194 THE HERMIT WARBLER. 
male m fall and winter: Yellow of crown veiled by olive green; black of throat 
veiled by whitish tips; black streaking of upperparts less conspicuous. Adult 
female in spring: Like male in spring but duller, yellow of head less extensive, 
gray of upperparts dominating; black streaks reduced or obsolete; black of throat, 
etc., absent, white or dull yellowish instead; sometimes dusky spot of various 
proportions on chest. Young birds like adult female but yellow of crown veiled 
by olive and sides washed with brownish. Length of adult about 4.90 (124.4) ; 
wing 2.65 (67.3) ; tail 2.20 (55.9); bill .40 (10.2) ; tarsus .44 (11.3). 
Recognition Marks.—Smaller Warbler size; yellow mask of male outlined 
against black of throat and hind neck distinctive—female and young more difficult 
but distinctive pattern of mask with white wing-bars usually suggestive. 
Nesting.—Nest: saddled on horizontal branch of fir tree at a good height; 
a compact structure of fir twigs, mosses and vegetable down, lined with fine 
grass and horse-hair; measures, outside, 4 wide by 234 deep, inside, 2 wide 
by 1% deep. Eggs: 4 or 5, dull white heavily blotched and spotted with various 
shades of red-brown and lavender. Av. size, .69x.53 (17.5 13.5). Season: 
c. June 1; one brood. 
General Range.—Pacific coast district and Cascade-Sierra system with its 
outliers north to British Columbia; “in winter south into Lower California and 
through Arizona over Mexican plateau to highlands of Guatemala.” 
Range in Washington.—Not common summer resident, in heavier conifer- 
ous timber only. 
Authorities.—Sylvia occidentalis Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 
VII. 1837, 190 (“forests of the Columbia River”). C&S. Lt. D™. B. 
Specimens.—C. 
THERE is a piece of woodland south of Tacoma which we call the 
Hermit Woods, because here on any May day may be heard the voice of this 
exalted Warbler. The proper hour in which to approach this forest is early 
morning, before the winds have begun to stir in its dim aisles, and while the 
hush of its nightly peace is upon everything—save the birds. The soft moss 
muffles the footsteps, so that the devotee may move about unheralded from 
shrine to shrine, as he pays silent homage to each, in turn, of those morning 
stars of song, the Wood Warblers. There is Audubon with his hastening 
melody of gladness. There is Black-throated Gray with his still drowsy son- 
net of sweet content. "Then there is Hermit hidden aloft in the shapeless 
greenery of the under-dawn,—his note is sweetest, gladdest, most seraphic of 
them all, Lilly, lilly, lilly, leé o leet. It is almost sacrilege to give it form— 
besides it is so hopeless. The preparatory notes are like the tinkle of crystal 
bells and when our attention is focused, lo! the wonder happens,—the ex- 
quisite lilt of the closing phrase, /eé-olcet. 
In broad daylight it is the same. The singers remain in the tree-tops and 
tease the imagination with thoughts of a domestic life lived upon a higher 
plane than that of earth, an exalted state where all is beatific and serene. And 
try you never so hard, with glasses of a high power, it is a good hour’s work 
to obtain a satisfactory sight of one of the uplifted creatures. 
