66 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



that no one is'watching them while they are house-building or, later, 

 when they are feeding their little ones. I have often known them to 

 build decoy nests when they knew that they were observed, and have 

 known them, too, to leave a nest when they were certain that it had 

 been found. The only evidence of short-sightedness in their endeavors 

 to keep their homes secret is the violent scolding to which they treat 

 every intruder, thereby notifying him of the fact that they have a home 

 near by. 



Their nests are made of grasses, rootlets and fibres, lined with horse 

 hair. They lay four, and sometimes five white eggs specked and 

 spotted with brown and lavender; size .60x.50 inches. Their song is 

 one of the most familiar and characteristic of the eastern Warblers. It 

 is a spirited, high-keyed ditty, something like "zee-zee-ze-ze-zee-zee" 

 with the first four notes high pitched, the fifth considerably lower and 

 the sixth mid-way between the others. It is a very welcome song and 

 one not to be mistaken for that of an\ other bird. 



TOWNSEND WARBLER. 



A. O- U- No. 668- (Dendroica townsendi.) 



RANGE. 



Western North America, breeding from southern California north to 

 British Columbia and southern Alaska; east to western Colorado. 

 Winters in southern Mexico and Guatemala. 



HABITS. 



These birds are very similar to, and almost might be called the 

 western Black-throat Greens, differing only in the black ear patches 

 and blackish crown. They are found in coniferous districts and are 

 common in certain localities. 



In the spring they first reach the United States from their winter 

 quarters in Guatemala about the middle of April where they are quite 

 common in the Huachuca Mountains of southern Arizona. They slowly 

 work their way nortnward, bands dropping out to settle in certain 

 regions, until they reach British Columbia and southern Alaska, which 

 marks the northern limit of their distribution, about a month later. 

 They at once commence house-keeping, building their nests in the 

 same situations that the eastern Black-throated Greens do; their four 

 eggs are very similar to, and usually cannot be distinguished from 

 those of the preceding. They raise' but one brood in a season and by 



