iS4 THE AUDUBON WARBLEEi 



in height, wliilc tin- |uiki> licld a stali"n even liifjlicr <<ii the tip of aiiotlier fir a 

 block away. Here tliey liail it l)ack and furtli, with liuiiurs siiri»risingly even, 

 until lK>th were tireil. wlieren|j<>n (and imt till then) an Oregon Towhce ven- 

 tured to bring t"i>rlh his )ir<)sy rattle. It was like Sanilxi and his "txines" after 

 an opera. 



The range of Audubon's Warbler is aljout coe.\tensi\e with that of ever- 

 green limber in Washington. It does not, however, fre(|uent all the more oj)en 

 pine woods of the lower foot-hills in the eastern part of the State, nor docs it 

 occur habitually in the deeper solitudes <tf the western forests. Consiilcrc*! 

 altitiKlinally. its range exteiuls from sea-level ^^) timber-line. And alt ho it is at 

 home in the highest moinitains, it is eciually so in the city |»ark and in the slia<le 

 trees al)oul the house. L'n<ler such varied conditions, therefore, its habits 

 must vary widely. 



We do not know to what extent it is resident, that is, present the year 

 around, but believe that it is cpiite extensively so. (^ne may l)e in the woods 

 for a dull week in January, and see never a Warbler; but on a bright day in 

 the same region he may encounter numbers of them. I have seen them |)laying 

 about the dense firs on Semiahmoo Point ( I. at. 4^/ ) on Christmas Day, and 1 

 feel sure that large numbers of them spend the winter in the tree-tops, jxissibly 

 mo|)ing. after the well known fashion of the Sooty Grouse. 



It is these winter residents which Ijccome active in early si)ring. In the 

 vicinity of 'I'acoma, where they have been studied most carefully, it is found 

 that April is the typical nesting month, and one at least of the four eggs of a 

 nest found .April gth, 1903, must have been de|)<isited in March. .Along alKiut 

 the 25lh of April great numlx-rs of .Audubons arrive from the South, and one 

 may sec indolent companies of them lounging thru the trees, while resident 

 birds are busy feeding young. These migrants may be destined for our own 

 mountains as well as British Columbia. ICast-side birds arc likewise tardy in 

 arrival, for pine trees are inade(|uatc shelter for wintry experiments. 



The absorbing duty of s|)ringtimc is nesting, and to this art the .Audulxins 

 give themselves with becoming ardor. The female floes the work, while the 

 male cheers her with song, and not infrequently trails about after her, useless 

 but sympathetic. Into a certain tidy grove near Tacoma the bird-man entered 

 one crisp morning in April. The trees stofxl about like decorous candlesticks, 

 but the place hummed with Kinglets and clattered with Juncoes and Au<lul»ons. 

 One Audulym, a female, .idvcrtised her business to all comers. I saw her, up- 

 on the ground, wrestling with a large white chicken- feather, and .sputtering ex- 

 citedly between tussles. The feather was cvi<lently too big or too stiff or too 

 wet for her ])ropcr taste: but finally she flew away across the gmvc with it. 

 chirping merrily. .And since she repeated her precise course three times, it was 

 an easy matter to trace her some fifteen rods straight to her nest, forty feet up 

 on an ascending fir branch. 



