Range in Washington.—East-side—theoretically inclusive. Specimens from

the central valleys of the Cascades may be called _morphna_ and those

from the Palouse country _montana_, at pleasure.

Authorities.—_M. fasciata guttata_, Brewster, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club,

VII. 1882, 227, 229. D¹. Ss¹. J.

Specimens.—P¹.

This, the connecting link between _montana_ and _morphna_, is the

characteristic Song Sparrow of eastern Washington, and abounds along

timbered water courses and in all cultivated districts. While closely

resembling the Rusty Song Sparrow of the West-side, it may be

distinguished from it by the sharper color pattern of its plumage; and

the points of divergence from _montana_ are maintained with substantial

uniformity, at least along the eastern slopes of the Cascades, and in

the northern tier of counties.

Altho subjected to considerable rigors in winter, this species is

partially resident, being largely confined during the cold season to the

shelter of tule beds, wild rose thickets, clematis bowers, and the like.

Nesting begins about the second week in April and continues with

undiminished ardor till July or August. Incubation requires twelve days,

and the young are ready to fly in as many more, so that a devoted pair

is able to raise three and sometimes four broods in a season.

At this rate we should be overrun with Song Sparrows if there were not

so many agencies to hold the species in check. A young Song Sparrow is

the choice morsel of everything that preys,—cats, skunks, weasels,

chipmunks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Crows, Magpies, Black-headed Jays, and

garter snakes. How would this motley company fare were it not for the

annual crop of Song Sparrows? And the wonder of it is that the brave

heart holds out and sings its song of trust and love with the ruins of

three nests behind it and the harvest not yet past.

[Illustration: _Taken in Oregon._ _Photo by A. W. Anthony._

A PROFESSIONAL OOLOGIST.]

A little glimpse of Nature’s prodigality in this regard was afforded by

a pair which nested on my grounds in the Ahtanum Valley. On the 4th of

June I came upon a nest in a rose bush, containing four young just

hatched, and these almost immediately disappeared—a second, or possibly

a third, attempt for the season. On July 4th in an adjoining clump the

same pair was discovered with three well-fledged young, which, for aught

I know, reached days of self-dependence. On July 24th a nest was found

some twenty feet away containing four eggs, which I knew, both by the

familiar notes and by elimination, to belong to this pair; but the nest

was empty on the day following.

At the beginning of the season nests are frequently made upon the ground

under cover of old vegetation, or at the base of protecting bush clumps

in swamps. Occasional ground nests may also be found thruout the season.

One seen at Stehekin on August 3d was nestled loosely in a recumbent

potato vine. At other times any situation in bush or tree, up to twenty

feet, is acceptable, if only within convenient reach of water. A

favorite building site is amid the debris of last year’s flood water,

caught in the willow clumps of creek or lagoon. With high boots one may

wade the bed of a brushy creek near Yakima and count certainly on

finding a Merrill Song Sparrow’s nest every five or ten rods.

No. 57.

RUSTY SONG SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 581 e. Melospiza melodia morphna Oberholser.

Description.—_Adults_: Somewhat like _M. m. montana_ but coloration

much more rufescent, general color of upperparts rich rusty brown,

ashy gray of _M. m. montana_ represented by rusty olive and this

reduced or (in some plumages) almost wanting; black mesial streaks of

scapulars, etc., much reduced, indistinct or sometimes wanting;

underparts heavily and broadly streaked with chestnut usually without

black shaft lines; sides and flanks washed with olivaceous. “_Young_,

slightly rufescent bister brown above, the back streaked with

blackish, beneath dull whitish or very pale buffy grayish, the chest,

sides and flanks more or less tinged with buffy or pale fulvous and

streaked with sooty brownish” (Ridgway). Length about 6.40 (162.5);

wing 2.60 (66); tail 2.56 (65); bill .50 (12.7); tarsus .67 (17).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; rusty brown coloration; heavily

spotting of underparts distinctive save for the _Passerella iliaca_

group from which it is further distinguished by smaller size and

varied head markings.

Nesting.—_Nest_: As in preceding. _Eggs_: usually 4, averaging darker

in coloration and larger than in _M. m. merrilli_. Av. size, .87 × .63

(22.1 × 16). _Season_: second week in April to July; two or three

broods.

General Range.—“Breeding from extreme southern portion of Alaska

through British Columbia (including Vancouver Island) to western

Oregon (north of Rogue River Mountains); in winter, south to southern

California (Fort Tejon, etc.)” (Ridgway).

Range in Washington.—Common resident west of the Cascades; found

chiefly in vicinity of water.

Authorities.—? Audubon, Orn. Biog. V. 1839, 22. _M. rufina_, Baird,

Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, p. 481. (T). C&S. L¹. Rh. Kb. Ra. Kk.

B. E.

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

If one were to write a book about the blessings of common things, an

early chapter must needs be devoted to the Song Sparrow. How blessed a

thing it is that we do not all of us have to go to greenhouses for our

flowers, nor to foreign shores for birds. Why, there is more lavish

loveliness in a dandelion than there is in an imported orchid; and I

fancy we should tire of the Nightingale, if we had to exchange for him

our sweet poet of common day, the Song Sparrow.

Familiar he certainly is; for while he has none of the vulgar

obtrusiveness of _Passer domesticus_, nor confesses any love for mere

bricks and mortar, there is not a weedy back lot outside of the fire

limits which he has not gladdened with his presence, nor a disordered

wood-pile or brush-heap which he has not explored. Much lurking under

cover in time of rain has darkened his plumage beyond that of the

eastern bird, and close association with the fallen monarchs of the

forest has reddened it, until he himself looks like a rusty fragment of

a mouldering fir log.

It is as a songster, however, that we know this sparrow best.

Silver-tongue’s melody is like sunshine, bountiful and free and ever

grateful. Mounting some bush or upturned root, he greets his childish

listeners with “_Peace, peace, peace be unto you, my children._” And

that is his message to all the world, “Peace, and good-will.” Once we

sat stormbound at the mouth of our tent, and, mindful of the unused

cameras, grumbled at the eternal drizzle. Whereupon the local poet

flitted to a favorite perch on a stump hard by, and, throwing back his

head, sang, with sympathetic earnestness, “Cheer up! Cheer up! Count

your many mercies _now_.” Of course he did say exactly that, and the

childish emphasis he put upon the last word set us to laughing, my

partner and me, until there was no more thought of complaint.

[Illustration: SONG SPARROW ASLEEP.]

Even in winter the brave-hearted bird avails himself of the slightest

pretext—an hour of sunlight or a rise of temperature—to mount a bush and

rehearse his cheerful lay. The song is not continuous, but it is

frequently repeated thru periods of several minutes, and is followed by

little intervals of placid contemplation.

But no matter how gentle a bird’s disposition may be, there is ample

use, alack! for the note of warning and distrust. When, therefore, the

Song Sparrow’s nesting haunts are invaded, the bird emits a _chip_ or

_chirp_, still musical, indeed, but very anxious. In winter the resident

birds deny themselves even this characteristic cry; and, except for the

occasional outbursts of full song, they are limited to a high nasal

_tss_, which seems to serve the purpose of a flocking, or recognition,

call. Song Sparrows are not really gregarious birds; nor are they even

seen in close proximity save in mating time; but they like to assure

themselves, nevertheless, that a dozen of their fellows are within call

against a time of need.

Silver-tongue is a bird of the ground and contiguous levels. When

hiding, he does not seek the depths of the foliage in trees, but skulks

among the dead leaves on the ground, or even threads his way thru log

heaps. If driven from one covert, the bird dashes to another with an odd

jerking flight, working its tail like a pump-handle, as tho to assist

progress. Ordinarily the bird is not fearful, altho retiring in

disposition. Apart from the haunts of men the Song Sparrow of western

Washington is closely attached to the water; and is not to be looked for

save in damp woods, in swamps, in the vicinity of open water, whether of

lake or ocean, or along the brushy margins of streams. Indeed, its

habits are beginning to assume a slightly aquatic character. Not only

does it plash about carelessly in shallow water, but it sometimes seizes

and devours small minnows.

Save in favored localities, such as the margins of a tule swamp, nests

of the Rusty Song Sparrow are not obtrusively common. “Back East,” in a

season of all around nesting, about one-fifth of the nests found would

be those of the Song Sparrow. Not so on Puget Sound; for, altho the

birds are common, heavy cover is ten times more common, and I would

sooner undertake to find a dozen Warblers’ nests than as many Song

Sparrows’. Nesting begins about April 1st, at which time nests are

commonly built upon the ground or in a tussock of grass or tules. The

end of a log, overshadowed by growing ferns, is a favorite place later

in the season; while brush-heaps, bushes, fir saplings, trees, or

clambering vines, such as ivy and clematis, are not despised.

The eggs, Mr. Bowles finds, are almost invariably four in number, as in

a very large number of sets examined only one contained five eggs. They

are of a light greenish blue in ground color, and are spotted and

blotched heavily and irregularly with reddish browns, especially about

the larger end. Several broods are raised each season.

The Rusty Song Sparrow, because of its abundance in winter, affords the

impression of being strictly a resident bird in western Washington. Such

may be the case with a majority of the individuals, but there is still

evidence of a southward movement of the race, the place of local birds

being supplied in winter partly by British Columbia birds, which show a

heavier and more uniformly blended type of plumage, approaching that of

_M. c. rufina_.

No. 58.

SOOTY SONG SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 581 f. Melospiza melodia rufina (Bonap.).

Description.—Similar to _M. m. morphna_ but larger and with coloration

darker, more blended; general color of upperparts deep sooty brown or

bister, brightening on greater wing-coverts and tertials; back

obscurely streaked with darker; median crown-stripe obsolete or at

least indistinct; streaking of underparts dark brown. Length 6.50

(165) or over; wing 2.75 (70); tail 2.64 (67); bill .48 (12.3); tarsus

.92 (23.5).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; dark brown coloration; plumage of

upperparts blended, almost uniform. Requires careful distinction from

_Passerella_ but is smaller and variegation of head still traceable.

Nesting.—As in preceding. Does not breed in Washington.

General Range.—“Southern Alaska (islands and coast); north to Cross

Sound, Glacier Bay, Lynn Canal, etc.; south to north side of Dixon

Entrance, in winter to coast of British Columbia, Vancouver Island,

and northwestern Washington (Olympic Mountains)” (Ridgway).

Range in Washington.—Winter resident in northwestern portion of

State—not common.

Authorities.—_M. cinerea rufina_ (Brandt), Ridgway, Birds of North and

Middle America, Vol I. p. 374. E.

Specimens.—Prov. E.

These larger and darker birds reach our northern borders in winter only,

having retired thus far from their home in southern Alaska. Their

demeanor while with us is even more modest than that of the local

Silver-tongue; and when one is stalking the dank woods of Whatcom County

on the _qui vive_ for varieties, it requires a second glance to

distinguish this Song Sparrow, with its softly blended plumage, from a

winter Fox Sparrow.

No. 59.

LINCOLN’S SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 583. Melospiza lincolnii (Aud.).

Synonyms.—Lincoln’s Song Sparrow. Lincoln Finch.

Description.—_Adults_: Above, much like _M. melodia montana_, but

crown brighter rufous, and with more decided black markings: back

browner and more broadly and smartly streaked with black; the gray of

back sometimes with a bluish and sometimes with an olivaceous tinge;

below, throat and belly white, the former never quite immaculate, but

with small arrow-shaped black marks; sides of head and neck and

remaining underparts creamy buff, everywhere marked by elongated and

sharply defined black streaks; usually an abrupt dusky spot on center

of breast; bill blackish above, lighter below, feet brownish. Length

about 5.75 (146.1); av. of six specimens; wing 2.48 (63); tail 2.11

(53.6); bill .40 (10.2).

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; bears general resemblance to Song

Sparrow, from which it is clearly distinguished by buffy chest-band,

and by narrow, sharp streaks of breast and sides.

Nesting.—_Nest_: much like that of Rusty Song Sparrow, of dried

grasses, etc., usually on ground, rarely in bushes. _Eggs_: 3 or 4,

greenish white spotted and blotched with chestnut and grayish. Av.

size, .80 × .58 (20.3 × 14.7). _Season_: June, July; two (?) broods.

General Range.—North America at large breeding chiefly north of the

United States (at least as far as the Yukon Valley) and in the higher

parts of the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade-Sierras; south in winter

to Panama.

Range in Washington.—Imperfectly made out—probably not rare spring and

fall migrant, at least west of the Cascades; found breeding in the

Rainier National Park.

Authorities.—[“Lincoln’s Finch,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 (1885),

22.] Bowles and Dawson, Auk, XXV. Oct. 1908, p. 483.

Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. B.

Modesty is a beautiful trait, and, I suppose, if we had always to choose

between the brazen arrogance of the English Sparrow and the shy

timorousness of this bird-afraid-of-his-shadow, we should feel obliged

to accept the latter. But why should a bird of such inconspicuous color

steal silently thru our forests and slink along our streams with bated

breath as if in mortal dread of the human eye? Are we then such

hobgloblins?

Thrice only have I seen this bird, and then in northern Ohio. On the

first occasion two of us followed a twinkling suspicion along a shadowy

woodland stream for upwards of a hundred yards. Finally we neared the

edge of the woods. There was light! exposure! recognition! With an

inward groan the flitting shape quitted the last brush-pile and rose

twenty feet to a tree-limb. Just an instant—but enough for our

purpose—and he had whisked over our heads, hot-wing upon the dusky back

trail. That same May day we came upon a little company of these Sparrows

halted by the forbidding aspect of Lake Erie, and dallying for the nonce

in the dense thickets which skirted a sluggish tributary. Here they

skulked like moles, and it was only by patient endeavor that we were

able to cut out a single bird and constrain it to intermittent exposure

at the edge of the stream. Here, at intervals, from the opposite bank,

we eagerly took note of its head-stripes, pale streaked breast, and very

demure airs, and listened to snatches of a sweet but very weak song,

with which the bird favored us in spite of our “persecution.” Is it any

wonder that the Lincoln Sparrow is so little known to fame?

While rated a regular summer resident of British America and Alaska,

Lincoln’s Sparrow has also been found breeding in the mountains of

eastern Oregon, California, Utah, and Colorado. It ought, therefore to

occur in Washington; but we have only to shrug our shoulders and say

with the lawyer, _non est inventus_. Indeed, the only positive record we

have of the bird’s occurrence at any season is that of a specimen taken

by A. Gordon Bowles, Jr., in Wright’s Park, Tacoma, May 22, 1906.

So much penned in good faith in April, 1908. In June of the same year

the good fairy of the bird-man piloted him to a spot where the Lincoln

Sparrows were so numerously and so thoroly at home, that he began to

wonder whether he might not have been dreaming after all for the past

quarter of a century. Ten or a dozen pairs were found occupying the

well-known swamp at Longmire’s Springs. On the 30th of June they were

much more in evidence than the Rusty Song Sparrows, which occupied the

same grassy fastnesses; and altho the females were not done waiting on

overgrown babies, the males were loudly urging their second suits.

[Illustration: _Taken at Longmire’s Springs._

LINCOLN’S SONG SPARROW.

ALLAN BROOKS AFTER PHOTO BY THE AUTHOR.]

The song of the Lincoln Sparrow is of a distinctly musical order, being

gushing, vivacious, and wren-like in quality, rather than lisping and

wooden, like so many of our sparrow songs. Indeed, the bird shows a much

stronger relationship in song to the Purple Finch than to its immediate

congeners, the Song Sparrows. The principal strain is gurgling, rolling,

and spontaneous, and the bird has ever the trick of adding two or three

inconsequential notes at the end of his ditty, quite in approved Purple

Finch fashion. “_Linkup, tinkup perly werly willie willie weeee_ (dim.)”

said one; “_Riggle, jiggle, eet eet eet eer oor_,” another. “_Che willy

willy willy che quill_”; “_Lee lee lee quilly willy willy_,” and other

such, came with full force and freshness at a hundred yards to the

listeners on the back porch at Longmire’s.

When studied in the swamp, the Lincoln Finches were found to be more

reluctant than Song Sparrows to expose themselves, but one pair, anxious

for their young, sat out against a clear sky again and again. The bird

was seen occasionally to erect its crown feathers in inquiry or

excitement, as do Chipping Sparrow, Nuttall Sparrow, _et al._ A Yellow

Warbler, stumbling into the manorial bush, was set upon furiously; but

she made off philosophically, knowing that her punishment was after the

accepted code. A Rusty Song Sparrow, however, was allowed to sit quietly

at a foot’s remove, not, apparently, because he was so much bigger, nor

even because nearer of kin, but rather because of common parental

anxiety. The contrast here was instructive; the Lincoln Sparrow being

not only smaller but more lightly colored and with a sharp-cut

streakiness of plumage. A comparison of many examples showed the

similarity of head pattern between the two Sparrows to be very

noticeable, while the buffy tinge of the Lincoln’s breast would appear

to be one of its least constant marks.

An alleged sub-species, Forbush’s Sparrow, _M. l. striata_, “Similar to

_M. lincolni_ but superciliary stripes and upperparts more strongly

olivaceous, and dark streaks especially on back and upper tail-coverts,

coarser, blacker, and more numerous,” has been ascribed to British

Columbia and western Washington, but the material at hand is meager and

inconclusive, and the proposed form has been passed upon adversely by

Ridgway.

No. 60.

KADIAK FOX SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 585 a (part). Passerella iliaca insularis Ridgway.

[_Description of Passerella iliaca unalaschensis_ (Shumagin Fox

Sparrow).—_Adults_: “Pileum and hindneck brownish gray or grayish

brown (nearly hair brown) passing into clear gray (mouse gray or smoke

gray) on superciliary region and sides of neck; auricular region

brownish gray, with narrow and indistinct shaft streaks of whitish;

back, scapulars, and rump plain hair brown; greater wing-coverts,

tertials and upper tail-coverts dull cinnamon brown, the rest of wings

intermediate between the last named color and color of back, except

edges of outermost primaries, which are pale hair brown; underparts

white, the foreneck, sides of throat (submalar region), chest, and

sides of breast marked with triangular spots of deep grayish brown or

drab; the flanks broadly streaked or striped with the same (both sides

and flanks mostly grayish brown laterally); malar region white flecked

with grayish brown; under tail-coverts grayish brown centrally,

broadly margined with white or buffy white; middle of throat and

breast usually with a few small spots of brown; maxilla dusky on

culmen, paler on tomia; mandible pale colored (yellowish in winter,

pinkish or liliaceous in summer); iris brown; legs and feet brown”

(Ridgway).]

Description.—“Similar to _P. i. unalaschensis_ but much browner and

more uniform in color above (back, etc., warm sepia brown instead of

grayish brown or brownish gray); spots on chest, etc., larger and

deeper brown; under tail coverts more strongly tipped with buff”

(Ridgway). Length of adult male (skins): 6.78 (172.5); wing 3.30

(83.8); tail 2.92 (74.1); bill .50 (12.7); tarsus 1.02 (25.9).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; uniform brownish coloration of back;

underparts heavily spotted with brown; _browner_ than _unalaschensis_

but duller than _townsendi_; larger than _annectens_; color of crown

unbroken as compared with Rusty Song Sparrow (_Melospiza melodia

morphna_), also bird larger.

General Range.—“Kadiak Island, Alaska, in summer; in winter south

along the coast slope to southern California.”

Range in Washington.—Winter resident and migrant west of Cascades.

Authorities.—_Passerella townsendii_ Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX.

1858. p. 489 part (Whitbeys Id., winter).—_Fide_ Ridgway.

A singular fatality (or, more strictly, _want_ of fatality) has

attended our efforts to secure a representative series of migrating

Fox Sparrows on Puget Sound. The birds have only revealed themselves

in city parks or otherwise in the absence of a gun. It is practically

certain that all the Alaskan forms described by Mr. Ridgway occur here

regularly in winter and during migrations but so unobtrusive are the

birds and so dense the cover afforded that we have been completely

baffled in our attempts, and find ourselves obliged, at the last

moment, to fall back upon Mr. Ridgway’s original descriptions in Birds

of North and Middle America, Vol. I. (p. 389 ff), and for the use of

these we desire again to express our grateful obligations.

For additional remarks on the Shumagin Fox Sparrow (_P. i.

unalaschensis_) and the Yakutat Fox Sparrow (_P. is annectens_) see

Hypothetical List in Volume II. of this work.

Field identification of the Fox Sparrows by means of binoculars may not

command the respect of precise scientists. But there he sat, placid, at

twenty feet, in a well-lighted grove on the Nisqually Flats, on the 10th

day of February, 1906. See; twenty divided by eight (the magnifying

power of the glasses) equals two and a half. At arm’s length I held him,

while I noted that the upperparts were dull hair-brown thruout, not

noticeably brightening on wings and tail but perhaps a shade darker on

the crown; underparts heavily but _clearly_ spotted with a warmer

brown—so, obviously and indisputably, neither a Sooty nor a Townsend.

Shumagin (_P. i. unalaschensis_) perhaps; but Ridgway[20] enters all

Puget Sound winter records as Kadiaks, and we must follow the gleam

until we are able to perfect the light of our own little lanterns by the

flash of a shot-gun.

No. 61.

TOWNSEND’S SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 585 a (part). Passerella iliaca townsendi (Audubon).

[_Description of P. i. annectens_ (Yakutat Fox Sparrow).—“Similar to

_P. i. insularis_ but smaller (the bill especially) and coloration

slightly browner” (Ridgw.).]

Description.—_Adults_: Similar to _P. i. annectens_ but coloration

darker and richer (inclining to chestnut brown); spots on chest, etc.,

larger. “Above deep vandyke brown, duller (more sooty) on pileum, more

reddish (inclining to burnt umber or dark chestnut brown) on upper

tail-coverts and tail; sides of head deep sooty brown, the lores

dotted, the auricular region finely streaked, with dull whitish;

general color of underparts white, but everywhere spotted or streaked

with deep chestnut brown or vandyke brown, the spots mostly of

triangular (deltoid and cuneate) form, very heavy and more or less

confluent on chest, smaller on throat and breast; sides and flanks

almost uniform deep brown, the latter tinged with buffy or pale tawny,

under tail-coverts deep olive or olive-brown broadly margined with

buffy or pale fulvous.” Length of adult male (skins): 6.67 (169.4);

wing 3.17 (80.5); tail 2.78 (70.6); bill .47 (11.9); tarsus 1.00

(25.4).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; warm brown (nearly uniform)

coloration of upperparts; heavy spotting of chest, etc. Absence of

distinctive head markings will distinguish bird from local Song

Sparrows, and robust form with conical beak from migrating Hermit

Thrushes.

Nesting.—As next. Does not breed in Washington.

General Range.—“Coast district of southern Alaska (islands and coast

of mainland from southern side of Cross Sound, Lynn Canal, etc., to

north side of Dixon Entrance); in winter, south to northern

California” (Ridgway).

Range in Washington.—Common migrant and (possibly) winter resident

west of Cascades.

Authorities.—? _Fringilla townsendi_ Audubon, Orn. Biog. V. 1839, 236,

pl. 424, fig. 7 (Columbia River). Townsend, Narrative (1839), p. 345.

_Passerella townsendii_, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, p.

489. C&S. Ra. Kk. B. E(H).

Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. B. C.

Time was when all the various Fox Sparrows of the Pacific Northwest were

lumped together under the name Townsend’s Sparrow. A more critical age,

however, under the leadership of Professor Ridgway, has resolved the

bewildering array of shifting browns into five forms, or subspecies,

assigning to each summer quarters according to the dullness or

brightness of its coat. The end is not yet, of course, but the

distinctions already made are sufficiently attenuated to cause the

public to yawn. Suffice it to say, that this is one of the plastic

species long resident on the Pacific Coast; and that the varying

conditions of rainfall and temperature, to which the birds have been

subjected thruout the greater portion of the year, have given rise to

five recognizable forms of the Townsend Sparrow.

Probably all forms are migratory, but the northernmost member of the

group, the Shumagin Fox Sparrow (_P. i. unalaschensis_) has not been

taken except in its summer home, the Alaska Peninsula, Unalaska, and the

Shumagins. The remaining four are known to retire in winter as far south

as California; but whether they preserve the 2, 3, 4, 5, arrangement in

winter, or whether the order is roughly reversed (as is true in the case

of certain other species), so that number 2 goes farthest south, while

number 5, less anxious as to the severities of winter, migrates, as it

were, half-heartedly, and becomes for a time the northernmost form, we

cannot tell. However this may be, Townsend’s Sparrow proper (_P. i.

townsendi_) appears to outnumber any of the remoter forms during at

least the spring migrations; and because it is our next neighbor on the

north, should be entitled to more consideration than plain heathen

birds.

At no time does the absorptive power of our matchless Puget Sound cover

appear to greater advantage than during the migration of the Fox

Sparrows. However they may choose to move at night, by day they frequent

the dense tangles of salal and salmon brush, or skulk about in cedar

swamps. To search for them is useless, but if you are much out-of-doors

the time will come, while you are footing it softly along some woodland

path, that a demure brown bird will hop out in front of you and look

unconcernedly for tid-bits before your very eyes. The bird is a little

larger than a Song Sparrow, but you will require a second glance to note

that the colors of the upperparts are smoothly blended, that the head

lacks the vague stripiness of _Melospiza_, and that the underparts are

spotted instead of streaked. Or, it may be, that you chance upon him as

he is busily scratching among the fallen alder leaves. Scratching is

hardly the word tho, for the bird leaps forward and executes an

extravagant double kick backward, landing invariably at the edge of the

cleared space. Here, without a moment’s delay, he proceeds to glean

busily, whereas you rather expected him to pause at the end of his

stunt, like the acrobat, awaiting the conventional burst of applause. If

you must needs pursue the path, he hops back into the thicket and you

have seen, perhaps, your last Fox Sparrow for this year, altho his

migrating kinsmen must number millions.

No. 62.

SOOTY FOX SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 585 a (part). Passerella iliaca fuliginosa Ridgway.

Description.—_Adults_: Upperparts, sides of head, neck, and lateral

underparts nearly uniform dark brown (sepia brown—“sooty” not

inappropriate), warming slightly upon exposed surfaces of wings and

upon rump and outer edges of rectrices; below white save for under

tail-coverts, which have clear buffy wash, everywhere save on middle

belly heavily marked with large, chiefly triangular, spots of the

color of back or darker—spotting heaviest on breast where nearly

confluent. Bill black above shading on sides into yellow of lower

mandible; feet pale ruddy brown or wine-color. Length (of a single

fresh specimen) 7.45 (191.7); wing (av.) 3.21 (81.5); tail 2.91 (77);

bill .48 (12.2); tarsus 1.02 (25.9).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow to Chewink size; uniform sooty brown

coloration of head and upperparts; heavily spotted below with sepia or

blackish; darker above and more heavily spotted below than any migrant

form of the _P. i. unalaschensis_ group.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a bulky structure with a broad, flat brim, of mosses,

grasses, twigs, woody fibers, weed-stalks, often heavily lined with

fine dry grass of contrasting color and with an inner mat of fur, hair

or feathers; placed at moderate heights in thickets or saplings;

measures externally 6 inches across by 3 deep, internally 2⅛ across by

1⅝ deep. _Eggs_: 4, greenish blue, spotted, or spotted and clouded,

with reddish brown. Av. size, .94 × .68 (23.8 × 17.3). _Season_:

May-July; two broods.

General Range.—Summer resident in coast region of British Columbia and

northwestern Washington; in winter south along the coast to San

Francisco.

Range in Washington.—Breeding on the San Juan Islands and upon the

northern and western shores of the Olympic Peninsula; not uncommon

migrant on Puget Sound.

Authorities.—(?) Baird, Rep. Pac., etc., 489 part; (?) Cooper and

Suckley Rep. Pac., etc., 204 part; (?) Sclater Cat. Am. Birds, 1862,

119 part (Simiahmoo [sic]); Ridgway, Auk, XVI. Jan. 1899, 36 (Neah

Bay). Kb. E.

Specimens.—Prov. BN. E.

The mystery of the Fox Sparrow clears a little as we move northward on

Puget Sound, and may even resolve itself one day as we spend a lazy July

in camp on one of the San Juan islands. We are puzzled, as the tent pegs

are being driven, by certain sprightly songs bursting out now here, now

there, from the copse. We labor under a sense of avian surveillance as

we gather fuel from the beach, but the songs are too joyous and limpid

to make precise connections with anything in previous experience. It is

not till the cool of the evening, when we seek the spring, back in the

depths of the thicket, that we come upon a fair birdmaiden slyly

regaling herself upon a luscious salmon-berry, flushed to the wine-red

of perfection, while three of her suitors peal invitations to separate

bowers in the neighboring tangles. She flees guiltily on detection, but

the secret is out; we know now where these shy wood nymphs keep

themselves in summer.

The male bird is sometimes emboldened by the moment of song to venture

into the tops of willows or alders, but even here he hugs the screen of

leaves and is ready in a trice to dive into the more familiar element of

bushes. Once under cover of the protecting salal, or among the crowding

ferns, the Fox Sparrows are excelled by none in their ability to get

about with a modicum of disturbance; and the longest journeys, such as

are made necessary in the time of clamoring young, appear to be made by

slipping and sliding thru the maze of intersecting stems. The song is

varied and vivacious; but, save for the opening notes, is neither very

strong nor very brilliant. The opening phrase, however, _Pewit, heu_,

comes as a tiny bugle call into which is distilled the essence of all

dank hollows, of all rustling leaves, of all murmuring tides, and of all

free-blowing breezes. It is the authentic voice of the little wild.

[Illustration: _From a Photograph Copyright, 1907, by W. L. Dawson._

CARROLL ISLET—SOUTH EXPOSURE.

WHERE THE FIRST NEST OF THE SOOTY FOX SPARROW WAS FOUND.]

On a July day a trio of Indian boys, Quillayutes, were showing the

bird-man a round of belated nesters, while he was looking for

opportunities to photograph eggs, and also recording Quillayutan bird

names in passing. A Rusty Song Sparrow’s nest held only weanlings,

mildly hideous, and the leader, a lad of ten, expressed regret that he

could not show me the nest of another kind of Song Sparrow. With excess

of Caucasian pride I assured him that there was only one species of Song

Sparrow to be found locally, but my learned statements drew forth only

puzzled and unconvicted glances. Some days later when I had taken a set

of Sooty Fox Sparrow’s eggs from a neighboring islet, the boys clamored

in triumph, “That’s it; those are the eggs of _Tahbahlilchteh_, the

other Song Sparrow we told you about.” The boys were near enough right;

the Fox Sparrow is for all the ordinary world like a Song Sparrow; and I

venture that not a dozen white boys in Washington ever saw the bird

itself, let alone distinguishing it by name.

[Illustration: _Taken on Carroll Islet._ _Photo by the Author._

NEST OF SOOTY FOX SPARROW IN FERN CLUMP.

THE NEST ITSELF IS ALMOST INVISIBLE BECAUSE BURIED IN MOSS AND FERN

LEAVES.]

The eggs referred to were found amid most romantic surroundings, on a

sea-girt islet a mile or two out from the Pacific shore. The island is

given over to sea-birds, and these nest upon its precipitous sides to

the number of thousands; but the center of the rock is crowned with a

grove of spruce trees, which overshadow a dense growth of salmon-berry

bushes. In a clump of the latter at a height of six feet was placed a

very bulky but unusually handsome nest, which held, in the really tiny

cup which occupies the upper center of the structure, three eggs of a

greenish blue color heavily spotted and marbled with warm browns. The

nest measures externally eight and ten inches in width, internally two;

in depth four inches outside and only one and a half inside. It is

composed chiefly of green mosses set in dead spruce twigs with a few

twisted weed stalks; while the lining is of a light-colored, fine, dead

grass, very loosely arranged, and a few breast-feathers of the

Glaucous-winged Gull. A nest full of young Peregrine Falcons were

conversing in screams with their doting parents in the spruce trees

overhead, and terrorizing the island thereby; but the Sooty Fox Sparrows

stepped forward modestly to claim ownership in the nest which “Science”

unfortunately required. The date was July 21, 1906, and the eggs were

nearly upon the point of hatching.

Thus, the north and west slopes of the Olympic Mountains, together with

the islands of lower Puget Sound, appear to mark the southern breeding

range of the coastal Fox Sparrows. This form has not been reported

breeding upon the mainland east of Puget Sound, but it is difficult to

see why it should not do so. It is rather the commonest form during the

spring and fall migrations, and there is no evidence as yet that it

tarries with us in winter.

No. 63.

SLATE-COLORED SPARROW.

A. O. U. No. 585 c. Passerella iliaca schistacea (Baird).

Synonym.—Slate-colored Fox Sparrow.

Description.—_Adults_: Upperparts slaty gray tinged with olivaceous,

changing abruptly to russet brown on upper tail-coverts, and tail;

wings brown brightening, more rusty, on edges of greater coverts and

secondaries; some white fleckings below eye, and supraloral spot dull

whitish; underparts white shaded with color of back on sides; the

sides of throat, chest, and sides of breast heavily and distinctly

marked with triangular spots of sepia; lower breast (and sometimes

middle of throat) flecked, and sides and flanks striped, with the same

shade; under tail-coverts grayish brown centrally edged broadly with

buffy. _Young birds_ are tinged with brown above and are duller white

below with less distinct markings. Length of adult male 7.00-7.50

(177.8-190.5); wing 3.15 (80); tail 3.15 (80); bill .47 (12); tarsus

.92 (23.3).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow to Chewink size; slaty gray and brown

coloration above with heavy spotting on breast distinctive; _gray_

instead of brown on back as compared with the five members of the

_unalaschensis_ group.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a bulky affair of twigs, weed-stalks, grasses, etc.,

placed on ground or low in bushes of thicket. _Eggs_: 3-5, usually 4,

greenish brown sharply spotted or (rarely) blotched with chestnut. Av.

size .85 × .65 (21.6 × 16.5). _Season_: May-July; two broods.

General Range.—Rocky Mountain district of United States and British

Columbia west to and including the Cascade Mountains, the White

Mountains of southeastern California, and the mountains of

northeastern California; south in winter to New Mexico, Arizona, etc.

Range in Washington.—Summer resident in the timbered districts of the

East-side and in the Cascade Mountains (west to Mt. Rainier).

Authorities.—[“Slate-colored sparrow,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884

(1885), 22]. Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II., p. 435.

The residents of Cannon Hill, in Spokane, are to be congratulated, not

alone for their wealth, for Nature is not curious as to bank accounts,

but for the rare good taste which has been displayed in utilizing the

largess of Nature. Instead of going in with axe and shovel and

fire-brand, first to obliterate the distinctive features of Nature and

then rear mocking platitudes in mortar and stone upon her pale ashes,

they have accepted the glory of her grim lava bastions and the grace of

her unhewn pines; nor have they even despised the tangles of wild

shrubbery, those decent draperies without which both tree and cliff

would be overstark. To be sure the landscape artist with consummate

skill has said to the piny sentinel, “Stand here!” and to the copse,

“Sit there!” but he has not forgotten withal the primeval rights of the

feathered aborigines. As a result _the birds approve_. What higher meed

could mortal ask? Or where is there a better criterion of taste? Taken

all in all I doubt if there is a more delightful spot in Washington in

which to study bird life, certainly not within municipal bounds, than

Cannon Hill affords.

Here, for instance, is this wood sprite, the very genius of the

unravished wild; no one would think of looking for him in a city, yet of

an early morning as the bird-man was passing along Seventh Avenue, he

was arrested by the crisp and hearty notes of a Slate-colored Sparrow,

coming from a bush in an artistically unkempt corner of the adjoining

yard. In the half light, nothing in the pose and appearance of this bird

would have induced an ornithologist to bestow a second glance upon the

evident Song Sparrow, had it not been for the sweet and powerful

challenge which poured from his earnest beak. _Ooree, rickit,

loopiteer_, it said, with varied cadence and minor change, which gave

evidence of no mean ability. There is something so forthright and

winsome about the song of this modest bird, that the listener promptly

surrenders “at discretion,” and begins to ask eager questions of his

dainty captor.

A few yards further on three of these Sparrows were seen feeding on a

well-kept lawn, but ready to skurry at a breath to the shelter of

bush-clumps, thoughtfully provided. And all this in the first week in

June, the very height of nesting time! With this as an example, what

need to speak of Hammond Flycatchers, Mountain Chickadees, Catbirds,

Pine Siskins, Audubon Warblers, Shufeldt Juncoes, Cassin Finches, Pygmy

Nuthatches, American Crossbills, Cassin Vireos, Louisiana Tanagers,

Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Olive-sided Flycatchers, Evening Grosbeaks,

Violet-green Swallows, Black-chinned Hummingbirds, Bobwhites, and a host

of commoner sorts, all residents of the same demesne? “Unto him that

hath shall be given.” Unto these who have shown appreciation and

consideration, has been given the friendship of the birds, and they

deserve their good fortune.

On the 5th of June we visited a nest which had been located a few days

before in a little aspen grove beyond Garden Springs. The nest was

placed upon the ground at the base of a small tree, and it sat so high,

without pretense of concealment, that it was plainly visible with all

its contents two rods away.

The female was brooding, but upon our approach she slipped quietly off

and left her three callow young to the tender mercies of the bird-man

and his big glass eye, set at four feet, while she began searching for

food upon the ground a yard or two away.

[Illustration: _Taken in Rainier National Park._ _From a Photograph

Copyright, 1908, by W. L. Dawson._

WITH UNCLOUDED BROW.

A HAUNT OF THE SLATE-COLORED SPARROW.]

The male bird appeared, once, upon a bush some twenty feet away, making

no hostile demonstration but beaming rather a hearty confidence, as who

should say, “Well, I see you are getting along nicely at home; that’s

right, enjoy yourselves, and I’ll finish up this bit of hoeing before

supper.”

The mother bird, meanwhile, was uttering no complaint of the strange

presence, preferring instead to glean food industriously from under the

carpet of green leaves. Soon she returned, hopping up daintily. Standing

upon the elevated brim of her nest she carefully surveyed her brood

without proffer of food, as tho merely to assure herself of their

welfare. I “snapped” and she retreated, not hastily, as tho frightened,

but quietly as matter of reasonable prudence. Again and again during the

hour I had her under fire, she returned to her brood. Each time she

retired before the mild roar of the curtain shutter, never hastily or

nervously, but deliberately and demurely. Thrice she fed her brood,

thrusting her beak, which bore no external signs of food, deep down into

the upturned gullets of the three children. Thrice she attempted to

brood her babes, and very handsome and very motherly she looked, with

fluffed feathers and mildly inquisitive eye; but the necessary movement

following an exposure sent her away for a season.

When absent she neither moped nor scolded, but discreetly set about

scratching for food, always within a range of ten or fifteen feet of the

nest. At such times she would look up trustfully and unabashed. Upon the

return she never flew, and there was nothing to advise the waiting

camerist of her approach, save the rustle of leaves as she came hop,

hopping, until she stood upon the familiar brim.

The opportunities for picture-making were simply unlimited, save for the

weakness of the leaf-diluted light. Seldom have I been stirred to such

admiration as in the case of this gentle mother _Schistacea_. So demure,

so even-tempered, and so kindly a bird-person, with such a preserving

air of gentle breeding, I have not often seen. It was an hour to be long

remembered.

No. 64.

GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE.

A. O. U. No. 592.1. Oreospiza chlorura (Aud.).

Synonyms.—Green-tailed Finch. Blanding’s Finch.

Description.—_Adults_: Crown and occiput rich chestnut; forehead

blackish gray with whitish loral spot on each side; remaining

upperparts olive-gray tinged more or less with bright olive-green;

wings and tail with brighter greenish edgings; bend of wing,

axillaries and under coverts yellow; chin and throat white bordered by

dusky submaxillary stripe; sides of head and neck and remaining

underparts ashy gray, clearing to white on abdomen, tinged with buffy

or brownish on sides, flanks and crissum. Bill blackish above, paler

below; legs brown, toes darker; irides cinnamon. _Young birds_ are

brown above tinged with greenish and streaked with dusky but with

wings and tail much as in adult. Length of adult about 7.00 (177.8);

wing 3.15 (80); tail 3.30 (84); bill .50 (12.7); tarsus .94 (24).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; rufous crown, white throat; greenish

coloration of upperparts.

Nesting.—“_Nest_: in bush or on the ground. _Eggs_: .90 × .68 (22.8 ×

17.2); pale greenish or grayish white, freckled all over with bright

reddish brown, usually aggregating or wreathing at the larger end”

(Coues).

General Range.—“Mountain districts of western United States, from more

eastern Rocky Mountain ranges to coast range of California; north to

central Montana and Idaho and eastern Washington” (Ridgway). South in

winter to Mexico and Lower California.

Range in Washington.—Presumably summer resident in the Blue Mountains.

Authorities.—[“Green-tailed towhee,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884

(1885), 22]. Ridgway, Birds of North and Middle America, Part I, 401.

T(?).

Not having ourselves encountered this species we are not able to comment

on Prof. Ridgway’s inclusion[21] of eastern Washington in the bird’s

breeding range. The Green-tailed Towhee appears to be essentially a

mountain-loving species, and if it occurs within our borders, will be

nearly confined to the Blue Mountains of the southeastern corner.

Mr. Trippe, writing from Idaho Springs, Colorado, says of this bird[22]:

“It arrives at Idaho early in May, and soon becomes abundant, remaining

till the close of September or early part of October. It is a sprightly,

active little bird with something wren-like in its movements and

appearance. It is equally at home among the loose stones and rocks of a

hill-side (where it hops about with all the agility of the Rock Wren),

and the densest thickets of brambles and willows in the valleys, amidst

which it loves to hide. It is rather shy, and prefers to keep at a good

distance from any suspicious object; and if a cat or dog approaches its

nest, makes a great scolding, like the Cat-bird, and calls all the

neighbors to its assistance; but if a person walks by, it steals away

very quietly and remains silent till the danger is passed. It has a

variety of notes which it is fond of uttering; one sounds like the mew

of a kitten, but thinner and more wiry; its song is very fine, quite

different from the Towhee’s and vastly superior to it. It builds its

nests in dense clumps of brambles, and raises two broods each season,

the first being hatched about the middle of June.”

No. 65.

SPURRED TOWHEE.

A. O. U. No. 588 a. Pipilo maculatus montanus Swarth.

Synonyms.—Chewink. “Catbird.”

Description.—_Adult male_: Head and neck all around, chest and

upperparts black, glossy anteriorly, duller on back; elongated white

spots on scapulars, on tips of middle and greater coverts and on outer

web of exposed tertials; edge of wing white and succeeding primaries

white on outer web; outermost pair of rectrices edged with white on

outer web; the three outermost pairs terminally blotched with white on

inner web and the fourth pair touched with same near tip; breast and

belly white; sides, flanks and crissum light cinnamon rufous,

bleaching on under tail-coverts to light tawny. Bill black; feet

brownish; iris red. _Adult female_: Similar to male but duller; black

of male replaced by slaty with an olivaceous cast. Length of adult

males: 7.50-8.50 (190.5-215.9); wing 3.17 (86); tail 3.93 (100); bill

.53 (13.5); tarsus 1.07 (27.7); hind claw .48 (12.2). Female a little

less.

Recognition Marks.—Standard of “Chewink” size; black, white and

cinnamon-rufous unmistakable; _heavily_ spotted with white on

scapulars and wing as compared with _P. m. oregonus_.

Nesting.—_Nest_: on the ground in thicket or at base of small sapling,

a bulky collection of bark-strips, pine needles, coarse dead grass,

etc., carefully lined with fine dry grass; measures 5 inches in width

and 3 in depth externally by 2½ wide and 1½ deep inside. _Eggs_: 3-5,

usually 4, grayish white or pinkish white as to ground, heavily and

uniformly dotted with light reddish brown. Av. size, .93 × .70 (23.6 ×

17.8). _Season_: last week in April, last week in May and first week

in June; two broods.

General Range.—Breeding in Upper Sonoran and Transition zones from the

Rocky Mountains to the Cascade-Sierras and in the Pacific coast

district of central California, and from Lower California and Northern

Mexico north into British Columbia; retiring from northern portion of

range in winter.

Range in Washington.—Common summer resident east of the Cascades,

found in foothills and mountain valleys up to 3,000 feet; casually

resident in winter.

Authorities.—_P. m. megalonyx_, Brewster, B. N. O. C. VII. Oct. 1892,

p. 227. D². Ss¹. Ss². J.

Specimens.—(U. of W.) P¹. Prov. C.

Altho of Mexican stock, our western Towhee does not differ greatly in

appearance from the familiar bird (_P. erythrophthalmus_) of the East;

and its habits so closely resemble that of the eastern bird as hardly to

require special description. The Spurred Towhee is a lover of green,

thickety hillsides and brushy draws, such cover, in short, as is lumped

together under the term “chaparral” further south. It is, therefore,

narrowly confined to the vicinity of streams in the more open country,

but it abounds along the foothills and follows up the deeper valleys of

the Cascades nearly to the divide.

[Illustration: SPURRED TOWHEE, MALE.]

Tow’hee, as a name, is a manifest corruption of _tow heé_, or _to-hwi′_,

an imitative word, after the bird’s most familiar note. Chewink′ is an

attempt along the same line, but _Marié_ is what the bird seems to me to

say. It is on this account alone that the bird is said to “mew” and is

called “Catbird.” The true Catbird, however, always says _Ma-á ry_, and

there is no cause for confusion. During excitement or alarm the Towhee’s

note is always shortened and sharpened to _Mrie_, with a flirt and jet,

and a flash of the eye. The song variously rendered as “_Chee-terr,

pilly, willy, willy_,” “_Chip, ah, tow-hee-ee_” and “_Yang, kit-er-er_,”

is delivered from the top of a bush or the low limb of a tree; and while

monotonous and very simple, it retains the pleasing quality of that of

the eastern bird. The singer will not stand for close inspection, for,

as Jones says of its cousin[23]: “He is a nervous fellow, emphasizing

his disturbance at your intrusion with a nervous _fluff, fluff_ of the

short wings, and a jerk and quick spreading of the long, rounded tail,

as if he hoped that the flash of white at its end would startle the

intruder away.”

[Illustration: _Taken in Oregon._ _Photo by A. W. Anthony._

NEST AND EGGS OF THE SPURRED TOWHEE.]

For a nest the Spurred Towhee scratches a hollow at the base of a bush

or clump in some dry situation, and lines this carefully, first with

leaves, bark-strips and plant stems, then with fine grasses or rootlets.

The eggs, commonly four in number, are deposited the last week in April

or first in May, and the female clings to her treasures until the

crushing footstep is very imminent. Once flushed, however, she keeps to

the background, scolding intermittently, and she will not return until

long after the excitement has died down.

Two broods are raised each season, and the first one, at least, must

early learn to shift for itself. The young birds are obscure,

dun-colored creatures, quite unlike their parents in appearance, and by

July they infest the buck-brush of the more open mountain sides in such

numbers and apparent variety as to start a dozen false hopes in the

ornithologist’s breast each day.

No. 66.

OREGON TOWHEE.

A. O. U. No. 588 b. Pipilo maculatus oregonus (Bell).

Synonyms.—“Catbird.” Chewink.

Description.—_Adult male_: Similar to _P. m. montanus_ but darker, the

white spotting of wing and blotches on tail much reduced; two outer

pairs of rectrices blotched and the third touched with white near tip;

cinnamon-rufous of sides, etc., richer and deeper. _Adult female_:

Like male but black veiled by deep reddish brown (clove brown)

skirtings of feathers. Length about 8.50 (216); wing 3.33 (84.6); tail

3.69 (93.7); bill .57 (14.5); tarsus 1.10 (27.9); hind claw .43

(10.9). Female a little smaller.

Recognition Marks.—“Chewink” size; black (with white spotting on

wings) above; white of breast; deep reddish brown of sides; mewing

cry.

Nesting.—Like that of preceding species. _Eggs_ a little larger: Av.

size, 1.04 × .74 (26.4 × 18.8).

General Range.—Pacific coast district from British Columbia (including

Vancouver Id.) south to central California; chiefly resident thruout

its range.

Range in Washington.—Of general occurrence, save at higher levels,

west of the Cascades; resident.

Authorities.—? _Fringilla arctica_, Aud. Orn. Biog. V. 1839, 49; pl.

394. _P. oregonus_, Bell, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, pp.

513, 514. (T). C&S. L². Rh. Kb. Ra. Kk. B. E.

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

Perhaps no bird is better known by voice and less by plumage than this

shy recluse of the under forest. Swampy thickets, brush-piles,

log-heaps, and the edges of clearings are his special delight. Hence it

is that the newcomer, taking up quarters at the edge of town, hears this

mysterious, questioning voice, _me-a**error(yacute)? mea**error(yacute)

uh_? rising from the depths of the brush-lot opposite. He reports the

sound under the name of “Catbird,” and asks the bird-man’s opinion. Or,

if the newcomer has been persistent enough, he has a glowing account to

give of a handsome black bird with red on its sides, “like a Robin,” and

some white below. The bird would only show himself for a moment at a

time, and then he flitted and flirted restlessly before he dived into

cover again, so that the fine points of white spotting on the wing and

white tips on the outer tail feathers were lost out of account.

Of course it is the Oregon Towhee, and the half pleasant, half

complaining notes will insure him notice forever after. The bird is

strictly resident wherever found, and the unmistakable blackness of his

plumage is due rather to the age-long endurance of rain than to any

chance association with blackened logs and stumps, as might be supposed.

Towhee is prince of the underworld, not, of course, in the

Mephistophelian sense, but as the undoubted aristocrat among those

humble folk who skulk under dark ferns, thread marvelous mazes of

interlacing sticks and stalks, explore cavernous recesses of

moss-covered roots, and understand the foundations of things generally.

The handsome bird is a little impatient of the company of his own kind,

his faithful spouse always excepted; but he quite appreciates the mild

deference of Rusty Song Sparrows, the bustling sociability of Western

Winter Wrens, or even the intermittent homage of Seattle Wrens. In

winter the Fox Sparrows attach themselves to this humble itinerant

court, but they are a dozen times more bashful than their chief even.

Only at mating time does Towhee throw caution to the winds. Then he

mounts a sapling and drones away by the hour. The damps of ten thousand

winters have reduced his song to a pitiful wheeze, but he holds forth as

bravely as any of his kin, _whééééé whééééé_, and again, _whééééé_. In

winter the birds employ a peculiar hissing sound, _pssst_ or _bzzzt_,

not I believe, as a warning—rather as a keep-in-touch call. It was

rather heartening tho to hear the full song of Towhee on the 29th of

December at Blaine. Comparisons were unnecessary, and the homely trill

stood out like a benediction against the dripping silence.

In feeding, Towhees resort chiefly to the ground. They are not careful

to observe quiet, and one may follow their movements by the attendant

rustling of leaves. Scratching for food is a favorite employment, and

this they pursue not by the methodical clutch and scrape of the old hen,

but by a succession of spirited backward kicks executed by both feet at

once, and assisted by the wings. By this method, not only fallen seeds

are laid bare but lurking insects of many sorts, which the bird swiftly

devours.

No. 67.

LAZULI BUNTING.

A. O. U. No. 599. Passerina amœna (Say).

Synonyms.—Lazuli Finch.

Description.—_Adult male_: Head and neck all around cerulean blue;

this color carried over upperparts but pure only on rump, elsewhere

appearing as skirting of feathers; middle coverts broadly and greater

coverts narrowly tipped with white; wings and tail otherwise black;

some skirting of ochraceous on back, scapulars and tertials; lores

black; chest ochraceous sharply defined from blue above but shading

gradually into white of remaining underparts; sides and flanks with

outcropping bluish dusky. Bill black above, pale bluish below; feet

brownish dusky; iris brown. _Adult female_: Above grayish brown, the

color of male recalled by dull greenish blue of rump and upper

tail-coverts and by skirtings of wing- and tail-feathers; middle and

greater coverts tipped with light buffy; underparts washed with buffy,

most strongly on chest and sides, fading to whitish on belly and under

tail-coverts. _Young_ birds resemble the female but lack the

bluish-gray of rump and skirtings, and are usually more or less

streaked below on chest and sides. Length of adult male: 5.25-5.50

(133.3-139.7); wing 2.87 (73); tail 2.08 (53); bill .39 (9.9); tarsus

.67 (17). Female smaller.

Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; color pattern of male

distinctive,—female not so easy; in general distinguishable by a

softness and uniformity of the grayish brown.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a loosely constructed, bulky structure made chiefly

of dead grasses and strips of soft bark, with a heavy inner lining of

hair; placed about three feet up in fork of weed, bush or sapling;

measures, outside, 4¼ inches across by 3 in depth, inside, 2½ wide by

1½ deep. _Eggs_: 4, very pale blue unmarked or, rarely, dotted with

reddish brown. Av. size .76 × .56 (19.3 × 14.2). _Season_: first week

in June; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States from eastern border of Great

Plains to the Pacific (less common on Pacific slope) north to southern

British Columbia (chiefly east of the Cascades); south, in winter, to

Cape St. Lucas and the Valley of Mexico.

Range in Washington.—Common summer resident east of Cascade Mountains;

less common and of irregular distribution in the Puget Sound region;

breeds in Cascades up to 3,000 feet.

Migrations.—_Spring_: Yakima County May 5, 1906; Chelan May 21, 1896.

Authorities.—_? Fringilla amœna_, Audubon, Orn. Biog. V. 1839, 64,

230; plates 398, 424. _Cyanospiza amœna_ Baird, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R.

Surv. IX. 1858, p. 505. T. C&S. D¹. Ra. D². Ss¹. Ss². J. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. P¹. Prov. B. E.

One can scarcely believe his eyes as this jewel flashes from a thicket,

crosses a space of common air, and disappears again all in a trice.

Either there has been some optical illusion, or Nature has grown

careless to fling her turquoises about in such fashion. We must

investigate. Upon arrival, somewhere about the 10th of May, and before

the return of his dun-colored mate, the male Lazuli is quite conscious

of his prominence in the landscape. He avoids notice and goes bounding

away if closely pressed; but love soon makes him bold, and he will

pursue the object of his affections into the very thicket where you

stand. Then, while the female lurks timidly within, he mounts a spray

and yields an outburst of music, piercing and earnest, if not too sweet.

We see that his blue is deep azure, or turquoise, rather than that of

the _lapis lazuli_ from which he is named. The red of his breast is

nearly that of the Robin’s, while the pure white of the remaining

underparts completes a patriotic study in red, white, and blue. The

female shows something of the color pattern of her mate, with the

important exception that dull brown supplants the royal blue of head and

back. After all, then, they are fitted for separate spheres: she to

skulk and hide and escape the hostile eye in the discharge of her

maternal duties; he to lose himself against the blue of heaven, as he

sings reassuringly from a tree-top, or sends down notes of warning upon

the approach of danger.

The song of the Lazuli Bunting is a rambling warble, not unlike that of

the Indigo Bunting (_C. cyanea_), but somewhat less energetic. Its brief

course rises and falls in short cadences and ends with a hasty jumble of

unfinished notes, as tho the singer were out of breath. Moreover, the

bird does not take his task very seriously, and he does not burden the

mid-day air with incessant song, as does his tireless cousin.

Somewhere in the shrubbery and tangle, whether of saplings,

berry-bushes, roses, ferns, or weeds, a rather bulky nest is built about

an upright fork, at a height of two or three feet from the ground. A

nest observed in Yakima County was begun on the 19th of June and

practically completed by the afternoon of the following day,—this altho

the first egg was not laid until the 26th. “Hemp,” milkweed fibers, and

dried grasses were used in construction, and there was an elaborate

lining of horse-hair (poor dears; what _will_ they do when the

automobile has fully supplanted the horse?).

[Illustration: _Taken near Spokane._ _Photo by Fred S. Merrill._

A LAZULI BUNTING’S NEST.]

_Amœna_ means pleasant, but the female amenity is anything else, when

her fancied rights of maternity are assailed. Her vocabulary is limited,

to be sure, to a single note, but her repeated _chip_ is expressive of

all words in _dis_ from distrust to distress and violent disapprobation.

No. 68.

BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK.

[Illustration: _Taken in Oregon._ _Photo by Finley and Bohlman._

ANTICIPATION.]

A. O. U. No. 596. Zamelodia melanocephala (Swains).

Description.—_Adult male_: General coloration black and tawny varied

with white and yellow; head glossy black, narrowly on chin, and with

irregular invasion of tawny behind; back, scapulars, wings, and tail

chiefly black; middle of back with much admixture of tawny; scapulars

narrowly tipped with yellowish buffy or white, two conspicuous white

wing patches formed by tips of middle coverts and basal portion of

primaries; touches of white on tips of greater coverts and

secondaries, and on outer edge of primaries; touches of yellow (in

highest plumage) bordering white of wing-coverts, etc.; terminal third

of two outer pairs of rectrices white on inner webs; lining of wings

and breast centrally rich lemon yellow; remaining plumage tawny,

brightest on throat and chest, with admixture of black on sides of

neck; nearly as bright on rump, but veiled by lighter tips of

feathers; lightening posteriorly on remaining underparts; nearly white

on under tail-coverts; bill bluish gray, darker above; feet plumbeous.

_Adult female_: Like male, but tawny of underparts paler; upperparts

dark olivaceous brown with admixture of white and pale tawny; head

blackish with white or brownish median and superciliary stripes; wings

and tail fuscous, white markings restricted, those on tail reduced or

wanting; sides and flanks streaked with dusky. Length 7.75-8.50

(196.85-215.90); wing 3.9 (99); tail 3.15 (80); bill .71 (18); depth

of bill at base .59 (15); tarsus .95 (24).

Recognition Marks.—Chewink size; black head and variegated plumage of

male; large beak, with haunts, distinctive.

Nesting.—_Nest_: a careless but often bulky collection of twigs or

weed-stalks, lined, or not, with fine dead grasses; set loosely in

branches of bush or sapling, 6 to 20 feet up. _Eggs_: 4, greenish

blue, boldly spotted or blotched with reddish brown, dusky brown and

lavender, most heavily about larger end. Av. size 1.00 × .68 (25.4 ×

17.27). _Season_: East-side, May 20; West-side, May 25; one brood.

Authorities.—? “_Fringilla melanocephala_, Audubon, Orn. Biog. IV.

1838, 519; pl. 373 (Col. Riv.)”: Baird, 499. Cooper and Suckley, Rep.

Pac. R. R. Surv. XII. pt. II. 1860, 206. T(?). C&S. Rh. D¹. Ra. D².

Ss². J. B. E.

Specimens.—P. B. E.

Those who complain of our lack of song-birds should make the

acquaintance of this really skilled musician. He will not often be found

in the city parks, nor yet in the fir forests; but wherever there are

deciduous trees, not too dense, or tall thickets of willow and alder

beside some lake or sluggish stream, there will this minstrel hold

forth. The Grosbeak’s song is not unlike the longer lay of the Robin,

but it is richer and rounder as well as more subdued. There is about it

all a lingering languor of the Southland; and if the gentleman addressed

you, you would expect him to say “Sah,” with a soft cadence.

[Illustration: _Taken in Clallam County._ _Photo by the Author._

THE GROSBEAK’S CONCERT HALL.]

The bird’s carol has the rolling quality which serves to connect it with

that of the eastern Rose-breasted Grosbeak, but it is sweeter, more

varied, and shows, if anything, a still more strongly marked undertone

of liquid harmonics.

The male Grosbeak is, moreover, an indefatigable singer, choosing for

his purpose the topmost sprays of alder or cottonwood, and taking pains

to give all intruders a wide berth during the concert hours. His

attachment to a given locality becomes apparent only after he has been

pursued from tree to tree in a wide circuit which brings up at the

original station. And yet his shyness is not inspired by caution, for he

will sing upon the nest when he spells his wife at the hopeful task of

incubation.

The more matter-of-fact female has no word of greeting for the stranger

beyond a sharp _kimp_, a beak-clearing note, not unlike that of a

chicken with a crumb in its throat. This the male repeats also, with all

shades of emphasis when the home is beset, or, as a last resort, he

breaks into song at close quarters,—an ample price, surely, for the

fullest immunity.

It is the nest which confirms the southern origin of these gentle birds.

It is a flimsy affair of twigs, grass-stems, or weed-stalks carelessly

interlaced, and caught in the crotch of a sapling at a height of from

five to fifteen feet. The construction is so open, that the blue eggs

with their dark brown and lavender spottings may be counted from below.

The birds, you see, have been accustomed to a warmer climate, to a

tropical range, in fact, where warmth of bedding is no object.

If found upon the nest, the brooding bird cannot think ill of you; or,

if there is ground for misgiving, seeks to disarm hostility by a display

of gentle confidence. Instances are of record where the sitting bird has

been stroked with the hand, and a little discretion will usually insure

a lasting friendship.

[Illustration: _Taken in Oregon._ _Photo by Finley and Bohlman._

REALIZATION.]

This species enjoys a wide range in Washington, being found from

tide-water to the upper reaches of the deeper mountain valleys; but it

is nowhere common enough, let alone abundant.

_Tanagridæ_—The Tanagers

No. 69.

CRIMSON-HEADED TANAGER.

A. O. U. No. 607. Piranga ludoviciana (Wils.).

Synonyms.—Louisiana Tanager. Western Tanager.

Description.—_Adult male_: Back, wings, and tail black; middle coverts

and tips of greater coverts yellow; remaining plumage rich gamboge

yellow; clearest (lemon-yellow) on rump and upper tail-coverts,

darkest (live-yellow to wax-yellow) on breast, changing on head and

throat to bright carmine or poppy-red. The red increases both in

extent and intensity with age and is always brightest anteriorly. Bill

horn color; feet and legs bluish dusky; iris brown. _Adult female_:

General plumage dingy olive-yellow; darker, nearly olive, above;

lighter and clearer on under tail-coverts; wings and tail dusky with

olivaceous wing markings as in male but yellow paler. _Young males_

resemble the adult female and only gradually acquire the clearer

brighter plumage of maturity. Length about 7.00 (177.8); wing 3.75

(95); tail 2.80 (71); bill .59 (15); tarsus .80 (20.5).

Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; sedate ways; _pittic_ note. Black and

yellow with crimson head of male distinctive; dull olive of female not

likely to be confused when size is discriminated.

Nesting.—_Nest_: of rather rough, “tropical” construction, composed of

twigs, rootlets and moss, lined with horse- or cow-hair; measures

externally 7 inches across by 3 in depth, internally 2¾ wide by 1½

deep. _Eggs_: 3-5, usually 4, pale greenish blue to deep blue, dotted

and spotted sparingly with lavender and dark greenish slate, sometimes

in wreath about larger end; surface heavily glossed; long ovate in

shape. Av. size .92 × .64 (23.3 × 16.2). _Season_: June; one brood.

General Range.—Western United States from eastern base of Rocky

Mountains to Pacific Coast, northward to British Columbia and

Athabasca; south in winter to Mexico and Guatemala; straggling

eastward during migrations—has been several times taken in New

England.

Range in Washington.—Common summer resident in timbered sections,

migrant in open country of East-side.

Migrations.—_Spring_: East-side: Yakima, May 4, 1906, May 9, 1900;

Chelan, May 19, 1896, May 20, 1905; West-side: Tacoma, April 27, 1906.

Authorities.—_Piranga ludoviciana_ Bonap., Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R.

Surv. IX. 1858, p. 304. T. C&S. Rh. D¹. Ra. D². Ss¹. Ss². Kk. J. B. E.

Specimens.—U. of W. P¹. Prov. B. E.

This handsome Tanager is one of the most characteristic birds of the

more open forest areas of Washington, whether east or west. It is one of

the three species discovered by the intrepid explorers, Lewis and Clark;

and since the Lewis Woodpecker bears the name of one, and the Clark

Nutcracker of the other, there was nothing for it but to call the

Tanager after the region “Louisiana,” whose further reaches they were

then exploring. But we are no longer a part of Louisiana, and we prefer

a color-name for one of our few brilliant birds of plumage.

In the hand, the bright yellow of the male Tanager, shading into the

bright crimson upon the head, would seem to assure a very conspicuous

bird, but afield it is not so. Seen against the changing green of

maples, pines, or fir trees, these brilliant colors are lost to any but

the most attentive eye. A resplendent male does not hesitate to stand

quietly upon the end of a branch and survey you until his curiosity is

fully satisfied. This quiet attitude of genteel curiosity seems to be

characteristic of all Tanagers. Apart from its psychological bearings,

sedateness would seem to play an effective part in modifying the

attractions of bright plumage.

The male birds precede the dull-colored females by several days, and at

such times only may be found in companies. One windy afternoon in May,

the 20th it was, while the Columbia River steamer doddered with its

freight, I took a turn ashore and explored a tiny oasis of willows which

lined a neighboring brook. I soon caught the _pitic_ or _pititic_ of

newly-arrived Tanagers. Judge of my delight upon beholding, not one, but

eight of these beauties, all old males, as they filed out of a willow

clump, where they had evidently taken refuge for the day. A week or so

later I saw Tanagers at home in the meager willow fringes of Crab Creek,

in Lincoln County; and while we were in camp at Brook Lake in Douglas

County, one came out thru the sage, hopping and flitting from bush to

bush, to bring me friendly greetings. It was like meeting a king in a

millet field.

The song of the Louisiana Tanager—pardon the lapse; habit is stronger

than reason—the song of the Crimson-headed Tanager is an étude in R. “It

is remotely comparable to that of the Robin, but it is more stereotyped

in form, briefer, and tittered at intervals rather than continuously

sustained. The notes are sharp-edged and rich in r’s, while the movement

of the whole, tho deliberate, is varied, and the tone cheerful”[24]. I

can detect no constant difference between the song of the Crimson-headed

Tanager and that of the Scarlet Tanager (_P. erythromelas_), save that

that of the former is oftener prefaced with the call note, thus:

_Piteric whew, we soor a-ary e-erie witooer_. This song, however, is

less frequently heard than that of the Scarlet Tanager, East. Its

perfect rendition, moreover, argues the near presence of a demure little

lady in olive, a person who looks like nobody in particular to our

undiscriminating gaze, but who exerts a strange fascination over our

brilliant squire. Young males of the second summer sing hopefully, but

they are less often successful in love than their ruddier rivals.

It behooves the Tanager maiden to be exacting in her choice, for all the

help she will get out of him at best will be sympathy and song. When it

comes to real work, like nest building, she must do it. He will

graciously advise as to the situation, some horizontal branch of fir or

pine, from six to fifty feet high, and from three to twenty feet out. He

will even accompany her on her laborious trips after nesting material,

cooing amiable nothings, and oozing approval at every joint,—but help

her—_nevaire_!

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.

[Illustration: _Taken in Oregon._ _Photo by Bohlman and Finley._

A HUNGRY CHICK.

LUTESCENT WARBLER, FEMALE AND YOUNG.]

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.

[Illustration: _Taken near Tacoma._ _Photo by J. H. Bowles._

NEST AND EGGS OF LUTESCENT WARBLER.]

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.

[Illustration: _Taken in Oregon._ _Photo by Finley and Bohlman._

A CONTENTED BABY.]

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.

[Illustration: _Taken near Tacoma._ _Photo by the Author._

YELLOW WARBLER’S NEST.]

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.

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.