THE AUDUBON WARBLER. 183 



rootlets, etc., heavily lined with horse-hair and feathers ; placed usually on branch 

 of conifer from four to fifty feet up, sometimes in small tree close against 

 trunk, measures 4 inches in width outside by 2-)'4 in depth ; inside 2 by ijX. Eggs: 

 3-5, usually 4, (lull greenish white sparingly dotted with blackish or handsomely 

 ringed, spotted and blotched with reddish brown, black and lavender. Av. size, 

 .71 X.54 118x13.7). Season: April-June; two broods. Tacoma, .\pril 9, 1905, 

 4 eggs half incubated. 



General Range. — Western North America, north to British Columbia, east 

 to western border of the Great Plains, breeding thruout its range ( in higher 

 coniferous forests of California, northern Arizona, etc.), wintering in lower 

 valleys and southward thruout Mexico. Accidental in Massachusetts and in 

 Pennsylvania. 



Range in Washington. — Common resident and migrant on West-side from 

 tidewater to limit of trees; less conmion migrant and rare winter resident ( ?j east 

 of the Cascades. 



Migrations. — Spring: East-side: "S'akima, Marcli 11, 1900 (probably winter 

 resident I ; Yakima, April 13, 1900; Chelan, April 20-24, 1896. West-side: 

 Tacoma, .\pril 24, 1906. 



-Authorities. — Sylvia auduboni Townsend, Journ. Ac. Xat. Sci. Phila. VII. 

 1837, 191 ("forests of the Columbia River"j. C&S. L'. Rh. D". Kb. Ra. D^. Kk. 

 B. E. 



Specimens.— U. of W. P- Prov. B. BN. E. 



AS one considers the Thrushes, Wrens, and vSparrows of our northern 

 clime, he is apt to grumble a little at the niggardliness of Mother Nature in the 

 matter of providing party clothes. The dark mood is instantly dispelled, how- 

 ever, at the sight of this vision of loveliness. Black, white, and gray-blue 

 make a very tasty mixture in themselves, as the Black-throated Gray W^arbler 

 can testify, but when to these is added the splendor of five golden garnishes, 

 crown, gorget, epaulets, and culet, you have a costume which Pan must notice. 

 And for all he is so bedecked, aiiduhom is neither ])roud nor vain. — properly 

 modest and companionable withal. 



Westerly, at least, he is among the first voices of springtime, and by the 

 loth of March, while all other W^arblers are still skulking silently in the South- 

 land, this brave spirit is making the fir groves echo to his melody. The song is 

 brief and its theme nearly invariable, as is the case with most Warblers ; but 

 there is about it a joyous, racy quality, which flicks the admiration and calls 

 time on Spring. The singer posts in a high fir tree, that all may hear, and the 

 notes pour out rapidly, crowding close upon each other. tilUthe whole company 

 is lost in a cloud of spray at the end of the ditty. At close quarters, the "fill- 

 ing" is exquisite, but if one is a little way removed, where lie catches only the 

 crests of the sound waves, it is natural to call the effort a trill. .\t a good 

 distance it is even comparable to the pure, monotonous tinkling of junco. 



I once heard these two dissimilar birrls in a song contest. The Warbler 

 stood ujion a favorite ]H'rch of his. a sijindling. solitarv fir some hundred feet 



