ys Gbe TOarbler 



grasses, bark-strippings, weed-stems and horse-hair. Rootlets enter largely 

 into the nest-linings. The typical nest is rather shaggy without and exqui- 

 sitely neat within. Most of the nests are quite deeply cupped, and some of 

 them markedly so. The nests are uniformly smaller than those of the Mourn- 

 ing Warbler. 



More readily, by far, than her wilder cousin, does the female Tolmie 

 flutter from her nest when one-who-knows-how invades her domain. This 

 fact makes the search for the nests of this Warbler a matter of rarest fasci- 

 nation. Once, on a 12th of June, I set out into Cambria canyon after my 

 favorite W'arblers. The coal train had just thundered by, on the steep down 

 grade, when I heard the sweet wierd song of a male Tolmie. Then, turning 

 aside from the railway grade, I stepped into a winding wagon road that crept 

 into the mazes among the giant cottonwoods along the creek. At the second 

 flick of my willow wand a Tolmie Warbler fluttered from her nest, ensconced 

 between a tiny hackberry and a willow, where these were interlaced amid a 

 rose-bush tangle, at two feet in height. 



The actions of this female were thoroughly typical. She disappeared, 

 at the first, among the undergrowth, but presently emerged and flitted about, 

 near me, placidly and unconcernedly iterating her characteristic "jit". But 

 the nest contents were a great surprise. In the depth of the rootlet-and-hair- 

 lined cup there lay six fresh eggs. All were remarkably uniform in mark- 

 ings yet rather abnormal in character, resembling eggs of Parus rather than 

 those of Geothlypis. 



The normal egg of Tolmie is of a rather glossy white character, and 

 the usual markings are in blotches rather than in spots. Rich red-brown is 

 a dominant color, this being normally blended or in part overlaid with lilac 

 or pale cinnamon. But there are many variations. One remarkably hand- 

 some 1905 set is delicately hair-lined and stippled with warm red-brown. 

 Another, most odd in markings, is covered with faint, delicate maps of the 

 American Possessions, one egg of the set being capped with an exquisite 

 blending of warm and pale brown tints. 



The nest of this Warbler is usually rather deeply hidden in the leafage. 

 It may be placed at any height from a couple of inches from the ground up 

 to a couple of feet, possibly more, on occasion. Vertical crotches of rose and 

 gooseberry appear to be most favored, yet many nests are supported by sur- 

 rounding stems and branchlets of all sorts, living and dead. This is partic- 

 ularlv true when the site is near the ground. 



As indicated above, the locations are in rather open brushland, amid 

 swampy places. Occasional nests are placed quite in the open, as the fol- 

 lowing most happy experience will show. Passing through an open area of 

 small aspen, bordering a series of springy willow thickets, that strange, oc- 

 casional telepathic experience of nest finding was vouchsafed me. Almost 

 sub-consciously I found my vision resting upon the up-cocked tail and pa- 



