Page:Condor3(6).djvu/44

Nov., 19Ol. I THE CONDOR i81 long distance up the mountain. (See JVidologist, IV, p. 79). On June 14, 1898 I had the good fortune to discover a nest opposite the station at Fyffe, it being built at the end of a small limb of yellow pine 45 feet up. The nest was located by searching at random and contained four eggs about one-fourth incubated. This set was described at length in The ,4ok (XVI, PI?. r56-I6t). A half-tone of the nest and eggs is shown herewith. While walking through the timber at Fyffe on June 8, 1899 Mr. H. W. Cartiger came upon a nest of this species but 2? feet up in a cedar sapling. It contained four eggs, advanced in incubation. (See CO?)OR I, pp. 59-6o). A nest containing young about four days old found by by Mr. Price's assistant at Fyffe on June it, I8?7 , was placed twelve feet up near the top of a small cedar, next to the trunk and well concealed. Thus it is probable that Fyffe has afforded more nesting records of this species than has any other part of the state. In 19oo Mr. Taylor picked up a warbler's nest at the foot of a large fir tree from which it had evidently fallen. It undoubtedly belonged to this species, having the distinctive composition noted in all the nests observed. This is shown very well in the illustration, the inner lining of cedar bark and soap-root ilber being always present. Young birds but a few days out of the nest were observed on several occasions, they being of a light gray color, with two white wing bands. [I have not found the hermit warbler where I thought it breeding above 6o?o feet, but [ have collected specimens both on Mr. Tallac and Pyramid Peak as high as 90oo feet. The adults are very rare during June and July in the neigh- borhood of my camp at Silver Creek, but late in July and early in August a mi- gration of the young birds of the year takes place and the species is very abun- dant everywhere in the tamaracks from about 60o0 feet to 800o feet. A hundred or more may be counted in an hour's walk at my camp, 70o0 feet, on Silver Creek. They are very silent, uttering now and then a "cheep," and always busy searching among the leaves and cones for insects. Among some fifty collected in the first week in August, i856, there were only two or three adults. The young males have the most coloring, but they in no way approach adult plumage. These great flights of the hernfit warbler are intermingled with other species, Hammond fly- catcher, Calaveras and lutescent warblers, Cassin vireo, and sometimes Louisiana tanagers and red-breasted nuthatches. Each year the flight has been noted, it comes without warning of storm or wind, and after a few days disappears to be seen no more. W.W.P.] Geathlypis tolmiei. Macgillivray Warbler. Found commonly about Fyffe and as far up as Echo, always frequenting the brushy hillsides where grows the sev- eral species of CeaJtot/?us. At Fyffe the species seemed very common in what is known as the "burnt district,"--an area which was swept by a forest fire some years ago and which has since grown up thickly to deer-brush and cedars. On June 9, ?897 a brood of young were travelling about in the brush with their parents. A day later Mr. Beck took a nest and four fresh eggs one foot up in a small cedar. On June ?4, t9ot [ collected two male birds near Echo where they were found-in the prickly Ceanol/zus cordulatus, in which they no doubt nest. On the whole Macgillivray warbler occupies territory of the same nature as does the Calaveras warhler in this region, the two often being found together in the brush. [Rather common up to 80o0 feet in both the Silver Creek region and on Mr. Tallac. W.W.P.] Geothlypis trichas occidentalis. Western Yellowthroat. [I have seen a yellow-