Part 19

The nest is quite a substantial affair tho rather roughly put together, of fir twigs, rootlets, and moss, with a more or less heavy lining of horse- or cow-hair, and other soft substances. The four eggs of greenish blue, dotted and spotted with lavender and dark greenish slate, appear especially handsome from above, when viewed against the dark brown nest. But, as everybody knows, the red fir (_Pseudotsuga mucronata_) is a tree of moods and tenses. You may dangle with impunity from the very tips of the branches of some fir trees, while a step from the trunk is fatal in others of the same general appearance. The Tanagers are quite as apt to patronize the brittle kind.

_Mniotiltidæ_—The Wood Warblers

No. 70. ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 646. Helminthophila celata (Say).

Description.—_Adult male_: Above ashy olive-green, clearing and brighter on rump; crown largely ochraceous but color partly veiled by olive tips of feathers; wings and tail fuscous with some olive edging; below greenish-yellow, dingy, or vaguely streaked with blue on breast and sides. _Adult female_: Similar to male but duller, with ochraceous crown-patch restricted or wanting. _Immature_: Without ochraceous crown; more ashy above; duller below save that abdomen is white; eyelids often whitish. Length about 5.00 (127); wing 2.40 (61); tail 1.95 (49.5); bill .42 (10.7); tarsus .70 (17.8).

Recognition Marks.—Small warbler size; ochraceous (“orange”) crown-patch distinctive from all except _H. c. lutescens_, which is the common bird; duller. See next (sub)species.

Nesting.—Not known to nest in Washington but may do so. As next.

General Range.—Summer resident in western British America and Alaska (save in Pacific coast district), south thru Rocky Mountain district to New Mexico; migrating across Central States and casually(?) New England, Middle Atlantic States, Pacific States, etc., to Mexico.

Range in Washington.—Probably common migrant but passing undistinguished among more abundant _lutescens_.

Authorities.—Bowles and Dawson, Auk, Vol. XXV., Oct. 1908, p. 483.

Specimens.—Bowles. Prov. P.

Most Alaskan species, even of those which retire in winter to South Carolina, Florida, and the Antilles, may be expected to drift thru our borders sooner or later. Typical _H. celata_ was first caught in the act by Mr. Bowles in May, 1907, but we have no means of knowing that the northern form is not a frequent trespasser. Kermode gives it as a common summer resident east and west of the Cascades in British Columbia, and it is not impossible that our northern Cascade records should be referred to this type.

No. 71. LUTESCENT WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 646a. Helminthophila celata lutescens Ridgway.

Description.—_Adults_:—Similar to _H. celata_ but brighter. Above bright olive-green; below definitely yellow—olive-yellow, gamboge, or even canary (on under tail-coverts). _Immature_: Above plain olive-green (not ashy, as in _H. celata_); below buffy yellow tinged with olive on breast and sides. Measurements as in preceding.

Recognition Marks.—Small warbler size; perhaps the most abundant of the eight or nine “yellow” warblers of the State; ochraceous crown-patch, of course, distinctive; not so bright as the Pileolated Warblers (_W. p. pileolata_ and _W. p. chryseola_).

Nesting.—_Nest_: on the ground sunk in bed of moss, under protection of bush or weed, or in shelving bank, of coiled dry grasses, lined with finer; 1¾ inches wide by 1 inch deep inside. _Eggs_: 4, rarely 5, dull white marked with dots and a few small blotches of yellowish brown and lavender; in shape long to short ovate, rarely oval. Av. size .67 × .51 (17 × 12.9). _Season_: May 1 and June 1; two broods.

General Range.—Summer resident in Pacific Coast district from Cook Inlet to southern California, east to western ranges of Rocky Mountain System, where intergrading with _H. celata_; south in winter to western Mexico and Guatemala.

Range in Washington.—Of general occurrence thruout the lower levels; abundant in Puget Sound region.

Migrations.—_Spring_: April 3, 6, 7 (Seattle). April 24 (Chelan). March 28, 1908 (Seattle).

Authorities.—(?) Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., VIII., 1839, 153 part (Columbia River). Cooper and Suckley, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., XII., pt. II., 1860, 178. (T.) C&S. L¹, Rh. D¹. Kb. Ra. D². Kk. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. B. BN. E.

Yellow appears to be the prevailing color among our Washington Wood Warblers; and even of those which are not frankly all over yellow, as this one is, there are only two which do not boast a conspicuous area of this fashionable shade. And of all yellows, yellow-green, as represented by the back of this bird, is the commonest,—so common, indeed, as to merit the facetious epithet “museum color.” It is all very well in the case of the male, for he comes back (to Seattle) during the first week in April, before the leaves are fully out; and he is so full of confidence at this season that he poses quite demurely among the swelling buds of alder, maple, and willow. He is proud of his full crown-patch of pale orange, contrasting as it does with the dull yellowish green of the upperparts and the bright greenish yellow of the underparts,—and he lets you get a good view of it at twenty yards with the glasses. Besides that, he must stop now and then to vent his feelings in song. But the case of the female is almost hopeless—for the novice.

The song of the Lutescent Warbler appears to have been very largely overlooked, but it was not the bird’s fault. While waiting for his tardy mate, he has rehearsed diligently from the taller bushes of the thicket, or else from some higher vantage point of maple, dogwood, or fir tree. The burden is intended for fairy ears, but he that hath ears to hear let him hear a curious vowel scale, an inspirated rattle or trill, which descends and ends in a simple warble of several notes. The trill, brief as it is, has three qualities of change which make it quite unique. At the opening the notes are full and slow, but in the instant necessary to the entire recital the pace accelerates, the pitch rises slightly, and the component notes decrease in volume, or size. At the climax the tension breaks unexpectedly in the gentle, musical cadence of the concluding phrases, whose notes much resemble certain of the Yellow Warbler’s. The opening trill carries to a considerable distance, but the sweetness of the closing warble is lost to any but near listeners. The whole may be rendered graphically somewhat as follows; _O-o-ā-ā-i-i-é-é-é-é-é-é wichy, wichy, wichy_.

In the brush and under alarm these birds utter a brusque, metallic scolding note, which is perfectly distinctive locally, altho it much resembles that of the _Oporornis_ group East. By this mark alone may the mere greenish female be certainly discerned.

Lutescent Warblers abound thruout western Washington, and easterly, when the Cascades are well passed, as upon the Pend d’Oreille. Jungle of any kind suits them, whether it be a thicket of young firs at Tacoma, an overgrown burn at Snoqualmie, a willow swamp in Yakima County, or a salmon-berry tangle on Destruction Island. Nests are of dead grasses well knitted and sunk flush with the ground, or below it, in some moss bed, at the base of a bush, or on some sloping hillside. Rarely the structure may be taken up into a bush. The female is a close sitter, but once flushed shows implacable resentment. She summons her mate to assist in the gentle art of exorcism, or else turns the tables and deserts outright. The latter, you understand, is quite the subtlest and most baffling form of revenge which a bird may compass in the case of an oölogist anxious to identify his find.

No. 72. CALAVERAS WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 645a. Helminthophila rubricapilla gutturalis (Ridgw.).

Description.—_Adult male_: Head above and on sides bluish ash with a partially concealed crown-patch of bright chestnut; a whitish eye-ring; remaining upperparts bright olive-green becoming yellowish green on rump and upper tail-coverts; underparts including crissum, bright yellow, but whitening on belly; bill small, short, acute, blackish above, brownish below; feet brown. _Adult female_: Like male but somewhat duller below; ashy of head less pure, glossed with olivaceous and not so abruptly contrasting with yellow of throat; chestnut crown-patch less conspicuous or wanting. _Immature_: Olive-green of upperparts duller; head and neck grayish brown instead of ashy; below dull olive-yellow, clearing on belly and crissum. Length of male (skins) 4.05-4.75 (103-121); wing 2.35 (60); tail 1.75 (45); bill .38 (9.6); tarsus .63 (16). Female smaller.

Recognition Marks.—Smaller; bright yellow of throat (and underparts), contrasting with ashy of head, distinctive.

Nesting.—_Nest_: usually sunk well into ground or moss at base of bush-clump or rank herbage, well made of fine bark-strips and grasses, lined with finer grasses, horse-hair and, occasionally, feathers; outside, 3 in. wide by 2 in. deep; inside 1¾ wide by 1¼ deep. _Eggs_: 3-5, usually 4, dull white as to ground-color, but showing two distinct types of markings: one heavily sprinkled with fine dots of reddish brown, nearly uniform in distribution, or gathered more thickly about larger end; the other sparingly dotted, and with large blotches or “flowers” of the same pigment. Av. size .64 × .49 (16.3 × 12.5). _Season_: May 20-July 20, according to altitude; two broods. Chelan Co. July 22, 1900, 3 fresh eggs.

General Range.—The Pacific States and British Columbia south to Calaveras County, California, and east (at least) to northern Idaho; found chiefly in the higher mountains; in migrations to Lower California and western Mexico.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident on brushy slopes and in timbered valleys of the higher ranges thruout the State, and irregularly at lower levels, at least on Puget Sound (Tacoma).

Migrations.—_Spring_: Wallula, April 23, 1905; Benton County, May 4, 1907; Chelan, May 21, 1896; Tacoma, April 24, 1897. _Fall_: Last week in August (Blaine).

Authorities.—Dawson, Auk, XVIII. Oct. 1901, 463. (D¹). J. B.

Specimens.—B.

There is something distinct and well-bred about this demure exquisite, and the day which discovers one searching the willow tops with genteel aloofness is sure to be underscored in the note-book. The marks of the spring male are as unmistakable as they are regal: a bright yellow breast and throat contrasting with the ashy of cheeks and head, the latter shade relieved by a white eye-ring, and surmounted by a chestnut crown-patch. If you stumble upon a company of them at play among the thorn bushes, you are seized, as like as not, with a sense of low birth, and feel like retiring in confusion lest you offend royalty.

These gentle despots are bound for the mountains; and since their realms are not prepared for them till June, they have ample leisure to discuss the fare of wayside stations. They enter the State from the South during the last week in April—Wallula, April 23d, is my earliest record; but May 21st records an unanxious company at the foot of Lake Chelan. As the season advances they take up quarters on brushy mountain sides, or in the deciduous skirts of fierce mountain torrents. Here while the female skurries about thru the buck-brush or vine-maple thickets in search of a suitable nesting site, the male mounts a fir tree and occupies himself with song.

If you are spying on this sacred function, the bird first peers down at you uneasily, then throws his head back and sings with great animation: _Choopy, choopy, choopy churr_ (tr). The trill is composed of a dozen or so of large notes which the ear can easily distinguish, but which because of the vivacious utterance one cannot quite count. The pitch of the _finale_ is sustained, but there is a slight decrease in volume. If forced to descend, the singer will join his mate in sharp _chips_ of protest, somewhat similar to those of the Audubon Warbler, altho not quite so clear-cut or inflexible.

While the Calaveras Warbler is a bird of the mountains and lives at any height where suitable cover is afforded, it is a curious fact that it sometimes prefers the timbered lowlands of Puget Sound, and may be found in some seasons in considerable numbers about the southern prairies. Mr. Bowles has found them commonly in scrub-oak patches which border the fir groves and timbered lakes; and yet during some years they have been unaccountably absent from the entire region.

Near Tacoma this Warbler places its nest at the base of a young oak or fir tree, where the spreading branches have protected the grass and gathered weeds. The nest is sunk well into the ground or moss, and is so well concealed as to defy discovery unless the bird is flushed. When frightened from the nest the female instantly disappears, and returns only after some considerable interval. Then she approaches with the greatest caution, ready to dart away again upon the first sign of movement on the part of the intruder. The male, if he happens to be about at all, neither joins the defense nor consoles his mate in misfortune, but sets upon her furiously and drives her from bush to bush, as tho she had wilfully deserted their treasures.

At sea-level two sets of eggs are laid in a season, one fresh about May 18th, the other about June 25th. In the mountains, however, the second nesting, if indulged in at all, is thrown very late. I took a set of three fresh eggs from a carelessly constructed nest placed in the top of an elk-weed (_Echinopanax horridum_) at a height of three feet, on the 22d day of July, 1900.

No. 73. YELLOW WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 652. Dendroica æstiva (Gmel.).

Synonyms.—Summer Yellow-bird. Summer Warbler. Wild Canary.

Description.—_Adult male_: Forehead and fore-crown bright yellow with an orange tinge; back bright olive-green; rump greenish yellow; wings and tail blackish with greenish yellow edgings, the wing quills edged on both webs, the tail-feathers—except middle pair—almost entirely yellow on inner webs; sides of head and entire underparts golden yellow, the breast and sides heavily streaked with chestnut; bill black; feet pale. _Adult female_: Like male but duller; olive-green on back, not brighter on forehead; paler yellow below, obscurely or not at all streaked with chestnut. _Young males_ resemble the adult female. _Young female_ still duller; dusky yellow below. Length 4.75-5.25 (120.6-133.3); wing 2.51 (63.8); tail 1.68 (42.7); bill .40 (10.2); tarsus .73 (18.61).

Recognition Marks.—Medium size; golden yellow coloration; chestnut streaks on breast of male; after the Lutescent the commonest of the resident Warblers; chiefly confined to the banks of streams and ponds.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a compact cup of woven “hemp” and fine grasses, lined heavily with plant-down, grasses, and, occasionally, horse-hair, fastened to upright branch in rose-thickets and the like. _Eggs_: 4 or 5, white, bluish-, creamy-, or grayish-white, speckled and marked with largish spots of reddish brown, burnt umber, etc., often wreathed about the larger end. Av. size, .70 × .50 (17.8 × 12.7). _Season_: May 20-June 20; one brood.

General Range.—North America at large, except southwestern part, giving place to _D. æ. rubiginosa_ in extreme northwest. South in winter to Central America and northern South America. Breeds nearly thruout its North American range.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident in deciduous timber, and shrubbery lining streams, thruout the State from sea-level to 4,000 feet.

Migrations.—_Spring_: Tacoma, April 24-30; Yakima, April 30, 1900; Chelan, May 21, 1896. _Fall_: First week in September.

Authorities.—Cooper and Suckley, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., XII., pt. II., 1860, p. 181. T. C&S. L¹. Rh. D¹. Ra. D². Ss¹. Ss². Kk. J. B. E.

Specimens.—B. BN. E. P¹.

The Summer Warbler’s gold is about as common as that of the dandelion, but its trim little form has not achieved any such distinctness in the public mind. Most people, if they take notice at all of anything so tiny, dub the birds “Wild Canaries,” and are done. The name as applied to the Goldfinch may be barely tolerated, but in the case of the Warbler it is quite inappropriate, since the bird has nothing in common with the Canary except littleness and yellowness. Its bill is longer and slimmer, for it feeds exclusively on insects instead of seeds; and its pure yellow and olive-green plumage knows no admixture, save for the tasty but inconspicuous chestnut stripes on the breast of the adult male. These stripes are lacking in males of the second year, whence Audubon was once led to elaborate a supposed new species, which he called the “Children’s Warbler.” The name is not ill-fitting, even tho we know that it applies only to the Warbler’s children.

The Yellow Warbler is peculiarly a bird of sunshine, and is to be found chiefly in open situations. It swarms thru the orchards and gardens, frequents the wayside thickets, and in town takes possession of the shrubbery in lawn or park. It is abundant in swampy places, and is invariably present in season along the banks of streams which are lined with willows, alders, and wild rose bushes.

The song is sunny, too, and while not elaborate, makes substantial contribution to the good cheer of spring. Heard in the boskage it sounds absurdly as if some wag were shaking an attic salt-cellar on a great green salad. The notes are almost piercing, and sound better perhaps from across the river than they do in the same tree. Individual variation in song is considerable, but the high pitch and vigor of delivery are distinctive. Certain common types may be syllabized as follows: _Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweetie_; _tsee, tsee, tsit-a-wee, tsee_; _wee-chee, chee, chee wee-i-u_; _tsu, tsu, tsu, tsu, tseéew_. From its arrival sometime during the last week in April, until near the close of its second nesting, late in July, the bird may be found singing thruout the sunlit hours.

The date of this bird’s annual advent in Washington is far less nearly fixed than in the East. April 19th is my earliest date, recorded in Yakima County, but Dr. Cooper once saw large numbers (possibly _D. a. rubiginosa_) “at the Straits of De Fuca,” on April 8. On the west side of the mountains this Warbler may not often nest more than once in a season, but on the East-side it usually raises two broods.

The nest of the Yellow Warbler is quite common, especially easterly, where its cover is more restricted; and no special pains is taken at concealment. Nests may be placed at any height in orchard trees, alders, willows, or even fir saplings; but, without doubt, the most acceptable site is that afforded by dense thickets of the wild rose (_Rosa pisocarpa_) wherever found.

The cradle of this bird is of exquisite fabrication. The tough inner bark of certain weeds—called indiscriminately “hemp”—together with grasses and other fibrous materials in various proportions, is woven into a compact cup around, or settled into, some stout horizontal or ascending fork of bush or tree. As a result the bushes are full of Warblers’ nests, two or more seasons old. A fleecy lining, or mat, of plant-down is a more or less conspicuous feature of every nest. Upon this as a background a scanty horse-hair lining may exhibit every one of its strands; or again, as in the case of a nest taken on the Chelan River, the eggs themselves may be thrown into high relief by a coiled black mattress.

The male Yellow is very domestic in his tastes, insomuch that, quite unlike other Warblers, he will often venture to sing from the very bush in which his mate is sitting. Unless well accustomed to the presence of humans, the female will not sit patiently under the threat of close approach. She slips off quickly and her vigorous complaints serve to summon her husband, when both flit about close to the intruder, and scold roundly in fierce, accusing notes, which yet have a baby lisp about them.

No. 74. MYRTLE WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 655. Dendroica coronata (Linn.).

Synonym.—Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Description.—_Adult male in spring_: Above slaty blue with black streaks, smaller on sides of crown and nape, broader on back; below white, with black on upper breast, sides of middle breast, and sides in endless variety of patterns; a large patch on each side of breast, a partially concealed patch in center of crown, and rump, bright yellow (lemon or canary); superciliary line white; a deep black patch on side of head; wings fuscous; tail darker; middle and greater coverts narrowly tipped with white, forming two rather conspicuous bars; three outer pairs of tail-feathers with white blotches on inner webs, decreasing centrally; bill black; feet dark. _Female in spring, and both sexes in fall_: Duller; the blue of upperparts overlaid with brownish; a brownish wash on sides of breast and flanks; black of breast obscure,—restricted to centers of feathers; yellow of breast-spots pale or wanting. _Immature_: Brownish above; whitish below with a few obscure dusky streaks. Length 5.25-5.75 (133.3-146.1); av. of five males: wing 2.98 (75.7); tail 2.22 (56.4); bill .38 (9.7); tarsus .78 (20).

Recognition Marks.—Larger; _white_ throat as distinguished from _D. auduboni_, which it otherwise closely resembles.

Nesting.—Not known to breed in Washington. _Nest_ as in next species. _Eggs_ indistinguishable.

General Range.—“Eastern North America chiefly, straggling more or less commonly to the Pacific; breeds from the northern United States northward, and winters from southern New England and the Ohio Valley southward to the West Indies, and through Mexico to Panama” (A. O. U. ’95). “An abundant summer resident on Vancouver Island and mainland (B. C.), chiefly west of Cascades” (Kermode).

Range in Washington.—Spring and fall migrant, probably of regular occurrence east and west of the Cascades.

Migrations.—_Spring_: Tacoma, Apr. 27, 1906, 1907; Seattle, May 3, 1908; Chelan, May 22, 1905; Yakima, Apr. 30, 1891.

Authorities.—Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. pt. II., 1858, 272, 273. C&S. Rh. Ra. D². Kk. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. C.

While only a little less lovely than its local kinsman, the Audubon Warbler, by as much as it has four patches of gold instead of five, this beautiful migrant appears to have been very largely lost to sight in the throng of its more brilliant relatives. Rathbun, writing from Seattle, says of it: “A regular and not uncommon spring migrant, associating with _D. auduboni_. Have no fall record.” Bowles from Tacoma says: “An irregular fall migrant, very numerous some years, the fall of 1905 for example. Have never seen it in spring.” Yakima, April 30, 1891; Chelan, May 22, 1905; Tacoma, April 27, 1907, are some of my own records. Fannin gives the species as “An abundant summer resident, chiefly west of the Cascades,” in British Columbia, and it should occur regularly within our borders during migration.