I =5 8 Barlow, Nesting of the Hermit Warbler. \_.\p^\ 



song while on the border of the clearings, while the Hermit was 

 more deliberate in its movements. 



On June 14, I was located at Fyffe, El Dorado Co., and 

 shortly after lunch sauntered along a trail leading off the old 

 stage road and was soon in a growth of yellow pine, which was 

 here and there interspersed with a small clearing where a giant 

 spruce or fir had once towered, but which had long since found 

 its way to the saw-mill. The clay was cloudy and the birds were 

 in fuller song than usual at this time of the day. Several War- 

 blers were at first watched to no effect. I was carefully scanning 

 the trees, and presently saw a small dark spot among the needles 

 near the top of a slender pine which stood in a small open space 

 close to a large black oak. No birds came to view, so 1 climbed 

 the tree, and when well toward the top the uncertain spot became 

 with certainty a small nest, and a moment later I could discern a 

 reddish lining of cedar bark and four eggs which I concluded 

 were those of the Hermit Warbler. Waiting a few moments and 

 not disturbing the nest, soon one and then both birds appeared, 

 settling all doubt as to the identity of the nest. Both hopped 

 slowly about in the top of a black oak exhibiting very little con- 

 cern and occasionally uttering a weak tseet; but no song was 

 given at this time. Leaving the nest I watched the bird from the 

 ground. She flew to the pine and hopped now up and then down, 

 picking at the limb at each hop and finally disappearing into the 

 nest. Returning shortly after with camera I again climbed the 

 tree, the female leaving the nest when I was several feet from it. 

 With difficulty, sitting astride a small limb, I made several pic- 

 tures of the nest in situ. 



The nest was 45 feet from the ground in a yellow pine, built 

 four feet from the trunk of the tree on an up-curved limb 18 

 inches from the end. The nest rested nearly on the pine needles 

 at the junction of two small limbs. Carefully wrapping the eggs 

 I sawed off the limb supporting the nest ; this seemed to excite 

 the birds more than anything else, both hopping about and utter- 

 ing their tseet, tscet at a lively rate. When I finally descended, 

 the birds hopped about the tree and to the spot where the nest 

 had been ; then one would fly to a large spruce near by and 

 launch into a weak song. I collected the female parent. 



