The Tolmie Warbler 



without conspicuous bars; subterminal white spots, usual to the genus, on two outer 

 pairs of rectrices; underparts yellow, clearest on chin, throat, and lower tail-coverts, 

 dingy on belly; elsewhere sharply and finely streaked with chestnut or olive-dusky; 

 the sides washed with brownish. Adult in autumn and immature: Crown much 

 obscured by brownish tips; superciliary line whitish or buffy; below dingy white, or 

 buffy with faint yellowish tinge; breast and sides obscurely streaked with olive-dusky; 

 lower tail-coverts, only, clear yellow. Length of males, 114.3-139.7 (4.50-5.50); wing 

 65 (2.56) ; tail 50 (1.97) ; bill 10 (.39) ; tarsus 20 (.79). Females average a little smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Medium size; chestnut crown distinctive in high plumage. 

 Keeps to fence-rows, hedges, and wayside bushes during migrations; "bobs" nervously 

 and wags tail. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: On the ground, in low places 

 or edges of swamps; a compact structure of grasses, bark-strips, and mosses; variously 

 lined. Eggs: 4; creamy white, spotted and blotched with reddish browns and vinaceous 

 gray. Av. size, 17.8 x 13.2 (.70 x .52). 



General Range. — Breeds in the northern interior of North America from 

 northern Minnesota to southern Mackenzie and central Keewatin; winters from 

 southern Florida and the Bahamas to the Greater Antilles and Yucatan; during mi- 

 grations on the Atlantic slope; accidental in Colorado, Montana and California. 



Occurrence in California. — One record, that of an immature male taken at 

 Pacific Grove, Oct. 9, 1896. 



Authority. — Emerson, Osprey, vol. ii., 1898, p. 92 (Pacific Grove, October 9, 

 1896, one spec). 



IN LATE October, 1896, Mr. W. Otto Emerson, the veteran ornith- 

 ologist and collector of Hayward, took the record specimen of D. pal- 

 marum, a young male, near Pacific Grove. He took it at first for a Pipit 

 (Anthus s. rubescens), which it somewhat resembles, both by reason 

 of its hunting much upon the ground, and its habit of teetering the 

 body and jetting the tail. The Palm Warbler is unique among the 

 Dendroicans in the last-named respect, but it may be speedily distin- 

 guished from Anthus by the tell-tale white blotches on the rectrices. 

 Inasmuch as the bird breeds as far west as southwestern Mackenzie, 

 and there are other western records, a sharp lookout should be kept 

 for a possible repetition of this "accident." 



No. 94 



Tolmie's Warbler 



A. O. U. No. 680. Oporornis tolmiei (J. K. Townsend). 



Synonym. — Macgillivray's Warbler. 



Description. — Adult male in spring and summer: Foreparts in general, in- 

 cluding head and neck all around and chest, blackish slate or slate-gray; extreme 

 forehead and lores jet black; feathers of lower chest slate-black narrowly fringed with 

 ashy gray; extreme chin usually white; a sharp touch of white on upper eyelid behind 



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