The Yellow Warblers 



Authorities. — Heermann (Sylvicola estiva), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, 

 ii., 1853, p. 262 (Calif.) \Grinnell, Condor, vol. v., 1903, p. 71 (orig. desc; type from Palo 

 Alto) ;I?eaZ, U. S. Dept. Agric, Biol. Surv. Bull., no. 30, 1907, p. 47 (food); Ingersoll, 

 Condor, vol. xv., 1913, p. 84 (destruction of nests and eggs) ; Tyler, Pac. Coast Avifauna, 

 no. 9, 1913, p. 99 (Fresno; habits; nests and eggs). 



No. 83c Alaska Yellow Warbler 



A. O. U. No. 652b. Dendroica aestiva rubiginosa (Pallas). 



Description. — Similar to D. a. brewsteri, but slightly larger and somewhat 

 darker, more olivaceous above; yellow of forehead less clear. 



Nesting. — Much as in preceding race. Does not breed in California. 



Range of D. ce. rubiginosa. — Breeds in the northwest coast district of North 

 America, broadly denned, from Alaska (entire) south to Vancouver Island. 



Occurrence in California. — Common late spring (May) and autumnal migrant, 

 practically throughout the State, but probably more abundant west of the Sierras. 



Authorities. — Oberholser, Auk, vol. xiv., 1897. p. 76 (syn.; desc; crit.; Moun- 

 tain Spring, San Diego Co.); Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 11, 191 5, p. 147 (status 

 in Calif.); Swarth, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. xxiv., 1922, p. 287, in text (desc, distr.). 



TAKE a willow catkin bursting with powdered gold and nestling 

 against a cluster of its own vivid leaves, and you will have the model 

 after which the Yellow Warbler was painted. The bird was made for 

 the tree — perhaps in a sense he was made by it — and this associational 

 bond is a very strong one. Roughly speaking, the Summer Warbler 

 breeds wherever willows are found, and this means that his summer 

 home in California is nearly confined to the Upper Sonoran faunal zone 

 and to the vicinity of water, whether running or stagnant. Transition 

 tongues of alder and cottonwoods, mingled with willow, sometimes 

 tempt the birds into the upper reaches of some mountain valley, but 

 here more than ever he is dependent upon water. 



The original Warbler, we guess, was yellow. At least the color 

 predominates throughout the group, and this warbler, yellow in ex- 

 celsis, is at once the most widely distributed and most abundant of the 

 Mniotiltidce. Ignoring for the nonce the trifling subspecific variations — 

 which variations, of course, testify to the long-established dominance 

 of the species — we find Yellow Warblers breeding from ocean to ocean, 

 and from Sonora in Mexico to the limit of trees in Alaska. In well settled 

 districts, moreover, the bird no longer depends upon the exclusive shelter 

 of willows, but frequents wayside thickets and swarms through orchards 

 and gardens, and in town takes possession of shrubbery in lawn or park. 

 Thus, it is demonstrating its fitness to survive, while it is forcing upon 

 public attention consideration of at least one species of that vast host of 

 Wood Warblers whose variety and charm are known only to the initiated. 



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