The Chat is a skilled mimic. I have traced the notes of such diverse species as Bullock Oriole, Slender-billed Nuthatch, and Magpie to his door. Once, down on the Rio Grande, we rapped on a vine-covered cottonwood stump to dislodge a Flicker that had been shrieking Klyak at us for some minutes past, and we flushed a snickering Chat.
The Western Chat, like the eastern bird, has small taste for architecture. A careless mass of dead leaves and coarse grasses is assembled in a bush at a height of three or four feet, and a lining of finer grasses, when present at all, is so distinct as to permit of removal without injury to the bulk of the structure. From three to five eggs are laid and so jealously guarded that the birds are said to destroy the eggs once visited by man. So cautious are the Chats that even after the young have hatched out, they take care not to be seen in the vicinity of their nest, but a low, anxious chuck sometimes escapes from the harassed mother in a neighboring thicket.
Chats will follow suitable cover into most desolate places. On the other hand they do not discriminate against civilization per se, and the Chats of Cannon Hill, in Spokane, are as grateful to the good sense of its citizens as are the Catbirds and two score other resident species of songsters. They are, however, birds of the sunshine belt, and West-side records are very few.
No. 84.
PILEOLATED WARBLER.
A. O. U. No. 685 a. Wilsonia pusilla pileolata (Pallas).
Description.—Adult male: Above bright olive green; forehead, sides of head, and underparts bright greenish yellow, tinged on sides with olive-green; crown, or “cap,” lustrous black; wings and tail fuscous and olive-edged without peculiar marks; bill dark above, light below; feet light brown. Adult female: Similar, but the black cap wanting, or, if present, less distinct. Immature: Like female without cap. Length about 4.75; wing 2.20 (56); tail 1.97 (50); bill .38 (8.5); tarsus .75 (18.8).
Recognition Marks.—Least,—pygmy size; black cap of male distinctive; recognizable in any plumage by small size and greenish yellow coloration. Brighter than W. pusilla; not so bright as W. p. chryseola.
Nesting.—As next.
General Range.—Western North America, breeding thruout the Rocky Mountain district, north to Alaska, west to Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington and to Vancouver Island; during migrations over the entire western United States, and east irregularly to the Mississippi; south in winter over Mexico and Central America.
Range in Washington.—Not common resident and abundant migrant on East-side; migrant only west of Cascades.
Migrations.—Spring: May 1-15.
Authorities.—Dawson, Auk XIV., 1897, 180. (T). (C&S). D¹. Kb. D². J. E.
Specimens.—B. BN. E. P.
The pervading yellowness of this little bush-ranger will hardly serve to distinguish it from the equally common Lutescent Warbler, unless you are able to catch sight of its tiny silken crown-patch of black, the “little cap” which gives the bird its Latin-sounding name. With chryseola it is the smallest of our warblers, and it is one of the commonest, during migrations, on the East-side. The thickets have taken on full leaf before the bird arrives from the South, along about the 10th of May, and the northward march is often prolonged till the first of June. So expert is the little Black-cap at threading briary tangles, that a meeting here depends upon the bird’s caprice rather than the astuteness of the observer. Willow trees are favorite stations during the spring movement, and these because of their scantier foliage afford the best opportunities for study.
My impression is that the Pileolated Warbler must breed sparingly in eastern Washington. There is, however, only one summer record to substantiate this belief,—a bird seen in the valley of the Stehekin, June 22nd, 1906. The only song I have heard differed from the abruptly terminated crescendo of W. p. chryseola, being rather a well modulated swell, chip chip! chip!! chip!!! chip!!! chip!! chip! chip.
GOLDEN WARBLER
MALE, ⅘ LIFE SIZE
From a Water-color Painting by Allan Brooks