A Singing Female Oven-Bird
A Singing Female Oven-bird.-The scarcity of museum specimens of the Gray Oven-bird (Seiir~w av~oc4pillirs hereus), newly named subspecies (Miller, Condor, 44, 1942: 185-186) with type locality in the Custer National Forest, Powder River County, Montana, indicated the desirability of collecting members of this race whenever the opportunity might arise. On June 22, 1942, I had occasion to be fn the Custer National Forest eight miles south of Ekalaka, Carter County, Montana. This region is a few miles east of the type locality mentioned above. Oven-birds were in full song, enabling an observer to locate them with ease. One bird, singing the familiar notes, was stalked while it walked among the fallen leaves and branches on a side hill clothed with yellow pine and an undergrowth of alder. The bird was subsequently collected and prepared as a study skin. The specimen, collector’s number 32(1942), was found to be a female containing a normal ovary in which several follicles in a late stage of development were present. The apparent lack of ,published records of female warblers in song, coupled with the fact that the singing of a female Oven-bird is heretofore unknown, makes this incident worthy of recording.-ROBERT . W. HIATT, Montana State College, Boreman, Montana , May 10,1943.
