on throat or 

 jugulum, which, with the well-defined supra-loral stripe and lower parts in 

 general, are soiled white, more brownish laterally. The other features, including 

 the yellow spot over the lores, with the wing and tail markings, are much as 

 in the adult. A young male (53,375), same locality and date, differs i'rom the 

 last in having the sides of the crown black, and the throat-patcli almost 

 complete, but much hidden by the broad white borders to the feathers. An 

 adult autunuial male (7,690, Calaveras Kiver) is like the spring adult, but 

 the ash is overspread by brownish, nearly obliterating the dorsal streaks, and 

 dividing the black of the crown ; the black throat-patch is perfectly defined, 

 but nuich obscured by white borders to the feathers. 



Habits. The Black-throated Gray or Dusky Warbler, so far as is now 

 known, belongs to the Western and Middle Provinces, occurring certainly 

 as far to the south as San Diego, in California, and as far to the north as Fort 

 Steilacoom, in Washington Territory, penetrating in winter into jVlexico. 

 The most easterly localities in which it has been met with are in Arizona 

 and New Mexico. The Smithsonian Institution has received specimens also 

 from Columbia Eiver, Calaveras, CaL, and Fort Defiance. 



This species was first obtained and described by Mr. Townsend, who found 

 it abundant in the forests of the Columbia, where it breeds and remains 

 until nearly winter. Its nest, which he there met with, resembles that of 

 Parula anicricana, only it is made of the long and fibrous green moss, or 

 Usneci, peculiar to that region, and is placed among the upper branches of 

 oak-trees, suspended between two small twigs. 



Mr. Nuttall states that it arrives on the Columbia early in May, and from 

 the manner in which its song was delivered at intervals, in the tops of decidu- 

 ous trees, he liad no doubt that they were breeding in those forests as early 

 as May 23. This song he describes as delicate, but monotonous, uttered as 

 it ])usily and intently searches every leafy bough and expanding bud for 

 insects and their larvae in the spreading oak, in which it utters its solitary 

 notes. Its song is repeated at sliort and regular intervals, and is said b}^ Mr. 

 Nuttall to bear some resemblance to t-shee-tshdy-tshaitshee, varying the feeble 

 sound very little, and with the concluding note somewhat slenderly and 

 plaintively raised. Dr. Suckley speaks of this bird as moderately abundant 



