Part 20

The _tchip_ note of the Myrtle Warbler is indistinguishable from that of _D. auduboni_, but a single glimpse of the white throat is sufficient to establish identity. Those seen have necessarily been at close quarters and ranging low, in willow thickets, along the margins of ponds, etc., but it is altogether possible for a migrant troop to hold to the tree-tops in passing and so elude observation from “Forty-nine” to the Columbia.

No. 75. AUDUBON’S WARBLER.

A. O. U. 656. Dendroica auduboni (Towns.)

Synonym.—Western Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Description.—_Adult male_: Similar to _D. coronata_ but throat rich gamboge yellow; auriculars bluish gray instead of black; a large white wing patch formed by tips of middle and outer edges of greater coverts; tail with white blotches on inner webs of four or five outer feathers; usually more extensively black on breast. _Adult female_: Similar to adult male but duller (differences closely corresponding with those in _D. coronata_); the white of wing patch nearly obsolete; the yellow of throat paler and often, especially on chin, more or less displaced by white (young females even of the second summer are sometimes absolutely without yellow on throat but the more abundant white on rectrices is distinctive as compared with _D. coronata_). Seasonal changes follow very closely those of _D. coronata_ but yellow of throat is usually retained in winter save in young females and (occasionally) young-males. Length of adult about 5.50 (139.7); wing 3.00 (76); tail 2.45 (57); bill .41 (10.4); tarsus .80 (20.3).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; _five_ spots of yellow; extensive white blotching of tail; yellow rump distinctive in any plumage save as compared with _D. coronata_, from which it is further distinguished (usually) by yellow or yellowish of throat (If this character fails, the more extensive white on tail will always hold).

Nesting.—_Nest_: a well built, bulky structure of fir twigs, weed stems, rootlets, etc., heavily lined with horse-hair and feathers; placed usually on branch of conifer from four to fifty feet up, sometimes in small tree close against trunk, measures 4 inches in width outside by 2¾ in depth; inside 2 by 1½. _Eggs_: 3-5, usually 4, dull greenish white sparingly dotted with blackish or handsomely ringed, spotted and blotched with reddish brown, black and lavender. Av. size, .71 × .54 (18 × 13.7). _Season_: April-June; two broods. Tacoma, April 9, 1905, 4 eggs half incubated.

General Range.—Western North America, north to British Columbia, east to western border of the Great Plains, breeding thruout its range (in higher coniferous forests of California, northern Arizona, etc.) wintering in lower valleys and southward thruout Mexico. Accidental in Massachusetts and in Pennsylvania.

Range in Washington.—Common resident and migrant on West-side from tidewater to limit of trees; less common migrant and rare winter resident (?) east of the Cascades.

Migrations.—_Spring_: East-side: Yakima, March 11, 1900 (probably winter resident); Yakima, April 13, 1900; Chelan, April 20-24, 1896. West-side: Tacoma, April 24, 1906.

Authorities.—_Sylvia auduboni_ Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. VII. 1837, 191 (“forests of the Columbia River”). C&S. L¹. Rh. D¹. Kb. Ra. D². Kk. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. P¹. Prov. B. BN. E.

As one considers the Thrushes, Wrens, and Sparrows of our northern clime, he is apt to grumble a little at the niggardliness of Mother Nature in the matter of providing party clothes. The dark mood is instantly dispelled, however, at the sight of this vision of loveliness. Black, white, and gray-blue make a very tasty mixture in themselves, as the Black-throated Gray Warbler can testify, but when to these is added the splendor of five golden garnishes, crown, gorget, epaulets, and culet, you have a costume which Pan must notice. And for all he is so bedecked, _auduboni_ is neither proud nor vain,—properly modest and companionable withal.

Westerly, at least, he is among the first voices of springtime, and by the 10th of March, while all other Warblers are still skulking silently in the Southland, this brave spirit is making the fir groves echo to his melody. The song is brief and its theme nearly invariable, as is the case with most Warblers; but there is about it a joyous, racy quality, which flicks the admiration and calls time on Spring. The singer posts in a high fir tree, that all may hear, and the notes pour out rapidly, crowding close upon each other, till the whole company is lost in a cloud of spray at the end of the ditty. At close quarters, the “filling” is exquisite, but if one is a little way removed, where he catches only the crests of the sound waves, it is natural to call the effort a trill. At a good distance it is even comparable to the pure, monotonous tinkling of Junco.

I once heard these two dissimilar birds in a song contest. The Warbler stood upon a favorite perch of his, a spindling, solitary fir some hundred feet in height, while the Junco held a station even higher on the tip of another fir a block away. Here they had it back and forth, with honors surprisingly even, until both were tired, whereupon (and not till then) an Oregon Towhee ventured to bring forth his prosy rattle. It was like Sambo and his “bones” after an opera.

The range of Audubon’s Warbler is about coextensive with that of evergreen timber in Washington. It does not, however, frequent all the more open pine woods of the lower foot-hills in the eastern part of the State, nor does it occur habitually in the deeper solitudes of the western forests. Considered altitudinally, its range extends from sea-level to timber-line. And altho it is at home in the highest mountains, it is equally so in the city park and in the shade trees about the house. Under such varied conditions, therefore, its habits must vary widely.

We do not know to what extent it is resident, that is, present the year around, but believe that it is quite extensively so. One may be in the woods for a dull week in January, and see never a Warbler; but on a bright day in the same region he may encounter numbers of them. I have seen them playing about the dense firs on Semiahmoo Point (Lat. 49°) on Christmas Day, and I feel sure that large numbers of them spend the winter in the tree-tops, possibly moping, after the well known fashion of the Sooty Grouse.

It is these winter residents which become active in early spring. In the vicinity of Tacoma, where they have been studied most carefully, it is found that April is the typical nesting month, and one at least of the four eggs of a nest found April 9th, 1905, must have been deposited in _March_. Along about the 25th of April great numbers of Audubons arrive from the South, and one may see indolent companies of them lounging thru the trees, while resident birds are busy feeding young. These migrants may be destined for our own mountains as well as British Columbia. East-side birds are likewise tardy in arrival, for pine trees are inadequate shelter for wintry experiments.

The absorbing duty of springtime is nesting, and to this art the Audubons give themselves with becoming ardor. The female does the work, while the male cheers her with song, and not infrequently trails about after her, useless but sympathetic. Into a certain tidy grove near Tacoma the bird-man entered one crisp morning in April. The trees stood about like decorous candlesticks, but the place hummed with Kinglets and clattered with Juncoes and Audubons. One Audubon, a female, advertised her business to all comers. I saw her, upon the ground, wrestling with a large white chicken-feather, and sputtering excitedly between tussles. The feather was evidently too big or too stiff or too wet for her proper taste; but finally she flew away across the grove with it, chirping merrily. And since she repeated her precise course three times, it was an easy matter to trace her some fifteen rods straight to her nest, forty feet up on an ascending fir branch.

When the nest was presumed to be ripe, I ascended. It was found settled into the foliage and steadied by diverging twigs at a point some six or seven feet out along the limb. None of the branches in the vicinity were individually safe, but by dint of standing on one, sitting on another, and clinging to a third, I made an equitable distribution of avoirdupois and grasped the treasure. Perhaps in justice the supporting branches should have broken just here, but how could you enjoy the rare beauty of this handsome structure unless we brought it to you?

The nest is deeply cup-shaped, with a brim slightly turned in, composed externally of fir twigs, weed-tops, flower-pedicels, rootlets, catkins, etc., while the interior is heavily lined with feathers which in turn are bound and held in place by an innermost lining of horse-hairs. One feather was left to curl daintily over the edge, and so partially conceal the eggs,—four spotted beauties.

These Warblers are connoisseurs in feathers, and if one had all their nests submitted to him, he could make a rough assignment of locality for each according to whether feathers of Oregon Ruffed Grouse, Franklin Grouse, Ptarmigan, or domestic fowls were used.

In the wet region the birds appear to nest in fir trees only, and they are as likely to use the lowermost limb as any. There is little attempt at concealment, and Bowles reports a nest only ten feet high over a path used daily by hundreds of people in Tacoma. On the dry side of the mountains the Warblers avail themselves freely of deciduous trees and bushes for nesting sites. A nest on Cannon Hill in Spokane was placed at the lowermost available crotch of a young elm tree near the sidewalk and not ten feet up—as bold as a Robin!

According to Mr. Bowles, Audubon Warblers evince a great fondness for their chosen nesting haunts, and will return to them year after year, often to the same tree, and sometimes to the same branch. “They are the most solicitous of all the Washington Warblers concerning their eggs, sometimes coming to meet the intruder as he climbs toward the nest. At such times the alarm note of the female soon brings the male, when, should the nest contain incubated eggs or young, both birds crawl among the branches, frequently within reach, with wings and tail spread, in absolute forgetfulness of their own safety.”

Incubation is accomplished in twelve days; and one or two broods are raised, according to locality and length of season.

We lose sight of most of the birds, especially the smaller ones, after the heyday of springtime, but here is one who, because he has forsworn wandering, is making delicate overtures of confidence toward mankind. This year, especially, now that the dense tract of woods north of the University has been cut out, they linger about our neighborhood with the matter-of-factness of Bluebirds. The young ones play about the eaves or make sallies at passing flies from the window-sills, and yawn with childish insouciance if mamma suggests, by a sharp _tchip_, that enemies may lurk behind the curtains. They know it’s only habit with her, and she doesn’t believe it herself. The adult attire is duller now, and only the yellow rump-patch remains for recognition by a friend. The year is waning, no doubt of that, but October sunshine is good enough for us—or November rains. Let them flit who will! Washington is good enough for us, you in your fir house and I in mine.

No. 76. BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 665. Dendroica nigrescens (Towns.).

Description.—_Adult male in spring and summer_: A supraloral spot of yellow; remaining plumage black, white and blue-gray; head, throat and chest black interrupted by superciliary stripes and broad malar stripes of white; remaining upperparts blue-gray, marked with black in inverted wedge-shaped spots on back, scapulars and upper tail-coverts; wings and tail black edged with bluish ash, the middle and greater coverts tipped with white, forming two conspicuous wing-bars, the four outer rectrices blotched with white on inner webs in sharply decreasing area, the outermost chiefly white, the fourth merely touched; sides white streaked with black or striped black-and-white; remaining underparts white. _Adult female_: Like male but duller, the black of crown partly veiled by blue-gray skirting, that of throat reduced by white tips of feathers. _Young birds_ resemble the female but the black of crown and throat is almost entirely hidden by blue-gray and white respectively, and the area of the tail blotches is much reduced. Length about 5.00 (127); wing 2.44 (62); tail 1.97 (50); bill .36 (9.2); tarsus .69 (17.5).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; black and white and blue-gray coloration distinctive.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a rather loosely built structure of dead grasses, silky plant fibers, moss, etc., placed midway on horizontal limb of conifer 25-50 feet from ground; measures, externally, 3 inches wide by 2 deep, internally 1¾ wide by 1 deep. _Eggs_: 4, creamy white, marked, chiefly about the larger end with spots and small blotches of varying shades of brown, lavender and black. Av. size, .83 × .63 (21 × 16). _Season_: last week in May and first week in June; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States (north to Colorado, Utah and Washington), and British Columbia west of the Cascades; breeding southward to Southern California, southern Arizona and Lower California; south in winter thru Mexico and States of Oaxaca and Vera Cruz.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident and migrant west of the Cascade Mountains.

Migrations.—_Spring_: Seattle-Tacoma c. April 12. _Fall_: c. Sept. 1 (Blaine).

Authorities.—_Sylvia nigrescens_ Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. VII. 1837, 191 (“forests of the Columbia River”). C&S. L¹. D¹(?). Ra. Kk. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. B. E.

Black and white and gray are sober colors in themselves, but a skillful arrangement of all three has produced a handsome bird, and one whose dainty dignity requires no meretricious display of gaudy reds and yellows. Warblers are such tiny creatures at best that Nature has given little thought to their protective coloration. This plain-colored bird does not, therefore, shun the greenery of fir and fern, and yet we feel a peculiar fitness when he chooses for a song station some bare dead limb, gray and sober like himself.

Last year the first arrival in Seattle seated himself upon a projecting limb of a dead cedar which commanded the quiet sylvan depths of Cowan Park, and left him fairly abreast of the Fifteenth Avenue viaduct. Here he divided his time between song and enjoyment of the scene, sparing a friendly glance now and then for the admiring bird-man. His manner was complaisant and self-contained, and I felt that his little vocal offerings were a tribute to the perfect morning rather than a bid for applause.

The song of the Black-throated Gray is quite unpretentious, as Mrs. Bailey says,[25] “a simple warbler lay, _zee-ee-zee-ee, ze, ze, ze_, with the quiet woodsy quality of _virens_ and _cœrulescens_, so soothing to the ear.” It is this droning, woodsy quality alone which must guide the ear of a listener in a forest, which may be resounding at the same time to the notes of the Hermit, Townsend, Audubon, Lutescent, and Tolmie Warblers. Occasionally even this fails. An early song which came from a young male feeding patiently among the catkins of some tall, fresh-budding alders, had some of the airy qualities of the Kinglet’s notes, “_Deo déopli, du du du, deo déo pli, deo deo pli, deo deo pli_”—a mere fairy sibilation too fine for mortal ears to analyze. Another said boldly, “_Heo flidgity; heo flidgity_,” and “_Heo flidgity, chu wéo_.”

This Warbler is of rather irregular distribution in the western part of the State, where alone it is found. A preference is shown for rather open woodland or dense undergrowth with wooded intervals. The fir-dotted prairies of the Steilacoom area are approved, and the oak groves have their patronage. During the August migration I have found the bird almost abundant at Blaine. They are curious, too, and by judicious screeping I succeeded in calling the bird of the accompanying illustration down within five feet upon the overhanging limb of an apple tree.

Of their nesting Mr. Bowles says: “In Washington these Warblers are strictly confined to the large coniferous timber of the prairie country, during the breeding season placing their nests midway out on a fir limb, at from 25 to 50 feet above the ground. Strangely enough, however, in Oregon they almost always nest low down in the deciduous trees, sometimes only three or four feet up in a bush. In Washington the nests are always placed directly on a limb, while in Oregon my brother, Mr. C. W. Bowles, found them mostly in upright crotches.

“The nest is rather a loosely-built little structure, measuring externally three inches wide by two inches deep, internally one and three-quarters inches wide by one deep. It is composed of dead grass, silky plant fibers, moss, etc., with an ample lining of different kinds of hair and feathers;—a pretty little nest, tho scarcely as artistic as that of the Audubon Warbler.

“The eggs are laid during the last week in May and the first week in June, and are invariably four in number. They are creamy white in color, marked chiefly around the larger end, with spots and small blotches of varying shades of brown, lavender, and black. Eggs in my collection from Washington average .83 × .63 inches in dimensions, while eggs from Oregon average .67 × .50 inches, the largest egg from Oregon being smaller than the smallest Washington egg. In shape the eggs vary from long to short ovate, and only one set is laid in a season.

“The parent birds are very shy in the vicinity of the nest, the female leaving at the first sign of danger and keeping out of sight.

“In Oregon, my brother noted that the male often accompanied the female while she was collecting building material, continuously scolding, but never assisting her in any way. In that section the nests were greatly preyed upon by that prince of egg-robbers, the California Jay.”

No. 77. TOWNSEND’S WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 668. Dendroica townsendi (Towns.).

Description.—_Adult male_: Pileum, hindneck, lores and auriculars, chin, throat and upper chest black; supraloral region continuous with broad superciliary, a spot under eye and a malar stripe broadening behind (and nearly meeting end of superciliary on side of neck) yellow, breast yellow heavily streaked on sides with black, the black streaks thickening and merging with black of chest in front, scattering on flanks and reappearing on under tail-coverts; upper sides and flanks and remaining underparts posteriorly white as to ground; back, scapulars and rump yellowish olive-green streaked with black shading into black of head on hindneck; upper tail-coverts abruptly bluish gray; wings and tail blackish with some edgings of light gray; two white wing-bars formed by tips of middle and greater coverts; three outer pairs of tail feathers blotched with white on inner webs in descending ratio. Bill black with paler tomia; feet and legs brown; iris brown. _Adult male in fall and winter_: Areas and intensity of black much reduced, pileum and hindneck with much skirting of olive green thru which black appears mesially on feathers; auriculars entirely concealed by olive green feather-tips; black of chin and throat nearly concealed by yellow and streaks of sides reduced; black streaks of upperparts more or less concealed; upper tail-coverts color of back. _Adult female_: Very similar in coloration to adult male in fall; throat often more or less black, pileum sometimes more extensively black but black streaking of upperparts still further reduced. _Young birds in first autumnal plumage_ have no clear black, and the yellow of throat and underparts is paler. Length about 5.00 (127); wing 2.64 (67); tail 1.97 (50); bill .34 (8.6); tarsus .74 (18.8).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; black on crown, cheeks and throat in high plumage; in low plumage extensively yellow on sides of head enclosing area of darker (olive-green)—yellow of throat combined with this character may afford clew to identification of winter specimens.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a well built, bulky but rather shallow structure, chiefly of cedar bark with a few slender fir twigs interwoven; lined with stems of moss flowers; placed at moderate heights in young fir trees well out on limb or settled against trunk. _Eggs_: 4, white, wreathed and speckled with brownish and lilac. Av. size, .61 × .51 (15.5 × 12.9). _Season_: first week in June; one brood.

General Range.—Western North America breeding from the mountains of southern California north to Alaska and east to Idaho; during migrations eastward to Rocky Mountains and southward to Guatemala, Lower California, etc.

Range in Washington.—Not uncommon spring and fall migrant on both sides of the Cascade Mountains, summer resident in coniferous timber, probably thruout the State; partially resident in winter on Puget Sound.

Migrations.—_Spring_: Seattle April 20, 1907; Ahtanum (Yakima Co.) May 4, 1906, June 5, 1899; Chelan May 25, 1905. _Fall_: August. _Winter records_: Seattle Dec. 31, 1905; Tacoma Dec. 4, 13, 15, 21 and 29, 1906.

Authorities.—_Sylvia townsendi_ “(Nuttall),” Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. VII. pt. II. 1837, 191 (“forests of the Columbia River”). C&S. Rh. Ra. D². B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. C. E.

What a morning that was at the old parsonage in the Ahtanum valley, when the shade trees of the five acre enclosure were lit up by the presence of a dozen of these fairies! Waste acres of sage lay around, or fields of alfalfa and growing wheat, hardly more inviting, but the eye of the leader, winging languidly from the South, at early dawn had spied a patch of woodsy green, and had ordered a halt for the day in our comfortable-looking box-elders and insect-harboring apple trees. To be sure it was absurdly late for migrants, June 5th, but they appeared more like an embassage of foreign grandees, who deigned to make requisition upon our hospitality, than mere birds with threats of family cares ahead. So while they sought breakfasts of aphis and early worm, or disported among the branches in the growing sunshine, I attended their movements in rustic wonder. Now and then a member of the party paused to adjust his golden trappings, or to settle the black head-piece with a dainty shake. It was, indeed, a notable occasion for the bird-man, inasmuch as these dandies were in “higher” plumage than any yet recognized by the best bird-books of the day,[26] in that the shining black, supposedly confined to the lower throat, now occupied the very chin as well.

There was a little conversational lisping in a foreign tongue, in which the ladies of the party were included; and after breakfast the males ventured song.