286 RED-FACED WARBLER 



Summer Range. — Mexican Tableland north to southern Arizona 

 (Santa Catalina Mountains) and southern New Mexico. 



Winter Range. — Mexico south to Guatemala. 



Spring Migration. — Huachuca Mountains, Arizona, April 20. 



The Bird and its Haunts. — This singularly colored Warbler was 

 added to our fauna July 12, 1874, by H. W. Henshaw^ who found it 

 near Camp Apache and on Mount Graham in southern Arizona. In 

 the latter locality, later in the month, it proved to be common, "flocks 

 of ten or fifteen being not unusual among the pines and spruces; it 

 frequented these trees almost exclusively, only rarely being seen on the 

 bushes that fringed the streams. Its habits are a rather strange com- 

 pound, now resembling those of Warblers, again recalling the Red- 

 start's, but more often, perhaps, bringing to mind the less graceful mo- 

 tions of the familiar Titmice. Their favorite hunting places appeared 

 to be the extremities of the limbs of the spruces, over the branches of 

 which they passed with quick motion, and a peculiar and constant side- 

 wise jerk of the tail." 



Nesting Site. — Although the nest of this species was first dis- 

 covered by Mearns' on June 19, 1886, in the Mogollon Mountains, 

 Arizona, this naturalist did not publish his observations until July, 

 1890. In the meantime, Price^ had found it breeding in the Huachuca 

 Mountains, on May 31, 1888, and later its nesting habits were studied 

 by Howard*. The nests found by these ornithologists were all placed 

 on the ground beneath a tuft of grass, a hillside being a favorite 

 location. 



Nest. — Price^ describes the nest as such a "poor attempt at nest 

 building and made of such loose materials that it crumbled to frag- 

 ments on being removed. The chief substance was fine fibrous weed 

 stalks while the lining consisted of fine grass, rootlets, plant fibers, and 

 a few hairs." 



Eggs. — 4. The set collected by Price is described by Bendire as 

 follows : "They are ovate in shape. Their ground color is a delicate 

 creamy white, and they are spotted with small blotches of cinnamon 

 rufous and a few dots of heliotrope purple and pale lavender. These 

 form a wreath around the larger end. They resemble the eggs of 

 H elminthophila lucia and H. Virginia to a certain extent." Size; 

 "They measure .66x.so, .67X.S0, .66X.50 and .66X.50." 



Biographical References 



(i) H. W. Henshaw, Zool. Expl. W. looth Merid., 211. (2) W. W. 

 Price, Nesting of the Red-faced Warbler in the Huachuca Mountains, Southern 

 Arizona, Auk, V, 1888, 385. (3) E. A. Mearns, Observations on the Avifauna 



