The Orange-crowned Warblers 



Nesting. — Nest: On the ground, usually on partially shaded hillside, and 

 often recessed in bank; of weeds, moss, and woodland waste, lined with dried grasses 

 and horsehair. Eggs: 4 or 5; white, heavily speckled, chiefly about larger end, 

 with dull reddish brown. Av. size: 15.8 x 11.9 (.62 x .47); index, 76. Season: April 

 -June; two broods. 



Range of I*. c. lutescens. — Summer resident in the Pacific Coast district of 

 North America, broadly defined, and occasionally spilling over upon the eastern 

 slopes of the main ranges in Oregon, Washington, etc.; breeding from the mountains 

 of southern California north (at least) to the Kenai Peninsula; south in winter beyond 

 the border of the United States to Guatemala. 



Distribution in California. — Early spring migrant and summer resident west 

 of the Sierran divide; breeding in semi-wooded areas of the Upper Sonoran and Tran- 

 sition zones; also common east of the Sierras northerly, where inclining toward orestera; 

 apparently passes entirely beyond the State in winter. 



Authorities. — Gambel (Vermivora celata), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., iii., 

 1847, p. 155, part (Calif.); Finley, Condor, vol. vi., 1904, p. 131, figs, (nesting habits, 

 nests and eggs; photos of adults, young and nest); Oberholser, Auk, vol. xxii., 1905, 

 p. 245 (distr., desc, meas., crit.) ; Beal, U. S. Dept. Agric, Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 30, 

 1907, p. 51 part (food). 



Photo by J. H. Boides , 



THE NAME "Warbler" as applied to the American family Mniotil- 

 tidcB is rather a misnomer. Originally applied to the Old World Sylviidce, 

 KI ^ __ a __ 1 _ B . the word becomes intel- 



ligible with us only by 



Taken in Washington U S i n £f the O T G f i X 



" 'Wood." Of the sixteen 

 genera of American 

 Wood Warblers now 

 recognized by our 

 A.O.U. Committee, only 

 two, Seiurus (the Water- 

 Thrushes) and Icteria 

 (the Chat), are conspic- 

 uous in song. The rest 

 all have characteristic 

 utterances, technically 

 called songs, but they sel- 

 dom achieve the dignity 

 or suggested sweetness 

 of "warblers." These 

 "songs" are, rather, in 

 every case, a conven- 

 tionalized phrase, a 

 nest and eggs of lutescent warbler crystallized and stereo- 



444 



