Part 21

Seventy-eight days later, viz., on the 23d of August, a southward bound party visited our orchard. The males were still in song, and it was difficult to believe that all the joys and sorrows of wedlock and child-rearing had intervened; yet such was probably the case.

A bird sighted at Chelan on the 25th day of May, 1905, haunted a pine and a balm tree at the foot of the Lake, singing constantly. The song ran, _dzwee, dzwee, dzwee, dzwee, dzweetsee_, the first four notes drowsy and drawling, the fourth prolonged, and the remainder somewhat furry and squeaky. The bird hunted patiently thru the long needles of the pine, under what would seem to an observer great difficulties. Once he espied an especially desirable tidbit on the under side of a needle-beset branch. The bird leaned over and peered beneath, until he quite lost his balance and turned a somersault in the air. But he returned to the charge again and again, now creeping cautiously around to the under side, now clinging to the pine needles themselves and again fluttering bravely in the midst, until he succeeded in exhausting the little pocket of provender, whatever it was.

In June, 1906, we found these birds in the valley of the Stehekin, and again in the valley of the Cascade River, near Marblemount, breeding, undoubtedly, in both places. Here we allowed the notes, _oozi, woozi lêooli_ to pass for some time, unchallenged, as those of the Hermit Warbler, but finally caught a _townsendi_ in the act at fifteen feet. There is, to be sure, a lisping, drawling, obstructed quality in the opening notes not found in the typical Hermit song, and possibly not at all, but the lilt at the end, _lêooli_, is inseparable from the Hermit Warbler, and I do not take it kindly of _townsendi_ to mix up the game so.

Upon returning to the valley of the Stehekin in June, 1908, Mr. Bowles found the Townsend Warbler a not uncommon breeder. On the 20th of that month he discovered two nests, each containing four newly hatched young. Both were placed about twelve feet up in young fir trees, one about five feet out on a limb, the other close against the main trunk. In each instance the brooding female allowed a close approach; then dropped straight to the ground and disappeared. The birds were extremely shy at first but after an hour or so became sufficiently accustomed to the human presence to return to their duties within a few minutes after being flushed. But repeated visits failed to discover the males in the vicinity of their nests, and, indeed, they seemed to be wholly occupied with minstrelsy in the tree-tops.

On the 31st of December, 1905, I saw a Townsend Warbler in the pale winter plumage in Madrona Park, on the border of Lake Washington. He was with a group of Audubon Warblers feeding in the alders, but attention was instantly attracted to the _tsip_ note, which was sharper and more clear-cut than that of the Audubon; and it had, moreover, a sort of double quality, or central turn, _tsiip_ or _chiip_. This record of winter residence was further confirmed by specimens taken at Tacoma by Mr. Bowles the following December.

No. 78. HERMIT WARBLER.

A. O. U. No. 669. Dendroica occidentalis (Townsend).

Synonym.—Western Warbler.

Description.—_Adult male in breeding plumage_: Forehead, crown and sides of head and neck, broadly, rich lemon yellow, sharply defined below by black of chin, throat and upper chest, less sharply above by black of occiput or hindneck; this in turn shading thru mingled olive and black into gray of remaining upperparts; upper plumage more or less tinged with olive-green and streaked more or less broadly with black; wings and tail black with grayish edgings; middle and greater coverts tipped with white forming two conspicuous wing-bars,—outermost part of tail-feathers chiefly white on both webs, next pair white on terminal half of inner web and third pair marked with longitudinal spot near tip; black of chest with convex posterior outline sharply defined from white of remaining underparts. Bill black; legs and feet dark brown; iris brown. _Adult male in fall and winter_: Yellow of crown veiled by olive green; black of throat veiled by whitish tips; black streaking of upperparts less conspicuous. _Adult female in spring_: Like male in spring but duller, yellow of head less extensive, gray of upperparts dominating; black streaks reduced or obsolete; black of throat, etc., absent, white or dull yellowish instead; sometimes dusky spot of various proportions on chest. _Young birds_ like adult female but yellow of crown veiled by olive and sides washed with brownish. Length of adult about 4.90 (124.4); wing 2.65 (67.3); tail 2.20 (55.9); bill .40 (10.2); tarsus .44 (11.3).

Recognition Marks.—Smaller Warbler size; yellow mask of male outlined against black of throat and hind neck distinctive—female and young more difficult but distinctive pattern of mask with white wing-bars usually suggestive.

Nesting.—_Nest_: saddled on horizontal branch of fir tree at a good height; a compact structure of fir twigs, mosses and vegetable down, lined with fine grass and horse-hair; measures, outside, 4 wide by 2¾ deep, inside, 2 wide by 1¼ deep. _Eggs_: 4 or 5, dull white heavily blotched and spotted with various shades of red-brown and lavender. Av. size, .69 × .53 (17.5 × 13.5). _Season_: c. June 1; one brood.

General Range.—Pacific coast district and Cascade-Sierra system with its outliers north to British Columbia; “in winter south into Lower California and through Arizona over Mexican plateau to highlands of Guatemala.”

Range in Washington.—Not common summer resident, in heavier coniferous timber only.

Authorities.—_Sylvia occidentalis_ Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. VII. 1837, 190 (“forests of the Columbia River”). C&S. L¹. D¹. B.

Specimens.—C.

There is a piece of woodland south of Tacoma which we call the Hermit Woods, because here on any May day may be heard the voice of this exalted Warbler. The proper hour in which to approach this forest is early morning, before the winds have begun to stir in its dim aisles, and while the hush of its nightly peace is upon everything—save the birds. The soft moss muffles the footsteps, so that the devotee may move about unheralded from shrine to shrine, as he pays silent homage to each, in turn, of those morning stars of song, the Wood Warblers. There is Audubon with his hastening melody of gladness. There is Black-throated Gray with his still drowsy sonnet of sweet content. Then there is Hermit hidden aloft in the shapeless greenery of the under-dawn,—his note is sweetest, gladdest, most seraphic of them all, _Lilly, lilly, lilly, leê o leet_. It is almost sacrilege to give it form—besides it is so hopeless. The preparatory notes are like the tinkle of crystal bells and when our attention is focused, lo! the wonder happens,—the exquisite lilt of the closing phrase, _leê-oleet._

In broad daylight it is the same. The singers remain in the tree-tops and tease the imagination with thoughts of a domestic life lived upon a higher plane than that of earth, an exalted state where all is beatific and serene. And try you never so hard, with glasses of a high power, it is a good hour’s work to obtain a satisfactory sight of one of the uplifted creatures.

In despair, one day, I determined to penetrate this supramundane region where the Hermit is at home, and selected for the purpose a well branched tree in the center of the forest and some hundred and fifty feet in height. The tree was, fortunately, of the tougher sort, and permitted ascent to a point where the stem might be grasped with the finger and thumb of one hand. It was a treat to see the forest as a bird does. The surface viewed from above was surprisingly uneven. Here and there strong young trees, green and full of sap, rose to the level of mine, but the majority were lower, and some appeared like green rosettes set in a well of green. Others still, rugged and uneven as to limb, towered above my station by fifty or seventy-five feet. My first discovery upon reaching the top was that the bulk of the bird chorus now sounded from below. But a few singing Hermits did occupy stations more lofty than mine. One I marked down—rather, up—fifty feet above and a hundred yards away. He sang away like a contented eremite from a single twig, and I was reverently constructing his high biography and trying to pick out his domicile from the neighboring branches, when flash! he pitched headlong two hundred feet and was seen no more.

Mr. Bowles has hit upon a clever scheme for decoying the haughty Hermits. He resorts to the vicinity of some Cassin Vireo’s nest containing young, and studies the throng of small birds, which the masterly scolding of the Vireos invariably attracts. Upon one such occasion, having lured down an inquisitive pair, he noticed a peculiar trait: “After examining me closely and apparently deciding that I was a new kind of stump, the female commenced feeding; but her attention was soon attracted to a last year’s nest of a Russet-backed Thrush. She at once flew to it and, hopping in, crouched down and commenced trampling the bottom, turning around, putting the material on the sides into shape with her bill, and altogether acting as tho she had nest-building well under way. This was about the middle of May, and, as I subsequently discovered, almost a month too early for her to lay her eggs.”[27]

The nest of this species is still rare. The only one taken in Washington was found by Mr. Bowles, June 11, 1905, in a fir tree near Tacoma, and contained five eggs, the only set of five yet recorded. The nest was placed at a height of twenty feet on a horizontal limb six feet from the trunk of the tree. Mr. Bowles had seen the tail of the bird from below as it projected over the brim of the nest, and prepared himself to inspect “another of those Audubons.” When, instead of the yellow crown-patch of an Audubon, he saw the lemon-yellow head of a Hermit, the oölogist nearly fainted from surprise and joy. The bird sat so close that the collector was obliged to lift her from the nest, and she then flew only a few feet, where she remained, chipping and spreading her wings and tail. The male at no time put in an appearance.

The nesting range of this species is still imperfectly made out. We found it common at Newport in Stevens County, and among the pines and larches of the Calispell range. We counted them common in the valley of the Stehekin also, but soon encountered that peculiar plagiarism of song, on the part of the Townsend Warbler, which queered all our local conclusions. In order, therefore, to guide the student in further investigations. I record a few variant song forms which I have clearly traced to the Hermit Warbler: _Zeegle, zeegle, zeegle, zeet_, fuzzy and low like that of _D. nigrescens_—this was heard at Tacoma and is recognized by C. W. Bowles as being the type form of southern Oregon songs; _dzee dzeé, tzibid-zeedzeé, dzee dzeé_, in a sort of sing-song rollick: _dzudzudzudzudzeêo zeêo zeet_—first syllables very rapid, musical; nasal turn to accented notes very like the “ping” note of the Creeper song, and occupying much the same position save that it is repeated; _days, days, days, days zeêt_—the first notes lisping, with slight accelerando, and the nasal ringing quality reserved for the last.

No. 79. TOLMIE’S WARBLER.

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

Synonym.—Macgillivray’s Warbler.

Description.—_Adult male in spring and summer_: Fore-parts in general, including 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 and a longer one on lower lid; remaining plumage bright greenish yellow to olive-green, clearest yellow, canary to olive-yellow, on breast and remaining underparts, centrally, and on bend of wing, shading thru yellowish olive green on sides to olive-green of upperparts; outer primary edged with white on outer web. Bill dusky brown above, paler below; feet and legs light brown; iris brown. _Adult male in fall and winter:_: Similar but feathers of auriculars and hindneck and sometimes crown tipped with dull brown; ashy skirtings of throat and chest more extensive, sometimes nearly concealing the black. _Adult female in spring_: Like male but slate of hood replaced by dull brownish gray (mouse gray) above and by pale brownish gray on chin, throat and chest. In _fall_ plumage still more extensively gray below. _Young females_ lack the hood altogether being simply olive green on crown, yellow on throat, etc. Length about 5.50 (139.7); wing 2.44 (62); tail 2.16 (55); bill .45 (11.4); tarsus .85 (21.6).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; slaty hood of male distinctive; contrast of color between chest and breast usually apparent. A frequenter of thickets, with a sharp _tsick_ or _chuck_ note of alarm.

Nesting.—_Nest_: in thickets in upright crotch of bush from six inches to three feet from ground; a bulky affair of coarse dead grass, rootlets and trash, lined with fine black rootlets and horse-hair; measures, outside, 4½, wide by 2½ deep, inside, 2½, wide by 1¼ deep. _Eggs_: 3-5, usually 4, dull white, heavily marked around larger end with reddish browns and lavender. Av. size, .70 × .54 (17.8 × 13.7). _Season_: first week in June; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States and British Columbia breeding south to Arizona and western Texas; east during migrations to western Nebraska, etc.; south in winter to Cape St. Lucas and over whole of Mexico and Central America to Colombia (Bogota).

Range in Washington.—Summer resident in dense thickets thruout the State from sea level to about 2,000 feet elevation.

Authorities.—_Sylvia tolmiei_ Townsend, Narrative, April 1839, 343 (Columbia River). C&S. L¹. Rh. D¹. Sr. Ra. D². Ss². Kk. J. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. E.

We shall have to import the word “chaparral” if we are to characterize with any brevity the sort of cover this Warbler loves. A great confusion of willow, alder, dogwood, syringa, ocean-spray, and huckleberry is his delight. It matters not whether it be a hillside in King County, a lonesome spring draw in the hills of Klickitat, or the borders of a swamp in Okanogan, if only there be cover and plenty of it. No more persistent skulker haunts the shrubbery than this wary, suspicious, active, and very competent Wood Warbler. Yet even he, when he thinks no one is looking, emerges from his shrubbery depths, selects a topmost twig and breaks out in song,—a song which is neither diffident nor uncertain. _Sheep sheep sheep shear shear sheep_, he announces in a brisk, business-like tone, totally devoid of musical quality. And when you have heard him once, or, say, a hundred times, you have learned all that may be known of the Tolmie Warbler—out of cover. Those who know the Dickcissel of the middle West will at once be struck with the close similarity of its song, altho it must be admitted that the Warbler’s is lighter in quality and less wooden. Practically, the only variety is in the number of syllables and in the number and distribution of the r’s; thus, _Sheep, sheep, shear, shear, sheep; Sheep, sheep, shear, shear, sheep, sheep_; and, a shade more emphatic, _Jick, jick, jick, jick, shear, sheep_.

For all we see so little of the Tolmie Warbler, the converse is by no means true. That is to say, the bird does see a great deal of us if we frequent the thickets. Whenever there is anything doing in his vicinity, the Warbler promptly and silently threads the intervening mazes, takes observations of the disturber from every angle, and retires with, at most, a disapproving _chuck_. In the fall of the year discipline is somewhat relaxed, and a little judicious screeping in the shrubbery will call up platoons of these inquisitive Warblers.

Owing partly to the caution of the sitting female, and more to the density of its cover, the nest of the Tolmie Warbler is not often found. When approached the bird glides away silently from her nest, and begins feeding ostentatiously in the neighboring bushes. This of itself is enough to arouse suspicion in an instructed mind, for the exhibition is plainly gratuitous. But the brush keeps the secret well, or, if it is forced, we find a bulky, loose-built affair of coarse dead grasses and rootlets, lined with black rootlets or horse-hair, and placed either in an upright fork of a bush, or built around the ascending stems of rank herbage at a few inches or at most two or three feet from the ground. Eggs, usually four in number, are deposited about the first week in June, and Tolmie babies swarm in July and August, quite beyond the expectation of our oölogical fore season.

A word of explanation regarding the change of name from Macgillivray to Tolmie is in order. Townsend discovered the bird and really published it first, saying,[28] “I dedicate the species to my friend, W. T. Tolmie, Esq. of Fort Vancouver.” Audubon, being entrusted with Townsend’s specimens, but disregarding the owner’s prior rights, published the bird independently, and tardily, as it happened, as _Sylvia macgillivrayi_, by which specific name it was long known to ornithologists. Macgillivray was a Scotch naturalist who never saw America, but Tolmie was at that time a surgeon and later a factor of “the Honorable the Hudson Bay Company,” and he clearly deserves remembrance at our hands for the friendly hospitality and coöperation which he invariably extended to men of science.

No. 80. GRINNELL’S WATER-THRUSH.

A. O. U. No. 675 a. Seiurus noveboracensis notabilis Ridgw.

Description.—_Adults_: Above sooty olive-brown, singularly uniform; below white or tinged with pale yellow, everywhere (save on abdomen, centrally, under tail-coverts and extreme chin) streaked with sooty olive, the streaks small and wedge-shaped on throat, increasing in size posteriorly on breast, sides and flanks (where nearly confluent on buffy ground); a superciliary stripe continuous to nostril pale buffy; a crescent-shaped mark of same shade on lower eyelid; cheeks and auricular region finely streaked with pale buffy and color of back. Bill dark brown above, lighter below; feet pale; iris brown. _Young birds_ are finely barred with buffy above and have two buffy wing-bars; underparts heavily and indistinctly streaked with dusky on pale yellow ground. Length 6.00 (152) or over; wing 3.00 (76); tail 2.10 (53.3); bill .53 (13.5); tarsus .85 (21.7).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; plain brown above; white (or pale yellow) heavily streaked with dusky below; a prominent buffy stripe over eye.

Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. _Nest_: on the ground or in roots of upturned tree; of moss and leaves, lined with fine rootlets and tendrils. _Eggs_: 4 or 5, white or creamy white, speckled, spotted or wreathed with reddish browns. Av. size, .80 × .60 (20.3 × 15.2). _Season_: May 20-June 10; one brood.

General Range.—Western North America; breeding from Minnesota, western Nebraska and the northern Rocky Mountains north to Alaska and Siberia (East Cape); southward during migrations over Western States and Mississippi Valley, less commonly thru Atlantic coast States, to West Indies, Mexico, Central America and Colombia.

Range in Washington.—Conjectural—should be not uncommon migrant.

Authority.—_S. noveboracensis_, Baird, Review Am. Birds, 1865, 215 (“Camp Moogie, Washington”).

Specimens.—P (Alaskan). Prov.

While we have only one record, and that an old one, there is every reason to suppose that this species traverses our borders annually, since it breeds in the middle mountain districts of British Columbia (Rhoads), is abundant in Alaska (Nelson), and migrates southward thru the western United States (Ridgway). The Water-thrush should be looked for in May along the shaded banks of streams, but may possibly be found along more open margins, consorting with Pipits, with which it shares a restless habit of jetting, or curtseying, whimsically.

No. 81. WESTERN YELLOW-THROAT.

A. O. U. No. 681 a. Geothlypis trichas occidentalis Brewster.

Description.—_Adult male in spring and summer_: Above grayish olive-green, brighter (less gray) on upper tail-coverts and tail, inclining to brownish on crown and hindneck; an obliquely descending facial mask of black involving forehead, lores, space about eyes, cheeks and (more narrowly) sides of neck; along the posterior margin of this mask a narrow sharply contrasting area of clear ash or white; chin, throat and breast rich yellow (inclining to gamboge); sides of breast and sides heavily shaded with olive-gray and breast more or less washed with same; lower breast and below between yellow and palest olive-gray; under tail-coverts and bend of wing clear yellow. _Adult male in autumn_: Occiput more decidedly brown; upperparts clearer olive-green. _Young male in first autumn_: Mask of adult merely indicated by black underlying sooty-brown on sides of head; coloration of underparts duller. _Adult female in spring_: Like adult male but without black mask and ashy edging; crown and sides of head olive gray; forehead tinged with brown; region above and about eye notably paler; coloration of underparts duller and paler, sometimes clearly yellow on under tail-coverts alone. _Young female in first autumn_: Similar to adult but underparts still duller and dingier, breast and sides heavily washed with brownish olive. Length of adult about 5.00 (127); wing 2.26 (57.5); tail 2.19 (55.8); bill .44 (11.3); tarsus .83 (21).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; black mask and white fillet of male distinctive. The female is a much more difficult bird to recognize—perhaps best known by peculiar sordid olive-brownish-yellow shade of underparts. The pale orbital area also assists, but one must live with these birds to know them infallibly.

Nesting.—_Nest_: of coarse grasses lined with fine grass and horse-hair; placed 1-2 feet high in tussock of grass or rank herbage, usually near water; outside 4½ wide by 3½ deep, inside 2¼ by 1½. _Eggs_: 4 or 5, dotted and spotted or, rarely, streaked with blackish and lavender. Av. Size, .70 × .56 (17.8 × 14.2). _Season_: May 20-June 10; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States and British Columbia, except Pacific coast district, east to western portions of the Great Plains; breeding southward into Mexico and northern Lower California; in winter south to Cape St. Lucas and western Mexico.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident east of the Cascade Mountains; found chiefly in rye-grass districts and in vicinity of water.

Migrations.—_Spring_: Ahtanum (Yakima Co.) March 29, 1900.

Authorities.—Dawson, Auk, XIV. April, 1897, 179. D². Ss¹. Ss². J.

Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov.