614 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Nest. —In bushes or trees, compact and cup-shaped; made largely of gray plant 
fibers, lined with down and sometimes hair or a few feathers. Eggs: Usually 4, 
grayish or greenish, often heavily marked all over with brown, blackish, and pur¬ 
plish, tending to wreathe around the larger end. 
Food. —Over 97 per cent insects and a few spiders. Among the insects eaten are 
ants, small bees, and wasps, caterpillars, small leaf beetles, cotton-boll weevils, alfalfa 
weevils, codling moths, leaf hoppers, and black olive scale. “It is evident that the 
presence of a few Warbler nests in an orchard goes far to safeguard the trees from 
attacks of insect enemies. The inference is plain that the presence of insectivorous 
birds should be encouraged by the orchardist by every means in his power” (Beal). 
General Habits. —The Yellow Warbler, of whatever form, nesting 
and singing in alder and willow thickets bordering streams and also 
familiarly in park shrubbery and orchard trees, is one of the most 
easily seen and best known of the warblers. Its call is a fine chip and 
one of the phrases of its bright song is wee-chee , chee , chee, chur-wee. 
Heard continually in warm summer days and easily traced to its 
pretty gray nest, this little Warbler has suffered so much from the 
impositions of the big Cowbird that it has actually acquired a habit of 
self protection, building a second, or even a third story to its nest 
to immure the unwelcome egg. 
In the city of Albuquerque both young and old were abundant, 
July 28 and 29, 1919, Mr. Ligon writes, collecting about the cottonwood 
trees on which was late cotton, and eating the seed. 
Additional Literature.—Allen, G. M., Birds and Their Attributes, pis. fac¬ 
ing pp. 204 and 206, pp. 235-236.— Mousley, H., Auk, XXXVI, 339-348, 1919 
(relation of singing tree to nest). 
SONORA YELLOW WARBLER: Dendroica aestiva sonorana Brewster 
Plate 64 
Description.— Male: Length (skins) 4.2-4.8 inches, wing 2.3-2.6; tail 1.8-2.2; 
bill .4; tarsus .7-8. Female: Length (skins) 4.3-4.6 inches, wing 2.2-2.4. Like the 
Western Yellow Warbler but male with back often streaked with chestnut; rump, 
wings, and tail much yellower, the yellowish edgings of primaries and coverts 
broader; underparts more faintly and sparsely streaked; the female paler and grayer 
than the female Western. 
Comparisons. —See Comparisons under Western Yellow Warbler, p. 613. 
Range. —Breeds in Lower Sonoran Zone of southeastern California, southwest¬ 
ern Utah, southern and western Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas to Chi¬ 
huahua, Sonora, and Lower California; winters from Mexico south to Guatemala 
and Nicaragua. 
State Records. —The lower Rio Grande in New Mexico apparently marks the 
most northern extension of the range of the Sonora Yellow Warbler. It is a com¬ 
mon breeder at Mesilla (Merrill), where it had eggs, probably of a second set, as 
late as July 21,1913. It ranges north to Fort Fillmore (Henry), and on the south 
was taken, July 3, 1892, at Cajon Bonito Creek, just south of the New Mexico 
line (Mearns). 
In spring migration, it seems to have been noted April 30, at Silver City, 6,000 
feet (Ilunn), where it was seen June 27-July 12, 1894 (Fisher). It was probably 
