Length, 5.00; extent, 7.25; wing, 2.50 when fresh. Dried skin: length, 4.90; wing, 2.50; tail, 2.20; tarsus, .67.
Hab. Southern Rocky Mountains (Middle Province of United States); East Humboldt, Wahsatch, and Uintah Mountains.
A young bird (No. 53,355, East Humboldt Mountains, Nevada, August 5) is olive-gray above, becoming green on the rump and upper tail-coverts; the middle and secondary coverts narrowly tipped with pale grayish-buff, producing two indistinct bands. The lower parts are pale dirty-buff, except the
lower tail-coverts, which are lemon-yellow; there is scarcely a tinge of yellow on the jugulum, and not a trace of chestnut on the crown.
Habits. But little is as yet known in regard to the habits and distribution of this somewhat rare and recently discovered species. It was first met with by Dr. W. W. Anderson, at Fort Burgwyn in New Mexico, and described by Professor Baird in 1860, in a note to the explanation of Vol. II. of the Birds of North America. It was named in honor of Mrs. Virginia Anderson, the wife of its discoverer. An immature individual of this species was obtained August 15, 1864, by Dr. Coues, at Fort Whipple, near Prescott, in the Territory of Arizona. As it bears a close resemblance to the Helminthophaga ruficapilla, it is not improbable that its habits bear a very close resemblance to those of that species.
In the summer of 1869, Mr. Robert Ridgway was so fortunate as to meet with the nest and eggs of this bird near Salt Lake, Utah (Smith. Coll. 15,239). This was June 9. The nest was embedded in the deposits of dead or decaying leaves, on ground covered by dense oak-brush. Its rim was just even with the surface. It was built on the side of a narrow ravine at the bottom of which was a small stream. The nest itself is two inches in depth by three and a half in diameter. It consists of a loose but intricate interweaving of fine strips of the inner bark of the mountain mahogany, fine stems of grasses, roots, and mosses, and is lined with the same with the addition of the fur and hair of the smaller animals.
The eggs were four in number, and measure .64 by .47 of an inch. They are of a rounded-ovoid shape, have a white ground with a slightly roseate tinge, and are profusely spotted with numerous small blotches and dots of purplish-brown and lilac, forming a crown around the larger end.
This bird was first observed by Mr. Ridgway among the cedars and pines of the East Humboldt Mountains, where in July it was quite common. It was very abundant in the Wahsatch Mountains near Salt Lake City, throughout the summer chiefly inhabiting the thickets of scrub-oak on the slopes of the cañons in which they nested, and where they were daily seen, but where, owing to the thickness of the bushes, they were with difficulty obtained. He describes its song as almost exactly like that of Dendroica æstiva. The usual note is a soft pit, quite different from the sharp chip of H. celata.
Helminthophaga luciæ, Cooper.
LUCY’S WARBLER.