156 Barlow, Nesting of the Hermit Warbler. [jjjjj 



NESTING OF THE HERMIT WARBLER IN THE SIERRA 

 NEVADA MOUNTAINS, CALIFORNIA. 



BY CHESTER BARLOW. 



It was in the summer of 1896 while quietly and leisurely- 

 working my way down a steep hill, through a tangle of manzanita 

 and deer brush into a growth of pines, that I met my first Her- 

 mit Warbler in life. I had arrived in the Sierra Nevada Moun- 

 tains of El Dorado Co., Cal., a few days previously, and when I 

 first ventured to explore the woodland, the many similar dainty 

 bird songs from the heavy foliaged black oaks, made positive 

 acquaintance with the various Warblers, by song alone, a 

 difficult matter. This was partially overcome later, but when the 

 notes were mingled in the tree-tops early in the morning, with the 

 little musicians deftly hidden amongst the leaves, it was never 

 easy to always name the songster. Of the Warblers the genus 

 Dendroica was represented by nigresccns, auduboni, occidentalis and 

 cestiva, with the latter least common, while the Calaveras (Hel- 

 minthophila rubricapilla gtttturalis) and Macgillivray's Warblers 

 (Geotklypis macgillivrayi) were quite common in the underbrush 

 and the roselike shrub known as ' mountain misery,' both of 

 the latter, however, often feeding in the trees, usually in the black 

 oaks. I also shot one specimen of the Lutescent Warbler (Hel- 

 ??iintJwphilacelata lutescens) in this locality, which was the only one 

 seen. My observations ranged from 3,000 to 4,500 feet altitude, 

 but the nesting sites were all at 3.700 feet, which formed a part of 

 the transition zone, in which species of both the valley and 

 higher mountains were nesting. 



So on July 19, 1896, while whiling away an afternoon on the 

 wooded hillside, a Hermit Warbler (Dendroica occidentalis) flitted 

 noiselessly down through the pines and alighted on a bush ten 

 feet distant, its light yellow head and black throat setting off its 

 plumage with rather an odd effect. This specimen I collected, 

 it proving to be a male bird. Thereafter it was met with fre- 

 quently, seeming to prefer the coniferous trees, where it flitted 

 about feeding and indulging in an occasional burst of song. 



