The Alaska Myrtle Warbler 



west central California, south to the Islands and Los Angeles, and east to the western 

 slopes of the Sierras; casually to the Colorado River (Potholes, Feb. II, 1913). Whether, 

 indeed, spring occurrences represent merely the return movement of our own winter 

 residents, or whether the race also winters farther south, has not been determined. 



Authorities. — Cooper (Dendroica coronata), Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., vol. vi.. 

 1875, p. 193 (Oakland and Hay wards) ; McGregor, Bull. Cooper Orn. Club, I, 1899, p. 32 

 (orig. desc. ; type from Palo Alto); Willett, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 96 

 (occurrence in s. Calif.); Allen, Condor, vol. xvi., 1914, p. 37 (Berkeley, winter). 



D. CORONATA is the dominant warbler of the East and North, 

 just as its counterpart, D. auduboni, is of the West. By virtue of its 

 aggressiveness and hardihood, it has long been entrenched in Alaska, 

 and has even been known to overshoot the mark into eastern Siberia. 

 Of this northwestern contingent a certain proportion has deserted the 

 old Mississippi Valley flyline, and now comes south along the Pacific 

 Coast to winter. The winter range, therefore, of this western con- 

 tingent is widely separated from that of the main body, and there is 

 thus a valid reason for separation of a subspecies, hooveri, even though 

 the physical differences assigned may be of the slightest. It may even 

 prove true that the two forms interpenetrate so thoroughly on their 

 iUaskan breeding grounds that hooveri will have to be defined as that 

 portion of the coronata host which winters in Washington, Oregon, 

 and California. 



There is little in the appearance and less in the behavior of these 

 sojourners in the Southland to distinguish them from D. auduboni, 

 which everywhere outnumbers them a hundred to one. The chance 

 has a sporting interest in central and northern California, but those of 

 us who, living south of the Tehachipi, have levelled the binoculars a 

 thousand times in vain, have come to feel that the odds are against us. 

 Although broadly scattered and diluted in winter, members of this 

 species are likely to be found in groups, or pockets, and it is possible that 

 they concentrate still more closely during migration. At any rate, 

 friends both in Seattle and Tacoma have given me circumstantial ac- 

 counts of flocks containing hundreds, all white-throats. 



Mr. Ralph Hoffmann, recently come to sojourn in Santa Barbara, 

 has called our attention to the fact that D. coronata has a softer, 

 more languid chip note than that of D. auduboni. This friendly tip 

 proves to be a touch-stone to recognition. The ear test is often 

 better than the eye test, especially when one is casting up averages. 

 Perhaps, after all, the odds against the Alaska Myrtle are only 

 fifty to one. 



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