:::::::::C TWO BIRD- LOVERS IN MEXICO B-"""- 



blance to those with which we were faiiiiUar in field 

 and meadow at home. Arch'q^i^us was surely here, and 

 our identical Vanessa antiopa. What a world of differ- 

 ence one's personal point of view makes ! A Mexican 

 in New York State would exclaim with wonder that the 

 mariposas of Mexico had strayed to so distant a land. 



The Pileolated Warbler and the Western Gnat- 

 catcher were two small friends which we first met at 

 the edge of the barranca. They were cheerful little 

 bodies, forever busy searching leaves and twigs and 

 flowers for tiny insects. Perhaps to this unflagging 

 activity was due the fact that they seemed able to find 

 a substantial living in all sorts and conditions of places. 

 The Pileolated Warbler — so like our Wilson Black- 

 cap, but of a brighter yellow — never became com- 

 mon, and yet in every list of birds we made, whether 

 of upland, marsh, cactus desert, barranca, or tropical 

 jungle, he was sure to have a place. He was not par- 

 ticular as to his winter home, but found everywhere 

 enough to keep his black-crowned little head busy 

 picking and picking, interpolating a sharp ch'q) ! now 

 and then, between mouthfuls. 



But his co-sojourner, the Western Gnatcatcher, four 

 inches or so of bluish gray and wdiite energy, was 

 many times more numerous, and, if possible, even more 

 cosmopolitan. The characteristic tyang ! tyang ! ysss! 

 which they first twanged for us in the mesquite, found 

 an echo wherever we rode or camped, from tableland 



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