HABITS OF THE HERMIT WARBLER 259 



throat the same, fading on the breast into the dull white of the other under 

 parts ; sides with obsolete streaks, and a slight grayish-olive wash. There 

 is no black whatever about the head or throat, and the blackish streaks of 

 the back are obsolete. The wings are twice barred with the conspicuous 

 white tips of the greater and median wing-coverts. 



On the technical questions involved in the consideration of D, chrysoparia 

 and D. niveivenlris, see especially Ibis, 1865, 87. 



MY own experience with this Warbler in the field is limited 

 to the summary shooting of one, before I knew what it 

 was, in some thick scrub-oak bushes near Fort Whipple, Arizona, 

 September 3, 1864. In the same Territory, Mr. Henshaw lately 

 collected a series of specimens during August and September, 

 finding the birds in such close association with Townsend's 

 Warblers, and so similar in habits and general appearance, that 

 it was impossible to distinguish the two species at the distance 

 at which they were usually seen. The bird appears to be only 

 a migrant in the Colorado Basin : it passes into Mexico in the 

 fall, along with various other Warblers, and proceeds in some 

 cases at least as far south as Guatemala, always showing an 

 attachment to high pine-clad regions, like those of the far north, 

 where it was originally discovered many years since by Nuttall 

 and Townsend. There is no evidence that it breeds in the south- 

 erly portion of our territory ; but this lack of positive evidence 

 to such effect does not prevent my surmise that it will, sooner 

 or later, be shown to inhabit the higher pine belts of the Colo- 

 rado watershed, where it is now only known as a migrant. We 

 have very little information respecting its habits ; in fact, noth- 

 ing beyond our knowledge of its geographical distribution and 

 general movements has been added to the memoranda which 

 its discoverers left us. Mr. Townsend shot his birds, a pair, on 

 the 28th of May, 1835, near Fort Vancouver, whilst they were 

 fluttering through the depths of the pine woods in search of in- 

 sects ; he saw them hanging from the twigs like Titmice, and 

 thought that their notes resembled those of the Black-throated 

 Blue Warbler. Mr. Nuttall's notice is more extended, and fur- 

 nished the basis of the name " Hermit " Warbler, given in con- 

 sequence of what he calls the " eremitic predilection " of the 

 bird. He observed it with difficulty in the tops of the pine 

 trees, where it searches for its food, and where, he had no doubt, 

 the nest would also be found. "Its song", he continues, " fre- 

 quently heard from the same place, at very regular intervals, 

 for an hour or two at a time, is a soft, moody, faint, and monot- 



