TO2 THE TOWNSEND WARBLER. 
Authorities.—Sylvia_ townsendi “(Nuttall),” Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. 
Sci. Phila. VII. pt. 11. 1837, 191 (“forests of the Columbia River’). C&S. Rh. 
Ral D2 Basi, 
Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. C. E. 
WHAT a morning that was at the old parsonage in the Ahtanum valley, 
when the shade trees of the five acre enclosure were lit up by the presence of a 
dozen of these fairies! Waste acres of sage lay around, or fields of alfalfa 
and growing wheat, hardly more inviting, but the eye of the leader, winging 
languidly from the South, at early dawn had spied a patch of woodsy green, 
and had ordered a halt for the day in our comfortable-looking box-elders and 
insect-harboring apple trees. To be sure it was absurdly late for migrants, 
June 5th, but they appeared more like an embassage of foreign grandees, who 
deigned to make requisition upon our hospitality, than mere birds with threats 
of family cares ahead. So while they sought breakfasts of aphis and early 
worm, or disported among the branches in the growing sunshine, I attended 
their movements in rustic wonder. Now and then a member of the party 
paused to adjust his golden trappings, or to settle the black head-piece with a 
dainty shake. It was, indeed, a notable occasion for the bird-man, inasmuch 
as these dandies were in “higher” plumage than any yet recognized by the best 
bird-books of the day,* in that the shining black, supposedly confined to the 
lower throat, now occupied the very chin as well. 
There was a little conversational lisping in a foreign tongue, in which the 
ladies of the party were included ; and after breakfast the males ventured song. 
Seventy-eight days later, viz., on the 23d of August, a southward bound 
party visited our orchard. The males were still in song, and it was difficult 
to believe that all the joys and sorrows of wedlock and child-rearing had inter- 
vened ; yet such was probably the case. 
A bird sighted at Chelan on the 25th day of May, 1905, haunted a pine 
and a balm tree at the foot of the Lake, singing constantly. The song ran, 
dzwee, dzwee, dzwee, dzwee, dzweetsee, the first four notes drowsy and drawl- 
ing, the fourth prolonged, and the remainder somewhat furry and squeaky. 
The bird hunted patiently thru the long needles of the pine, under what would 
seem to an observer great difficulties. Once he espied an especially desirable 
tidbit on the under side of a needle-beset branch. The bird leaned over and 
peered beneath, until he quite lost his balance and turned a somersault in the 
air. But he returned to the charge again and again, now creeping cautiously 
around to the under side, now clinging to the pine needles themselves and 
again fluttering bravely in the midst, until he succeeded in exhausting the little 
pocket of provender, whatever it was. 
In June, 1906, we found these birds in the valley of the Stehekin, and 
a.. Coues’ Key to N. A. Birds, Fourth Edition, is especially referred to. The matter has been cor- 
rected in the Fifth Edition. 
