262 HABITS OF TOWNSENd's WARBLER 



with US through the winter. Dr. Brewer, indeed, says that Dr. 

 Cooper saw one at Sboalwater Bay in December; but on turning 

 to both of Dr. Cooper's works in which this species is men- 

 tioned, I find that he only saw at Shoalwater what he " supposed 

 to be this species ", and did not secure the specimen. The same 

 gentleman's statement that he shot two specimens in November, 

 1855, in Santa Clara County, California, furnishes, so far as I 

 am aware, the record of the latest lingering of the species over 

 our border. All of Mr. Henshaw's Arizona specimens were 

 taken in September, during the migration. Mr. C. E. Aiken's 

 Colorado examples were procured in August and September. 

 The extralimital records, from Mexico and Central America, 

 relate, probably without exception, to occurrences in winter or 

 during the migration. We have consequently in this species a 

 bird which occupies the United States in summer from Colorado 

 to Sitka, breeding in an unascertained portion of such extent 

 of country from the Eocky Mountains to the Pacific, and which 

 late in the fall entirely withdraws from the United States to 

 winter in Mexico and Central America. The date of its return 

 in spring over our border is not known. I have already indi- 

 cated what I presume to be its actual breeding range. In the 

 summer, it is confined to the pine regions, at high elevations in 

 southerly districts, but down to sea-level in the farther north. 

 During the migrations, it is much more generally dispersed ; 

 for Dr. Cooper has observed it among low willows and other 

 bushes. 



In tracing its distribution and migrations, we should not over- 

 look the unexpected occurrence of this bird, in one exceptional 

 instance, near Philadelphia, as attested by the Eev, Dr. W. P. 

 Turnbull, in his elegant little treatise upon the Birds of East 

 Pennsylvania and New Jersey. A fuU-plumaged male was shot 

 in Chester County, near the Brandywine, on the 12th of May, 

 1868, and preserved in his collection. 



Mr. Henshaw has left more copious notes than any other 

 writer whom I have consulted in the preparation of this article — 

 for I never saw the bird alive, and have nothing of my own to 

 contribute to its history. He found these Warblers numerous at 

 Mount Graham, in Arizona, during the mouth of September, 

 though he experienced some difficulty in securing specimens, as 

 the birds kept in the tops of the tallest trees, where only occa- 

 sional glimpses rewarded the perseverance with which he 

 endeavored to mark them as they dashed out after insects, or 



