The Black-throated Gray Warbler 



in spring, but gray of upperparts washed with brownish, the black streaking much 

 reduced in area, and the gray more or less intrusive on pileum. Immature male: 

 Much like fall adult but more heavily washed with brownish above, and almost without 

 black streaks; the pileum more extensively gray; the black of cheeks partly veiled by 

 gray, and the black of throat partially veiled by white tips of feathers. Adult female 

 in spring and summer: Much like male in summer and sometimes almost as brightly 

 colored, but usually duller throughout; the upperparts more extensively gray, the 

 color invading and nearly covering pileum, where sharply streaked with black; the 

 black streaks of back and upper tail-coverts fewer and narrower; the black of throat 

 more or less veiled with white tips, and the stripes of sides reduced in width. In 

 autumn: Plumage softer, the black streaks of upperparts obsolete or wanting. Im- 

 mature female: Like adult female in autumn, but upperparts uniform brownish gray 

 (mouse-gray), cheeks a little darker; white of underparts tinged with pale buffy. Av. 

 length of 9 males (afield): 128.77 (5.07). Ten specimens in U. S. N.M. measure: 

 wing 62.2 (2.45); tail 50.5 (1.99); bill 9.2 (.36); tarsus 17.7 (.70). Eight females 

 average: wing 59.1 (2.33): tail 48.9 (1.925); bill 9.1 (.358); tarsus 17.3 (.68). 



Recognition Marks. — Black and white and "warbler gray" coloration. 

 Yellow spot above lores distinctive, but otherwise requires careful discrimination 

 afield from Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotilta varia), q. v. 



Nesting. — Nest: A deep cup-shaped structure, often rather loosely built, of 

 dead grasses, silky plant-fibers, moss, etc.; placed low in crotch of bush or sapling or 

 else on horizontal limb of conifer, 25 to 50 feet from ground; measures externally 3 

 inches (mm 76.2) wide by 2 (mm 50.8) deep; internally 1^4 (mm 44.5) wide by I (25.4) 

 deep. Eggs: 4, rarely 5; creamy white, marked chiefly about the larger end with spots 

 and small blotches of varying shades of brown, lavender, and black. Av. size 21x16 

 (.83 x .63). Season: Last week in May and first week in June; one brood. 



General Range. — Western United States north to Colorado, northern Utah, 

 and Washington, and southern British Columbia west to the Cascades; breeding south 

 to northern Lower California, Arizona, and northern New Mexico; "winters in southern 

 Lower California, and in Mexico from Durango to Michoacan, Vera Cruz, and Oaxaca" 

 (A. O. U. Com.). 



Range in California. — Breeds in Lower Transition and high Upper Sonoran 

 zones practically throughout the State, save in the extreme coastal portion of the humid 

 district; less common on the coastal ranges. Well distributed during migrations. 

 Usually appears at Santa Barbara about April 29th; earliest Santa Barbara record 

 for spring migrations March 29, 1919. Earliest Pasadena record March 23, 1895, by 

 Joseph Grinnell; latest fall records: Los Angeles, Oct. 30, 1899, by H. S. Swarth; 

 Berkeley, Nov. 1, 1891 (?), by F. O. Johnson. 



Authorities. — Heermann (Sylvicola nigrescens), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 

 ser. 2, ii., 1853, 262 (Calif.); Townsend, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. x., 1887, p. 223 

 (n. Calif.; discovery of nest and eggs) ; Barlow, Condor, vol. iii., 1901, p. 177, fig. (Sierra 

 Nevada; habits, nests and eggs). 



THE BLACK-THROATED Gray Warbler is not a mermaid, nor 

 yet a merman, but I shall never forget how one sang to me as I stood 

 "silent upon a peak in Darien," nor how he plunged presently into the 

 nearest billow of an ocean of fog, which on a June morning had engulfed 

 southern California. Oh, the witchery of that June morning in the San 



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