154 TOWNSEND'S WARBLER 



with feathers." Bowles* states that "the nests externally are about 

 3X2| inches and internally ifxif in diameter and depth. They 

 are composed externally of grass and weed-stalks that must be several 

 seasons old, being bleached, and very soft moss and feathers ; lined with 

 feathers (one had evidently been lined from a dead Steller Jay), horse, 

 cow, and rabbit hair or fur, and sometimes the very fine stems of 

 flowers of some kind of moss." 



^SS^- — 3 or 4, usually 4. Ground color white to very pale 

 greenish white, delicately marked with specks and spots of red-brown, 

 purplish, and under shell markings of pale lavender, forming a well- 

 defined wreath around the large end with few spots and specks spar- 

 ingly distributed over rest of the egg. Size; average, .69X.50. (Figs. 

 69-71.) 



Nesting Dates. — Mountains north of Pasadena, Calif,, May 19, 

 four small young in nest; June 26, three eggS incubated (Grinnell) ; 

 FyfFe, Eldorado Co., Calif., June 5 (C. W. C.) ; Tacoma, Wash., May 

 14- June 24 (Bowles). 



Biographical References 



(i) A. G. Prill, Black-throated Gray Warbler, (in Oregon), Oologist, 

 IX, 1892, 128. (2) C. Baklow, The Nesting Haunts of the Black-throated 

 Gray Warbler (in Calif.), Bull. Cooper Orn. Club (=Condor), I, 1899, 96. 

 (3) O. W. Howard, Summer Resident Warblers of Arizona, Bull. Cooper Orn. 

 Club (^Condor), I, 1899, 64. (4) C. W. Bowles, Notes on the Black-throated 

 Gray Warbler (in Oregon), Condor, IV, 1902, 82. (5) W. L. Finley, Two 

 Oregon Warblers, The Condor. VI, 1904, 31. 



TOWNSEND'S Warbler 



DENDROICA TOWNSENDI (Towns.) Plate XV 



Distinguishing Characters. — ^The adult c? in Spring may be known by its 

 black throat and crown and black cheeks surrounded by yellow lines; in other 

 plumages the yellow or yellowish throat, black spots or bases to feathers of 

 crown, yellow mark below eye and dusky or olive cheeks, surrounded by yel- 

 low, are characteristic. Leng^th (skin), 4.60; wing, 2.60; tail, i.9S; bill, .35. 



Adult <S, Spring. — Crown black, rest of upperparts olive-green spotted 

 with black; a black band through the cheeks bordered above by a yellow 

 superciliary line, below by a yellow stripe on the side of the throat which 

 broadens into a yellow patch on the side of the neck; a yellow spot under 

 eye; tail margined with grayish, both webs of two outer feathers largely 

 white, the inner web of third to fourth feather with white at the 

 end; wings margined with grayish; end half of median coverts white, greater 

 coverts tipped with white forming two conspicuous; bands ; throat and upper 

 breast black, lower breast yellow, belly white, sides streaked with black. 



Adult S, Fall. — Similar to adult <S in Spring but black areas nearly con- 

 cealed by olive-green tips ; black cheeks with slight greenish tips ; black on 



