The Orange-crowned Warblers 



typed publication of presence, declaration of love, and all 

 purpose medium. These phrases, or song-cries, are 

 specifically characteristic in form, quality, and em- 

 phasis, but they are so tiny, and so high removed 

 from the human plane, that their successful identi- 

 fication offers the severest test of the discrimination 

 and the enthusiasm of the bird-student. Quaint, 

 queer, bizarre, rather than tuneful, these tiny 

 offerings, nevertheless, afford the keenest delight 

 to the critical ear of the seasoned amateur. 



The song of the Lutescent Warbler 

 appears to have been very largely 

 overlooked, but it was not the bird's 

 fault. While waiting for his tardy 

 mate, he has been rehearsing dili- 

 gently from the taller bushes of the 

 thicket, or else from some higher vantage 

 point of poplar, sycamore or ceanothus. 

 The burden is intended for fairy ears, but 

 he that hath ears to hear let him hear a 

 curious vowel scale, an inspirated rattle or 

 trill, which descends and ends in a simple 

 twitter of several notes. The trill, brief as 

 it is, has three qualities of change which 

 make it quite unique. At the opening the 

 notes are full and slow, but in the instant 

 necessary to the entire recital the pace ac- 

 celerates, the pitch rises slightly, and the 

 component notes decrease in volume, or 

 size. At the climax the tension breaks 

 unexpectedly in the gentle, musical 

 cadence of the concluding phrases, 

 whose notes much resemble certain 

 of the Yellow Warbler's. The opening trill carries to a considerable dis- 

 tance, but the sweetness of the closing warble is lost to any but near 

 listeners. The whole may be rendered graphically somewhat as follows: 

 O-o-a-a-i-i-e-e-e-e-e-e wichy, wichy, wichy. 



In the brush and under alarm these birds utter a brusque, metallic 

 scolding note, which is perfectly distinctive locally, although it much 

 resembles that of the Oporornis group East. By this mark alone may the 

 mere yellowish female be certainly discerned. 



Yellow appears to be the prevailing color among our western Wood 



A HUNGRY CHIPMUNK 



THIS LITTLE DEAR, WHOM THE SCIENTISTS CALL EutamiaS 



speciosus speciosus, is an ".advanced" oologist 



445 



