520 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE 



Neither of the races of the Orange-crowned Warbler is abundant in the 

 Yosemite section, the birds being greatly outnumbered by that closely 

 related and more typically Sierran species, the Calaveras Warbler, We 

 saw the Lutescent Warbler (the west-Sierran race) on a few occasions, and 

 the other, the Rocky Mountain Orange-cro^^^l, came definitely to attention 

 only around Mono Lake Post Office on May 24 and 26, 1916. 



In Yosemite Valley we did not record the presence of Lutescent 

 Warblers until June 8, 1915, when three fully grown juvenile birds w'ere 

 seen in a thicket of chokecherry bushes. They came to our attention as 

 a result of their own curiosity concerning our close examination of the 

 nest of a remonstrant Yellow Warbler; otherwise, these Lutescents might 

 have escaped observation altogether. The fact that we did not see or hear 

 adults of this species in the Valley previously suggests that these three 

 were up-mountain migrants. Probabty they had been reared at some 

 station in the foothills where the parents were still engaged in the rearing 

 of another brood. Later in the j^ear other representatives of the Lutescent 

 Warbler were encountered still higher in the mountains. At an altitude 

 of 10,500 feet on the slopes of Mount Clark no less than six of these birds 

 were noted on August 22, 1915 ; single individuals were recorded at Wash- 

 burn Lake August 24, and near the foot of Vogelsang Pass on August 31 

 and September 2, 1915. In the western foothill country the Lutescent 

 Warbler was encountered in spring at only two stations, near Coulterville, 

 May 11, 1919, and at Bullion Mountain, May 26, 1915. 



Mr. Joseph Mailliard (1918, p. 17) says that in 1917 "the Lutescent 

 Warbler w^as first seen [by him in Yosemite Valley] September 18, after 

 which its numbers increased slowly until the 26th, when a small wave 

 of migration reached the valley, the eastern end of Sequoia Lane being 

 especially popular as a feeding and resting place." It was estimated that 

 75 were noted on that one morning. Next day very few were to be seen. 

 Four were noted on the 29th. 



The males of these warblers (Orange-crowned and Lutescent) have on 

 the head an orange-colored crown patch whence the common and scien- 

 tific species names are derived. This crown patch, however, can rarely 

 be seen when the bird is out of hand, and so is not serviceable as a field 

 character. The bird's general greenish coloration, unrelieved by wing 

 bars or tail spots, its tinny-toned song, and its rather deliberate move- 

 ments for a warbler, must be depended upon for its identification out of 

 doors. 



