::::::::atx TWO BIRD- lovers in MEXICO Afe-™- 



blance to those with which we were famihar in field 

 and meadow at home. Archqypuii was surely here, and 

 our identical Vanessa antlopa. What a world o£ differ- 

 ence one's jjersonal point of view makes ! A Mexican 

 in New York State would exclaim with wonder that the 

 marhposus of Mexico had strayed to so distant a land. 



The Pileolated Warbler and the Western Gnat- 

 catcher were tAvo small friends which we first met at 

 the edge of the barranca. They were cheerful little 

 bodies, forever busy searching leaves and twigs and 

 flowers for tiny insects. Perhaps to this unflagging 

 activity was due the fact that they seemed able to find 

 a substantial living in all sorts and conditions of j)laces. 

 The Pileolated Warbler — so like our Wilson Black- 

 cap, but of a brighter yellow — never became com- 

 mon, and yet in every list of birds we made, whether 

 of upland, marsh, cactus desert, harranca, or tropical 

 jungle, he was sure to have a place. He w^as not j^ar- 

 ticular as to his winter home, but found everywhere 

 enough to keep his black-crowned little head busy 

 picking and picking, interpolating a sharp ch ip I now 

 and then, between mouthfuls. 



But his co-sojovirner, the Western Gnatcatcher, four 

 inches or so of bluish gray and white energy, was 

 many times more numerous, and, if possible, even more 

 cosmopolitan. The characteristic tyang ! tyang 1 ysss! 

 which they first twanged for us in the mesquite, found 

 an echo wherever we rode or camped, from tableland 



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