154 TOWNSEND'S WARBLER 



with feathers." Bowles 4 states that "the nests externally are about 

 3x2! inches and internally ifxif in diameter and depth. They 

 are composed externally of grass and weed-stalks that must be several 

 seasons old, being bleached, and very soft moss and feathers ; lined with 

 feathers (one had evidently been lined from a dead Steller Jay), horse, 

 cow, and rabbit hair or fur, and sometimes the very fine stems of 

 flowers of some kind of moss." 



Eggs. 3 or 4, usually 4. Ground color white to very pale 

 greenish white, delicately marked with specks and spots of red-brown, 

 purplish, and under shell markings of pale lavender, forming a well- 

 defined wreath around the large end with few spots and specks spar- 

 ingly distributed over rest of the egg. Size; average, .6o,x.5o. (Figs. 

 69-71.) 



Nesting Dates. Mountains north of Pasadena, Calif., May 19, 

 four small young in nest; June 26, three eggs incubated (Grinnell) ; 

 Fyffe, Eldorado Co., Calif., June 5 (C. W. C.) ; Tacoma, Wash., May 

 i4-June 24 (Bowles). 



BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES 



(i) A. G. PRILL, Black-throated Gray Warbler, (in Oregon), Oologist, 

 IX, 1892, 128. (2) C. BARLOW, The Nesting Haunts of the Black-throated 

 Gray Warbler (in Calif.), Bull. Cooper Orn. Club (=Condor), I, 1899, 96. 

 (3) O. W. HOWARD, Summer Resident Warblers of Arizona, Bull. Cooper Orn. 

 Club (=Condor), I, 1899, 64. (4) C. W. BOWLES, Notes on the Black-throated 

 Gray Warbler (in Oregon), Condor, IV, 1902, 82. (5) W. L. FINLEY, Two 

 Oregon Warblers, The Condor. VI, 1904, 31. 



TOWNSEND'S WARBLER 



DENDROICA TOWNSENDI (Towns.) Plate XV 



Distinguishing Characters. The adult c? in Spring may be known by its 

 black throat and crown and black cheeks surrounded by yellow lines; in other 

 plumages the yellow or yellowish throat, black spots or bases to feathers of 

 crown, yellow mark below eye and dusky or olive cheeks, surrounded by yel- 

 low, are characteristic. Length (skin), 4.60; wing, 2.60; tail, 1.95; bill, .35. 



Adult <$, Spring. Crown black, rest of upperparts olive-green spotted 

 with black; a black band through the cheeks bordered above by a yellow 

 superciliary line, below by a yellow stripe on the side of the throat which 

 broadens into a yellow patch on the side of the neck; a yellow spot under 

 eye; tail margined with grayish, both webs of two outer feathers largely 

 white, the inner web of third to fourth feather with white at the 

 end ; wings margined with grayish ; end half of median coverts white, greater 

 coverts tipped with white forming two conspicuous bands ; throat and upper 

 breast black, lower breast yellow, belly white, sides streaked with black. 



Adult <$, Fall. Similar to adult c? in Spring but black areas nearly con- 

 cealed by olive-green tips; black cheeks with slight greenish tips; black on 



