The Orange-crowned Warblers 



The latter, you understand, is quite the subtlest and most baffling form 

 of revenge which a bird may compass in the case of an oologist anxious to 

 identify his find. 



No. 79c Dusky Warbler 



A. O. U. No. 646b. Vermivora celata sordida (C. H. Townsend). 



Description. — Similar to V. celata lutescens, but decidedly darker; upperparts 

 olive-green; underparts warbler green, or lightening to pyrite yellow on belly and 

 under tail-coverts. Also bill and feet larger. Av. of 10 males in M. V. Z. colls: 

 Length 120.4 (4-74); wing 59.9 (2.36); tail 53.3 (2.10); bill 11.3 (.445); tarsus 18.5 (.73). 



Recognition Marks. — See those of species. Easily distinguishable afield by 

 dusky coloration. 



Nesting. — Much as in preceding form, save that nests are occasionally placed 

 well up in trees. A set in the M. C. O. coll. averages 15.9 x 13.3 (.625 x .525) ; index 84. 



Range of T". c. sordida. — Spring and early summer resident upon the Santa 

 Barbara Islands, off the coast of southern California, Los Coronados and Todos Santos 

 Islands of Lower California, and a few adjacent portions of the mainland; spending 

 the remainder of the year chiefly (but not exclusively) upon the neighboring mainland. 



Distribution in California. — Partially resident and common spring and summer 

 resident upon all the islands of the Santa Barbara group, except San Nicholas; found 

 breeding also upon Pt. Loma and at Coronado Beach; winters chiefly upon the main- 

 land coastwise, or to the summits of the neighboring ranges; has wandered north in 

 winter as far as Palo Alto (Grinnell), Haywards (Emerson), and Berkeley (Grinnell). 



Authorities. — Gambel {Vermivora celata), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 

 2, i., 1847, p. 37 (Santa Catalina Id.; song); Oberholser, Auk, vol. xxii., 1905, p. 245 

 (desc; crit.) ; Willett, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 95 (occurrence in s. Calif.); 

 Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 1915, p. 146 (status in Calif.); Howell, Pac. 

 Coast Avifauna, no. 12, 1917, p. 90 (distr., habits, nest and eggs, etc.). 



IF WE CALL the Lutescent Warbler "yellow," we must call the 

 Dusky Warbler "green," and this we hasten to do, because green 

 is Nature's color. But green must not be understood in too harsh a 

 sense. There is just enough of redeeming yellow in birdikin's plumage 

 to represent the play of sunlight on oak-leaves or on grass; while as for 

 the "dusky" element, no one who has ever tried to trace the movements 

 of a self-conscious female Dusky Warbler over a shaded hillside will 

 ever doubt its efficacy as an extinguisher. Never was a fairy in a wishing- 

 cap more difficult to follow. 



For those who know the Channel Islands, the Dusky Warbler best 

 embodies those rioting greens of springtime which make these charmed 

 spots live in memory; and of all island sounds it is the cheerful, varied, 

 all-prevailing trill of the Dusky Warbler which first suggests itself to 

 recollection. Every hillside which boasts a modicum of shade is alive 



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