western yellow-throat 259 



Western Yellow-throat 



GEOTHLYPIS TRICHAS OCCIDENTALIS Brewst. 



Subspecific Characters. — The largest and most richly colored of our Yellow- 

 throats; the underparts are often continuously orange-yellow from throat to 

 crissum, the sides being brownish, the belly washed with the same color. As a 

 rule, however, the belly shows some buffy whitish, though rarely as much as 

 in brachidactyla; the back averages grayer than in brachidactyla, but the main 

 character of this form is the broad, nearly white but sometimes yellow-tinged, 

 posterior border of the black mask of breeding specimens. Arizona specimens 

 average, wing, 2.30; tail, 2.10; bill, .44. A specimen from Fort Custer measures, 

 wing, 2.38 ; tail, 2.20 ; bill, .42. 



General Range. — Western United States. 



Summer Range. — Northern Mexico, north to the Canadian border, 

 east to the Great Plains, west to California, reaching the coast in the 

 southern half of the state. The bird's exact relations with G. t. arizela 

 in California remain to be determined. 



Winter Range. — Southern California (there a permanent resident 

 =G. t. scirpicola Grinnell), and the Mexican border south into 

 Mexico. 



The Bird and its Haunts. — In its general habits the Western Yel- 

 low-throat so closely resembles its eastern relatives that observers have 

 considered a statement to this effect, all that was necessary in recording 

 its status. Cooke states that in Colorado it is a common summer resi- 

 dent almost confined to the plains, though it has been found breeding 

 as high as 9,000 feet. 



At Flathead Lake, Montana, Silloway lists it as not uncommon in 

 the bushes along Crow Creek, and common in the bushes and weeds of 

 Daphnia Pond. In Nevada, Ridgway "found this bird abundant in all 

 the bushy localities in the vicinity of water, but it was confined to the 

 lower portions, never being seen high up on the mountains, nor even in 

 the lower portions of the mountain canons." (B. B. & R.) 



Walter Fisher, however, writes that it occurs about Lake Tahoe, 

 his statement of its status in California being as follows : "The Western 

 Yellow-throat ranges into California by way of the back-door and 

 occurs very locally the whole length of the state, east of the Sierra 

 Nevada Mountains. It pushes westward into the Shasta Valley, north 

 of Mount Shasta, and ascends the Sierras as high as about 6,000 feet 

 (Lake Tahoe). In the coast district of southern California, south of 

 latitude 35°, it is a permanent resident of the freshwater tule beds, this 

 resident form having been separated under the name scirpicola. 

 Wherever the tule or bulrush is found whether in marshes or by 

 streams, lakes, or even spring-holes, the Yellow-throat takes up its 



