SUBFAMILY SYLVICOLINÆ

SUBFAMILY SYLVICOLINÆ

SECTION MNIOTILTEÆ.

CHAR. Bill slightly notched some distance from the tip. Rictal bristles minute. Hind toe considerably developed, longer than the lateral toe; its claw decidedly longer than its digit. First quill nearly or quite as long as the second. Wings long, pointed; much longer than the tail, which is nearly even. Tail-feathers with white spots. Bill much compressed for terminal half, the commissure and lateral outlines decidedly concave; the culmen and gonys convex.

GENUS MNIOTILTA, VIEILLOT.

Mniotilta, VIEILLOT, Analyse, 1816, 45. (Type, Motacilla varia, L.)

GEN. CHAR. General form sylvicoline; bill rather long, compressed, shorter than the head, with very short rictal bristles and a shallow notch. Wings considerably longer than the tail, which is slightly rounded; first quill shorter than second and third. Tarsi rather short; toes long, middle one equal to the tarsus; hind toe nearly as long, the claw considerably shorter than its digit. Color white, streaked with black. Nest on ground; eggs white, blotched with red.

This genus differs from other Sylvicolines in the elongation of the toes, especially the hinder one, by means of which the species is enabled to move up and down the trunks of trees, like the true Creepers. But one species is recognized as North American, although Nuttall describes a second.

Mniotilta varia, VIEILL.

BLACK AND WHITE CREEPING WARBLER.

Motacilla varia, LINN. S. N. I, 1766, 333. Certhia varia, VIEILLOT; AUDUBON. Mniotilta varia, VIEILLOT, Gal. Ois. I, 1834, 276, pl. clxix.—AUDUBON.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 235; Rev. 167.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 298 (Oaxaca, Xalapa); 1859, 363 (Xalapa); 1855, 143 (Bogota); 1856, 291 (Cordova); 1864, 172 (City of Mex.)—IB. Catal. 1861, 25, no. 162.—SCL. & SALV. Ibis, 1859, 10 (Guatemala).—NEWTON, Ibis, 1859, 143 (Santa Cruz; winter).—CAB. Jour. III, 475 (Cuba; winter).—BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1859 (Bahamas; April 20).—GOSSE, Birds Jam. 134 (Jamaica; winter).—JONES, Nat. Bermuda, 1859, 29 (October).—CAB. Jour. 1860, 328 (Costa Rica).—LAWRENCE, Ann. N.Y. Lyc. 1861, 322 (Panama R. R.; winter).—GUNDL. Cab. Journ. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common). Certhia maculata, WILS. Mniotilta borealis, NUTT. Mniotilta varia, var. longirostris, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, xxxi, no. 167.—IB. Catal. in 8vo, 1869, no. 167. Figures: AUD. Orn. Biog. V, pl. xc; Birds Am. II, pl. cxiv.—WILSON, Am. Orn. III, pl. xix.

[Line drawing: Mniotilta varia, Vieill.]

SP. CHAR. Bill with the upper mandible considerably decurved, the lower straight. General color of the male black, the feathers broadly edged with white; the head all round black, with a median stripe in the crown and neck above, a superciliary and a maxillary one of white. Middle of belly, two conspicuous bands on the wings, outer edges of tertials and inner of all the wing and tail feathers, and a spot on the inner webs of the outer two tail-feathers, white. Rump and upper tail-coverts black, edged externally with white. Female similar; the under parts white, obsoletely streaked with black on the sides and under tail-coverts. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.85; tail, 2.25.

HAB. Eastern Province of North America, and north to Fort Simpson. Both coasts of Mexico (as far north as Mazatlan, on west side), and southward to Bogota. Whole of West Indies and Bermuda.

Localities quoted. Bahamas; Bermuda; Cuba; Jamaica; Santa Cruz; West Indies; Cordova, Xalapa, Oaxaca, Mex.; Guatemala; Panama R.R.; Bogota.

Specimens breeding in the Southern States differ in rather longer bill and less amount of black, but are otherwise undistinguishable.

HABITS. The Black and White Creeper, nowhere an abundant species, is met with in various sections of the country. It occurs in all parts of New England and New York, and has been found in the interior as far north as Fort Simpson. It has been met with on the Pacific coast only at Mazatlan, is common in the Bahamas and most of the West India Islands, generally as a migrant. It has also been found in Texas, in the Indian Territory, and in Mexico, and throughout Central America. In the last-named region Mr. Salvin states it to be pretty equally and generally spread over the whole country. It is there migratory, leaving in spring. It was also detected in Colombia, South America, by Mr. C. W. Wyatt. Mr. Newton also met with it as a winter visitant in St. Croix, leaving that island at the end of March. He regards this species as almost a thorough Creeper in habits. In Jamaica a few are resident throughout the year, according to the observations of Mr. March, and though its nests have never been found there, a son of Mr. March saw a pair carrying materials with which to construct one.

Dr. Coues states that this Warbler is a very common summer resident near Washington, but is more abundant there in the spring and in the fall, the greater number going farther north to breed. They arrive in Washington during the first week in April, and are exceedingly numerous until May. He adds that they are generally found in high open woods, and that they “breed in holes in trees.” This is probably an error, or, if ever known to occur, an entirely exceptional case.

Our bird is also a common summer visitant at Calais, arriving there about the 1st of May, and by the 10th becoming rather abundant. Mr. Boardman has frequently found their nests there, and always on the ground, in rocky places and usually under small trees.

It does not appear to have been met with on the Pacific coast north of Mazatlan, nor in any portion of Western North America, beyond the valleys of the Mississippi and the Rio Grande.

In its habits this bird seems to be more of a Creeper than a Warbler. It is an expert and nimble climber, and rarely, if ever, perches on the branch of a tree or shrub. In the manner of the smaller Woodpeckers, the Creepers, Nuthatches, and Titmice, it moves rapidly around the trunks and larger limbs of the trees of the forest in search of small insects and their larvæ. It is graceful and rapid in movement, and is often so intent upon its hunt as to be unmindful of the near presence of man.

It is found chiefly in thickets, but this is probably owing to the fact that there its food is principally to be obtained. It is occasionally seen in more open country, and has been known to breed in the immediate vicinity of a dwelling.

Wilson regarded this bird as a true Creeper, and objected to its being classed as a Warbler. He even denied to it the possession of any song. In this he was quite mistaken. Though never loud, prolonged, or powerful, the song of this Warbler is very sweet and pleasing. It begins to sing from its first appearance in May, and continues to repeat its brief refrain at intervals almost until its departure in August and September. Nuttall speaks of it as being at first a monotonous ditty, and as uttered in a strong but shrill and filing tone. These notes, he adds, as the season advances, become more mellow and warbling, and, though feeble, are pleasing, and are similar to those of the Redstart. But this statement does not do full justice to the varied and agreeable notes with which, in early spring, these birds accompany their lively hunt for food among the tops of the forest trees. They are diversified and sweet, and seem suggestive of a genial and happy nature.

These birds make their appearance in New England early in May, and remain there, among the thick woods, until the middle of October, and in the Southern States until the verge of winter.

Their movements in search of food are like those of the Titmice, keeping the feet together and moving in a succession of short rapid hops up the trunks of trees and along the limbs, passing again to the bottom by longer flights than in the ascent. They make but short flights from tree to tree, but are apparently not incapable of more prolonged ones.

So far as I know, these birds always build their nests on the ground. Mr. Nuttall found one in Roxbury containing young about a week old. The nest was on the ground, on the surface of a shelving rock, made of coarse strips of the inner bark of the Abies canadensis externally, and internally of soft decayed leaves and dry grasses, and lined with a thin layer of black hair. The parents fed their young in his presence with affectionate attention, and manifested no uneasiness, creeping, head downward, about the trunks of the neighboring trees, carrying large smooth caterpillars to their young. The nests of this bird are strongly and compactly built, externally of coarse strips of various kinds of bark, and lined within with hair and fine stems of grasses. In several instances I have known them to be roofed over at the top, in the manner of the Golden-crowned Thrush. They measure about three inches in their external diameter, and are equally deep.

The nests appear to be a favorite receptacle for the parasitic eggs of the Cow-Bunting. Mr. Robert Ridgway obtained a nest at Mt. Carmel, Ill., in which were four eggs of the Molothrus and only two of the parent birds; and Mr. T. M. Trippe, of Orange, N.Y., also found a nest of this Creeper in which were but three of its own and five of the parasite.

The eggs vary in shape from a rounded to an oblong oval, and in size from .69 to .75 of an inch in length, and from .51 to .53 of an inch in breadth. Their ground-color is a creamy-white, to which the deep red markings impart an apparently pinkish tinge. They are marked more or less profusely with bright red dots, points, and blotches. These vary in number and in distribution. In some they are very fine, and are chiefly confined to the larger end. In others they are larger, more diffused, and occasionally there are intermingled marks and blotches of slate-color. The effect of these variations is, at times, to give the appearance of greater differences to these eggs than really exists, the ground-color and the shade of the red markings really presenting but little modifications.

The color of the young nestlings is closely assimilated to that of the objects that usually surround the nest, and helps to conceal them. Mr. Burroughs once came accidentally upon a nest with young of this species. He says: “A Black and White Creeping Warbler suddenly became much alarmed as I approached a crumbling old stump in a dense part of the forest. He alighted upon it, chirped sharply, ran up and down its sides, and finally left it with much reluctance. The nest, which contained three young birds nearly fledged, was placed upon the ground at the foot of the stump, and in such a position that the color of the young harmonized perfectly with the bits of bark, sticks, etc., lying about. My eye rested upon them for the second time before I made them out. They hugged the nest very closely, but as I put down my hand they all scampered off with loud cries for help, which caused the parent birds to place themselves almost within my reach.”

SECTION VERMIVOREÆ.

GENUS PROTONOTARIA, BAIRD.

Protonotaria, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 239. (Type, Motacilla citrea, BODD.)

[Line drawing: Protonotaria citrea, Baird.]

GEN. CHAR. Characterized by its long, distinctly notched bill, and long wings, which are an inch longer than the slightly graduated tail (the lateral feathers about .12 of an inch shorter). The under tail-coverts are very long, reaching within half an inch of the tip of the tail. The tarsi and hind toe are proportionally longer than in the true Warblers. The notch and great size of the bill distinguish it from the Swamp Warblers. Nest in holes; eggs much blotched with reddish.

The only North American species belonging to the group appears to be the old Sylvia protonotaria of Gmelin.

Protonotaria citrea, BAIRD.

PROTHONOTARY WARBLER; GOLDEN SWAMP WARBLER.

Motacilla citrea, BODD. Tabl. 1783 (Pl. enl. 704, fig. 2). Protonotaria citrea, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 239; Rev. 173.—SCLATER, Catal. 1861, 26, no. 166.—GUNDL. Cab. Jour. 1861, 324 (Cuba; very rare). Helminthophaga citrea, Cab. Jour. 1861, 85 (Costa Rica). Motacilla protonotarius, GM. Sylvia prot. LATH.—VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. II, pl. lxxxiii.—WILSON, Am. Orn. III, pl. xxiv. fig. 2.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. iii. Vermivora prot. BON. Helinaia prot. AUD. Helmitherus prot. BON. Compsothlypis prot. CAB. Jour. Motacilla auricollis, GMEL. I, 1788, 984. Sylvia aur. LATH., etc. (based on Le Grand Figuier du Canada, BRISSON, Ois. III, 1760, 508, pl. xxvi, fig. 1). Female. Sylvicola aur. NUTT. Man. I, 1840, 431.

SP. CHAR. Bill very large; as long as the head. Head and neck all round, with the entire under parts, including the tibiæ, rich yellow, excepting the anal region and under tail-coverts, which are white. Back dark olive-green, with a tinge of yellow; rump, upper tail-coverts, wings, and tail above, bluish ash-color. Inner margin of quills and the tail-feathers (except the innermost) white; the outer webs and tips like the back. Length, 5.40; wing, 2.90; tail, 2.25.

HAB. Eastern Province of United States (Southern region); Cuba, Costa Rica, and Panama R.R. Not recorded from Mexico or Guatemala. Accidental in New Brunswick (G. A. BOARDMAN in letter). Yucatan (LAWRENCE).

This is one of the very handsomest of American Warblers, the yellow of the head and lower parts being of a pureness and mellowness scarcely approached by any other species. In a highly colored male from Southern Illinois (No. 10,111, Mississippi Bottom, Union Co., April 23; R. Kennicott) it is stained in spots, particularly over the eyes and on the neck, with a beautiful cadmium-orange.

HABITS. In regard to the habits of this beautiful and interesting Warbler we receive but little light from the observations of older ornithological writers. Its geographical distribution is somewhat erratic and irregular. It does not appear to be distributed over a very wide range. It occurs as a migrant in the West Indies and in Central America. In the United States it is found in the Southern region, but farther west the range widens, and in the Mississippi Valley it is found as far north as Kansas, Southern and Central Illinois, and Missouri. Accidental specimens have been obtained as far to the northeast as Calais, though unknown to all the Eastern States as far south as Southern Virginia. It was met with by none of the government parties except by Dr. Woodhouse, who found it abundant in Texas.

Mr. Audubon observed them, near Louisville, Kentucky, frequenting creeks and lagoons overshadowed by large trees. These were their favorite places of resort. They also preferred the borders of sheets of water to the interior of the forest. They return in spring to the Southern States early in March, but to Kentucky not before the last of April. They leave in October, and raise but a single brood in a season. Audubon describes their nest, but it differs so essentially from their known mode of breeding, that he was evidently in error in regard to his supposed identification of the nest of this species.

Dr. Bachman, who often met them on the borders of small streams near Charleston, was confident that they breed in that State, and noticed a pair with four young birds as early as June 1, in 1836.

Recently more light has been thrown upon their habits by Mr. B. F. Goss, who, in May, 1863, found them breeding near Neosho Falls, in Kansas. The nest was built within a Woodpecker’s hole in the stump of a tree, not more than three feet high. The nest was not rounded in shape, but made to conform to the irregular cavity in which it was built. It was of oblong shape, and its cavity was deepest, not in the centre, but at one end, upon a closely impacted base made up of fragments of dried leaves, broken bits of grasses, stems, mosses, and lichens, decayed wood, and other material, the upper portion consisting of an interweaving of fine roots of wooded plants, varying in size, but all strong, wiry, and slender. It was lined with hair.

Other nests since discovered are of more uniform forms, circular in shape, and of coarser materials, and all are built with unusual strength and care for a nest occupying a sheltered cavity.

In one instance their nest was built in a brace-hole within a mill, where the birds could be closely watched as they carried in the materials, and the parent was afterward taken by hand by Mr. Goss from its nest. It was quite tame, and approached within two yards of him.

Since then Mr. Ridgway has obtained a nest at Mt. Carmel, Ill. It was built in a hollow snag, about five feet from the ground, in the river bottom. So far from being noisy and vociferous, as its name would seem to imply, Mr. Ridgway describes it as one of the shyest and most silent of all the Warblers.

The eggs of this Warbler have an average breadth of .55 of an inch and a length varying from .65 to .70 of an inch. They are of a rounded-oval form, one end being but slightly less rounded than the other. Their ground-color is a yellowish or creamy white, more or less profusely marked over their entire surface with lilac, purple, and a dark purplish-brown.

Mr. Ridgway states that it is always an abundant summer bird in the Wabash bottoms, where it inhabits principally bushy swamps and the willows around the borders of stagnant lagoons or “ponds” near the river, and in such localities, in company with the White-bellied Swallow (Hirundo bicolor), takes possession of the holes of the Downy Woodpecker (Picus pubescens) and Chickadee (Parus carolinensis), in which to build its nest.

Mr. Ridgway adds that in its movements this Warbler is slow and deliberate, like the Helmitherus vermivorus, strikingly different in this respect from the sprightly, active Dendroecæ. Its common note is a sharp piph, remarkably like the winter note of the Zonotrichia albicollis.

It has been taken as far north as Rock Island, Ill., and Dr. Coues mentions the occurrence of one individual near Washington, D. C., seen in a swampy brier-patch, May 2, 1861. This was perhaps only an accidental visitor. If regularly found there, it is probably exceedingly rare. It has not been met with between Washington and St. Stephens, New Brunswick, where its occurrence was unquestionably purely accidental.

GENUS HELMITHERUS, RAF.

Helmitherus, RAFINESQUE, Journal de Physique, LXXXVIII, 1819, 417. (Type, Motacilla vermivora.) Vermivora, SWAINSON, Zoöl. Jour. IV. 1827, 170 (not of MEYER, 1822). Helinaia, AUD. Synopsis, 1839, 66. (Type, Sylvia swainsoni, AUD.)

[Line drawing: Helmitherus vermivorus, Bonap.]

GEN. CHAR. Bill large and stout, compressed, almost tanagrine; nearly or quite as long as the head. Culmen very slightly curved; gonys straight; no notch in the bill; rictal bristles wanting. Tarsi short, but little longer, if any, than the middle toe. Tail considerably shorter than the wings; rather rounded. Wings rather long, the first quill a little shorter than the second and third.

The birds of this division are very plain in their colors, more so than any other American Warblers. There are but two species referable to the genus, of which the H. swainsoni differs from the type in having a considerably longer and more compressed bill, the ridge of which is compressed, elevated, and appears to extend backwards on the forehead, as well as to be in a straight line with the upper part of the head. The wings are longer; the tail forked; not rounded; the feathers narrower and more pointed; the tarsi shorter than in the type. It appears to be at least a distinct subgenus to which the name Helinaia, AUD., is to be applied.

Species.

COMMON CHARACTERS. Colors plain. Above olivaceous, beneath nearly white. No spots or bands on wing or tail.

H. vermivorus. Above olive-green. Head yellowish, with a black stripe above and one behind each eye. Tail rounded. Hab. Eastern Province of United States; south to Costa Rica; Cuba. (Helmitherus.)

H. swainsoni. Above dull olive-green, tinged with brown. Stripes on the head somewhat as in the last, but reddish-brown; the median light stripe on the crown scarcely visible. Tail slightly forked. Hab. South Carolina and Georgia; Cuba (very rare). (Helinaia.)

Helmitherus vermivorus, BONAP.

WORM-EATING SWAMP WARBLER.

Motacilla vermivora, GMEL. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 951. ? Sylvia vermivora, LATH. Ind. Orn. II, 1790, 499.—WILS. III, pl. xxiv, fig. 4.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. xxxiv. Sylvicola vermivora, RICH. Helinaia vermivora, AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. cv.—LEMBEYE, Av. Cuba, 1850, 35, pl. vi, fig. 4. Helmitherus vermivorus, BON.; CAB.; BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 252; Rev. 179.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 363 (Xalapa).—IB. Catal. 1861, 28, no. 175.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, I, 1859, 11 (Guatemala); Cab. Jour. 1860, 329 (Costa Rica); IB. 1856 (Cuba).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; somewhat rare). Vermivora pennsylvanica, BON., GOSSE, B. Jamaica, 1847, 150. Helmitherus migratorius, RAF. J. de Phys. 88, 1819, 417.—HARTLAUB; Vermivora fulvicapilla, SWAINSON, Birds, II, 1837, 245.

SP. CHAR. Bill nearly as long as the head; upper parts generally rather clear olive-green. Head with four black stripes and three brownish-yellow ones, namely, a black one on each side of the crown and one from behind the eye (extending, in fact, a little anterior to it), a broader median yellow one on the crown, and a superciliary from the bill. Under parts pale brownish-yellow; tinged with buff across the breast and with olivaceous on the sides. Tail unspotted. Female nearly similar. Length, 5.50; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.35.

In autumnal specimens the light stripes on the head are deeper buff than in spring.

HAB. Eastern Province of United States (rather Southern); Southeastern Mexico; Guatemala; Cuba; Costa Rica; Veragua; Orizaba (winter, SUMICHRAST); Yucatan (LAWRENCE).

HABITS. Much remains to be ascertained in regard to the history, habits, and distribution of this interesting species. So far as is now known it is hardly anywhere very common during the breeding-season. Yet its abundance and wide distribution as a migrant during the winter months in various extended localities appear to warrant the belief that it must be correspondingly abundant in summer in localities that have escaped our attention. It has been occasionally met with in the Central and Southern States, as far west as Eastern Mexico, and as far to the north as Southeastern New York. Specimens have been procured from Cuba, Mexico, Central America, and the northern portions of South America. It is a regular winter visitant of Jamaica, whither it goes in the autumn in considerable numbers, and is very widely diffused.

It reaches Pennsylvania about the middle of May, and leaves in September. Wilson noticed a pair feeding their young about the 25th of June. He supposed this bird to have a more northern distribution than belongs to it. In the interior they are met with, according to Audubon, as far north as the southern shores of Lake Erie, where he found them in the autumn. Mr. Audubon found them more numerous in New Jersey than anywhere else. In Ohio and Kentucky they are comparatively rare. Mr. Ridgway informs me that this is a rather common species in Southern Illinois in the thickest damp woods in the bottom-lands along the Wabash River.

According to Wilson, these birds are among the nimblest of its family, and are remarkably fond of spiders, darting about wherever there is a probability of finding these insects. Where branches are broken and the leaves withered, it searches among them in preference, making a great rustling as it hunts for its prey. Their stomachs are generally found full of spiders and caterpillars.

These birds are arboreal in their preferences, residing in the interior of woods, and are seldom seen in the open fields. They resort to the ground and turn over the dry leaves in quest of insects. They are very unsuspicious and easy of approach.

Nuttall describes their notes and their habits as resembling the common Parus atricapillus, and remarks that they are constantly uttering a complaining call, sounding like tshe-dē-dē.

Until quite recently, nothing has been positively known in regard to its nesting. Audubon has described its nest as made of dry mosses and the fallen bloom of the hickory and the chestnut, and as built in bushes several feet from the ground. He describes the eggs as cream-colored, marked about the larger end with reddish-brown. These descriptions have not been confirmed, and all our information has led us to look for its nest on the ground.

Mr. Trippe states that it is found, but is not at all common, near Orange, N.Y., where it arrives about the middle of May. It has, at that time, a rapid, chattering note, and it always, he says, keeps near the ground, and, besides its chattering song, has in June a series of odd notes, much like those of the White-breasted Nuthatch, but more varied and musical, yet hardly entitled to be called a song.

Mr. T. H. Jackson of Westchester, Penn., in the American Naturalist for December, 1869, mentions finding the nest and eggs of this bird. We give his account in his own words: “On the 6th of June, 1869, I found a nest of this species containing five eggs. It was placed in a hollow on the ground, much like the nests of the Oven-Bird (Seiurus aurocapillus), and was hidden from sight by the dry leaves that lay thickly around. The nest was composed externally of dead leaves, mostly those of the beech, while the interior was prettily lined with the fine, thread-like stalks of the hair-moss, (Polytrichium). Altogether it was a very neat structure, and looked to me as though the owner was habitually a ground nester. The eggs most nearly resemble those of the White-bellied Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis), though the markings are fewer and less distinct. So close did the female sit that I captured her without difficulty by placing my hat over the nest.”

The same observing ornithologist informs me that this Warbler arrives in Pennsylvania early in May, and makes the most solitary part of the woods its home, outside of which it is rarely seen. True to its name, it is ever busy hunting out and devouring the worms that lurk among the forest foliage, pursuing its avocation in silence, with the exception of a faint note uttered occasionally. This species is not as shy as many of our Warblers that frequent the woods. Towards the latter part of May they commence constructing their nests. Mr. Jackson adds that the nest above referred to was found on a thickly wooded hillside, a few yards above a running stream. So neatly was it embedded in the ground and covered with dry leaves, that discovery would have been impossible had not the female betrayed its position. Both birds exhibited the greatest alarm at his presence, but on his retiring to a short distance the female returned to the nest, where she was easily captured. The base and periphery of the nest were composed of dry beech-leaves, while the inner lining was made of fine hair-mosses (Polytrichium).

In the latter part of June, 1871, Mr. Jackson found another nest of this species, containing five young birds about half grown. He was seated on a log, resting after a hard tramp, when a Worm-eating Warbler alighted near him, having a large green worm in its beak. After at first manifesting much uneasiness, and scolding as well as she could, she suddenly became silent and flew to the ground. On his going to the spot both parents flew from the nest. It was in all respects, in regard to materials, manner of construction, and situation, the exact counterpart of the other. Both were placed on steep, wooded hillsides, facing the east.

Two of the eggs of this Warbler thus identified by Mr. Jackson, and kindly loaned to me by him, are of a somewhat rounded-oval shape, less obtuse at one end. They have a clear, crystal-white ground, and are spotted with minute dottings of a bright red-brown. These are much more numerous in one than in the other, and in both are confluent at the larger end, where they are beautifully intermingled with cloudings of lilac-brown. These eggs measure, the one .78 by .60 of an inch; the other, .70 by .56 of an inch.

Another nest of this species, found by Mr. Joseph H. Batty of New York, on the side of a hill near Montclair, N.J., was also built on the ground, in a part of the woods where there was no underbrush, and was placed in a slight hollow, with dry oak-leaves collected around it, and partly covering it. The nest was made of dry leaves, and lined with grasses and fine roots. It contained four eggs, alike in their marking, and corresponding exactly with those obtained by Mr. Jackson. Mr. Batty nearly stepped on the bird without her leaving the nest.

Dr. Coues found the Worm-eating Warbler a rather uncommon summer resident near Washington, breeding there but sparingly. It arrives there during the first week in May, and remains until the third week in September. He describes it as slow and sedate in its movements.

Helmitherus swainsoni, AUD.

SWAINSON’S SWAMP WARBLER.

Sylvia swainsoni, AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 563, pl. cxcviii. Sylvicola sw. RICH. Vermivora sw. BON. Helinaia sw. AUD. Birds Am. II, 1841, pl. civ (type of genus). Helmitherus sw. BON.; CAB.; BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 252; Rev. 180.

SP. CHAR. Bill as long as the head. Upper parts dull olive-green, tinged with reddish-brown on the wings, and still more on the crown and nape; a superciliary stripe and the under parts of the body are white, tinged with yellow, but palest on the tail-coverts; the sides pale olive-brown. There is an obscure indication of a median yellowish stripe on the forehead. The lores are dusky. No spots nor bands on wings or tail. Length, 5.60; wing, 2.85; tail, 2.20.

HAB. Coast of South Carolina and Georgia; Cuba (very rare).

A young bird (No. 32,241 Liberty Co., Georgia) is very similar to the adult described, but differs in the following respects: the lower parts have a decided soiled, sulphur-yellow tinge, while the brown of the upper parts is much more reddish, there being no difference in tint between the crown and back; also the superciliary stripe is more sharply defined.

HABITS. This species is comparatively rare, and, so far as is known, has a very restricted distribution. It was first discovered by Rev. Dr. Bachman, in the vicinity of Charleston, S. C., near the banks of the Edisto River. This was in the spring of 1832. He was first attracted by the novelty of its notes, which were four or five in number and repeated at intervals of a few minutes. These notes were loud and clear, and more like a whistle than a song. They resembled the sounds of some extraordinary ventriloquist,—so much so that he at first supposed the bird to be much farther off than it really was. He was so fortunate as to secure it. The shape of the bill he at once noticed as being different from that of any other American bird then known to him. In the course of that season he obtained two other specimens. Toward the close of the same season he saw an old female, accompanied by its four young. One of the latter, which he procured, did not differ materially from the old birds.

He met with them only in swampy and muddy places, and when opened, he always found their stomachs filled with fragments of coleopterous insects, as well as small green worms, such as are common on water-plants. The habits of this species most resemble those of the Prothonotary Warbler, as the latter skips among the low bushes growing about ponds or in marshy places. It is seldom seen on high trees. Nothing is known as to their nesting or eggs.

GENUS HELMINTHOPHAGA, CABAN.

Helminthophaga, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1850, 1851, 20. (Type, Sylvia ruficapilla, WILS.)

[Line drawing: Helminthophaga ruficapilla. 2238]

GEN. CHAR. Bill elongated, conical, very acute; the outlines very nearly straight, sometimes slightly decurved; no trace of notch at the tip, nor of bristles on the rictus. Wings long and pointed; the first quill nearly or quite the longest. Tail nearly even or slightly emarginate; short and rather slender. Tarsi longer than the middle toe and claw.

The species of this section are well characterized by the attenuation and acuteness of the bill, and the absence of any notch. There are, however, considerable subordinate differences in the different species. In some the bill is larger and more acute than others; in one species, the H. peregrina, the wings are unusually lengthened, the tail being only about seven twelfths as long.

Species and Varieties.

COMMON CHARACTERS. Iris brown. Length about 5.00. Nest on the ground, in grass or dead leaves. Eggs clear white, thickest at end, with minute dots of brown of various shades and faint purple.

A. Tail with a conspicuous patch of white.

a. A black patch covering throat and breast.

1. chrysoptera. Above ash, beneath white. Forehead and a patch on the wing yellow. Hab. Eastern Province of United States, south to Bogota; Cuba.

2. bachmani. Above olive-green; beneath, with forehead, yellow; crown ash, bounded anteriorly with a black bar. No yellow on wing. Hab. South Carolina and Georgia. Cuba in winter.

b. No black on throat or breast.

3. pinus. Above olive-green; beneath, with forehead, yellow; wings ash, with two white bands; lores black. Hab. Eastern Province of United States, south into Guatemala.

B. Tail without a conspicuous white patch.

c. Crown with a concealed patch of rufous (obsolete in ♀).

4. ruficapilla. Above olive-green; head ashy; beneath continuous yellow; a light orbital ring. Hab. North America (very rare in Middle and Western Provinces); Greenland. South to Southern Mexico (Oaxaca, Cordova, Orizaba).

Yellow of throat spreading over cheeks, and staining lores and eyelids. Atlantic States. (Carlisle, Penn., specimens.) … var. ruficapilla.

Yellow of throat confined within the maxillæ; lores and eyelids clear white. Mississippi Valley. (Chicago specimens.) … var. ocularis.

Yellow of throat restricted to a medial stripe, leaving its sides ashy. Middle Province. (Specimen from Fort Tejon, Cal., and East Humboldt Mountains, Nevada.) … var. gutturalis.

5. virginiæ. Above ash to the rump, beneath white. A patch on the jugulum, with the upper and lower tail-coverts, yellow. Hab. Rocky Mountains of United States, west to East Humboldt Mountains.

6. luciæ. Above ash, beneath continuous white. Upper tail-coverts chestnut. Hab. Colorado region of Middle Province.

7. celata. Above continuous olive-green, below continuous pale yellow. (Orange on crown in ♂ only?) … var. celata.

Above ashy-olive, beneath yellowish olivaceous-white; inner webs of tail-feathers broadly edged with white. (Middle regions of North America; Mexico.) … var. lutescens.

Above greenish-olive, beneath bright greenish-yellow; white edges to inner webs of tail-feathers obsolete. (Pacific Province of North America.) … var. obscura.

Similar to var. celata, but plumage darker and more dingy. No white edgings to tail-feathers, and apparently no rufous on the crown in either sex. (Georgia, Florida, etc.)

d. No rufous on crown.

8. peregrina. Above olive-green; head and neck pure ash; beneath continuous white. Hab. Eastern Province of North America north to Fort Simpson, H. B. T. south to Panama. Cuba (rare).

Helminthophaga chrysoptera, CABAN.

GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER.

Motacilla chrysoptera, LINN. S. Nat. I, 1766, 333. Sylvia chr. LATH.—WILS. Am. Orn. II, pl. xv. fig. 5.—BON. Sylvicola chr. BON. Helinaia chr. AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. cvii. Helmitherus chr. BON.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1855, 143 (Bogota). Helminthophaga chrysoptera, CAB. Mus. Hein.; Journ. f. Orn. 1860, 328 (Costa Rica).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 255; Rev. 175.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, II, 1860, 397 (Choctum, Guatemala).—SALVIN, 1867, 135.—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 477 (San Antonio).—LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VII, 1861, 293 (Panama).—GUNDL. Cab. Journ. 1861, 326 (Cuba, rare). Motacilla flavifrons, GMELIN. Sylvia flavifrons, LATH.

SP. CHAR. Upper parts uniform bluish-gray; the head above and a large patch on the wings yellow. A broad streak from the bill through and behind the eye, with the chin, throat, and forepart of the breast, black. The external edge of the yellow crown continuous with a broad patch on the side of the occiput above the auriculars, a broad maxillary stripe widening on the side of the neck, the under parts generally, with most of the inner webs of the outer three tail-feathers, white; the sides of the body pale ash-color. Female similar, but duller. Length about 5 inches; wing, 2.65; tail, 2.25.

HAB. Eastern Province of United States, San Antonio (DRESSER); Cuba (rare); Guatemala; Costa Rica; Panama; Bogota. Recorded in West Indies from Cuba only; not from Mexico. Veragua; Chiriqui (SALVIN).

HABITS. So far as our present knowledge of this Warbler extends, it is nowhere a common species, and is distributed over a comparatively small extent of territory. Wilson met with it in Pennsylvania during the last of April and the first of May, believing it to be only a migrant species on its way to more northern regions. Nuttall was sceptical of these conclusions, as he never met with the species in the New England States. Audubon observed these birds in their migrations through Louisiana, which State they entered from Texas in the month of April. He procured several specimens in Louisiana and Kentucky, and one in New Jersey. He knew nothing as to its breeding, and seems to have accepted Wilson’s inferences in regard to its northern migrations. He never met with this bird in the fall, when, if a Northern species, it should be returning south, and thence inferred that it migrated by night.

Professor Baird has obtained this bird near Carlisle, Penn., in July, rendering probable its breeding in that vicinity. W. S. Wood met with it near St. Louis, May 13, 1857, and two days previously in the same year Mr. Kennicott procured an individual in Southern Illinois. Occasionally specimens have been obtained in Massachusetts, and of late these occurrences have become more frequent or more observed. It was first noticed near Boston by J. Eliot Cabot, Esq., who shot one in May, 1838, near Fresh Pond. This was, he thinks, on the 20th of that month. Since then Mr. J. A. Allen has known of several specimens taken within the State. Mr. Jillson has observed it spending the summer in Bolton, and evidently breeding, as has also Mr. Allen at Springfield, and Mr. Bennett at Holyoke. In the summer of 1870, Mr. Maynard obtained its nest and eggs in Newton.

The late Dr. Gerhardt found it breeding among the high grounds of Northern Georgia. It has also been taken at Racine, Wis., by Dr. Hoy, and in Ohio. These data seem to show that it is sparingly found from Georgia to Massachusetts, and from New Jersey to Missouri and Wisconsin. Its western limits may be more extended. It was not met with by any of the exploring parties beyond St. Louis, but its retiring habits and its sparse distribution may account for this.

Dr. Samuel Cabot was the first naturalist to meet with the nest and eggs of this bird. This was in May, 1837, in Greenbrier County, Va. The nest was constructed in the midst of a low bush on high ground, and contained four eggs.

The late Dr. Alexander Gerhardt found the nest and eggs of this Warbler in the spring of 1859, in Whitfield County, Ga. It contained four eggs, and was built on the ground. It was very large for the bird, being five inches in height and four in diameter. The cavity was also quite large and deep for so small a bird, exceeding three inches both in depth and in diameter. The outer and under portions of this nest were almost entirely composed of the dry leaves of several kinds of deciduous trees. These were interwoven with and strongly bound together by black vegetable roots, dry sedges, and fine strips of pliant bark, and the whole lined with a close network of fine leaves, dry grasses, and fibrous roots. Dr. Gerhardt informed me that these birds usually build on or near the ground, under tussocks of grass, in clumps of bushes, or pine-brush, and that they lay from four to five eggs, from the 6th to the 15th of May.

The eggs of this species are of a beautiful, clear crystal-white, with a few bright reddish-brown spots around the larger end. Eggs from Racine, Wis., and from Northern Georgia, differ greatly in their relative size. The former measure .70 of an inch in length and .53 in breadth; the latter, .63 by .49.

A single specimen of this species was obtained by Mr. Salvin, at Choctum, in Guatemala.

Helminthophaga bachmani, CABAN.

BACHMAN’S WARBLER.

Sylvia bachmani, AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 483, pl. clxxxiii. Sylvicola b. RICH. Vermivora b. BON. Helinaia b. AUD. Syn. Birds Am. II, 1841, 93, pl. cviii.—LEMBEYE, Av. Cuba, 1850, 36, pl. vi. fig. 1. Helmitherus b. BON. Helminthophaga b. CAB. Jour. III, 1855, 475 (Cuba, in winter).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 255; Rev. 175.—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba, rare); Repert. 65, 232.

SP. CHAR. Above olive-green, as also are the sides of the head and neck. Hind head tinged with ash. A broad patch on the forehead, bordered behind by black; chin, stripe from this along the side of the throat, and the entire under parts, deep yellow. Throat and forepart of breast black. A patch on the inner web of the outer two tail-feathers near the end white. Length, 4.50; wing, 2.35; tail, 2.05. Female with merely a patch of dusky on the jugulum, and with the black bar on vertex obsolete.

HAB. Coast of South Carolina and Georgia; Cuba in winter.

HABITS. Bachman’s Warbler is a comparatively new and but little known species of this interesting group. It was first discovered, July, 1833, by Rev. Dr. John Bachman, a few miles from Charleston, S. C., and in the same vicinity he afterwards discovered a few others of both sexes. He described it as a lively, active bird, gliding among the branches of the thick bushes, occasionally mounting on the wing and seizing insects in the air, in the manner of a Flycatcher. The individual first obtained was an old female which had, to all appearances, just reared a brood of young. With this partial exception, nothing is known in relation to its habits. As all the species of this genus, without any at present known exception, construct their nests upon the ground, it is a natural inference that it probably nests in a similar situation.

The Smithsonian Institution possesses but a single specimen of this bird, obtained near Charleston, S. C. It was not observed by any naturalist of the several governmental exploring expeditions, and, so far as we are at present informed, its only known places of abode are South Carolina and Cuba, where it is extremely rare. Its nest and eggs still remain unknown.

Helminthophaga pinus, BAIRD.

BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER.

Certhia pinus, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 187. Sylvia pinus, LATH., VIEILL. (not of WILSON). Helminthophaga pinus, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 254; Rev. 174.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—SCLATER, Catal. 1861, 28, no. 176. Sylvia solitaria, WILSON, Am. Orn. II, pl. xv.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. xx. Sylvicola sol. RICH. Vermivora sol. SW. Helinaia sol. AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. cxi. Helmitherus sol. BON.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1856, 291 (Cordova). Helminthophaga sol. CAB.

SP. CHAR. Upper parts and cheeks olive-green, brightest on the rump; the wings, tail, and upper tail-coverts, in part, bluish-gray. An intensely black patch from the blue-black bill to the eye, continued a short distance behind it. Crown, except behind, and the under parts generally, rich orange-yellow. The inner wing and under tail-coverts white. Eyelids, and a short line above and behind the eye, brighter yellow. Wing with two white bands. Two outer tail-feathers with most of the inner web, third one with a spot at the end, white. Female and young similar, duller, with more olivaceous on the crown. Length, 4.50; wing, 2.40; tail, 2.10.

HAB. Eastern United States and Mexico to Guatemala (Cordova; Coban). Not noted from West Indies.

HABITS. The Blue-winged Yellow Warbler is not known so far to the north as New England, and is rare even in Eastern and Southern New York. It seems to be distributed through the United States from Pennsylvania to Florida, and from the Mississippi Valley eastward. It has also been taken in Central America. Mr. Trippe states that it breeds in the vicinity of Orange, N. Y. Mr. Audubon found it abundant in the barrens of Kentucky, and as far north on the Mississippi as St. Genevieve.

In regard to the song of this bird, Mr. Trippe states that its notes are very forcible and characteristic. Once heard, they will always be remembered. He describes them as a rapid chirrup resembling chūūchich, k´-a-re-r´r´r´r´r, uttered very quickly. According to Mr. Ridgway, they are wonderfully similar to the rude lisping chirrup of the Coturniculus passerinus.

Wilson says that these Warblers come from the South early in May, frequenting thickets and shrubberies in search of insects, which they seek in the branches. They are also fond of visiting gardens and orchards, gleaning for insects among the low bushes. They generally build their nests on the edge of sequestered woods. These Mr. Wilson states to have been, in every instance observed by him, fixed on the ground, in a thick tussock of long grass, and built in the form of an inverted cone, the sides being formed of the dry bark of strong fibrous weeds lined with fine dry grasses. These materials, he remarks, are not arranged in the usual circular manner, but shelve downward from the top, the mouth being wide and the bottom narrow. He describes the eggs as five in number, pure white, with a few faint dots of reddish near the larger end. The young appear the first week in June. The nests were always in an open but retired part of the woods, and were all as thus described.

According to Mr. Audubon its song consists of a few weak notes that are by no means interesting. His description of its nest agrees with that of Wilson. He states that it usually has two broods in the season, one in May, the other in July. The young disperse as soon as they are able to provide for themselves.

He describes them as of solitary habits, and adds that they leave Louisiana for the South early in October. Its flight is short, undetermined, and performed in zigzag lines. It will ascend twenty or thirty yards in the air as if about to go to a greater distance, when, suddenly turning round, it will descend to the place from which it set out. It rarely pursues insects on the wing, feeding chiefly on the smaller kind of spiders, and seizing other insects as they come within its reach.

The above accounts of its breeding, and especially of its nest, do not correspond with the observations of Mr. Ridgway, near Mt. Carmel, Ill., where the bird is abundant. A nest collected by him is a very loose open structure, composed chiefly of broad, thin, and flexible strips of the inner bark of deciduous trees, chiefly the bass-wood. It contained five eggs, and was obtained May 8. It was first discovered by noticing the bird with materials in her bill. The situation of this nest “was in no wise,” says Mr. Ridgway, “as described by Wilson, not having any covered entrance.” The nest was very bulky, and so loosely made that only the inner portion could be secured. “I have found other nests,” adds Mr. Ridgway, “all corresponding with this one. There can be no doubt as to its identity, as the birds were seen building the nest, and were closely watched in their movements. Both male and female were seen several times.” (No. 10,140, Smith. Coll.)

The eggs of this species measure .70 of an inch in length by .53 in breadth. Their ground-color is white, sprinkled with a few reddish-brown spots.

Helminthophaga ruficapilla, BAIRD.

NASHVILLE WARBLER.

Sylvia ruficapilla, WILS. Am. Orn. III, 1811, 120, pl. xxvii, fig. 3.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 450, pl. lxxxix. _Helminthophaga ruficapilla_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 256; Rev. 175.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 373 (Xalapa).—DRESSER, Ibis, 65, 477 (Texas).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 82. Sylvia rubricapilla, WILS. Am. Orn. VI, 1812, 15, General Index.—NUTT., BON. Sylvicola rub. RICH. Vermivora rub. BON.—REINHARDT, Vid. Med. for 1853, 1854, 82 (Greenland).—BREWER, Pr. Bost. Soc. N. H. VI, 1856, 4 (nest and eggs). Helinaia rub. AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. cxiii. Helmitherus rub. BON.—SCL. P. Z. S. 1856, 291 (Cordova); 1859, 363 (Xalapa). Helminthophaga rub. CAB.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 298 (Oaxaca; Feb. and Aug.). Mniotilta rub. REINHARDT, Ibis, 1861, 6 (Greenland). Sylvia leucogastra, SHAW, Gen. Zoöl. X, II, 1817, 622. “Sylvia nashvillei,” VIEILLOT.—GRAY. _Sylvia mexicana_, HOLBÖLL.

SP. CHAR. Head and neck above and on sides ash-gray, the crown with a patch of concealed dark brownish-orange hidden by ashy tips to the feathers. Upper parts olive-green, brightest on the rump. Under parts generally, with the edge of the wing, deep yellow; the anal region paler; the sides tinged with olive. A broad yellowish-white ring round the eye; the lores yellowish; no superciliary stripe. The inner edges of the tail-feathers margined with dull white. Female similar, but duller; the under parts paler, and with more white; but little trace of the red of the crown. Length, 4.65; wing, 2.42; tail, 2.05.

HAB. Eastern Province of North America; rare in the Middle Province (Fort Tejon, Cal., and East Humboldt Mountains, Nev.); Greenland (REINHARDT); Oaxaca (February and August, SCLATER); Xalapa and Cordova (SCLATER); Orizaba (winter, SUMICHRAST). Not recorded from West Indies.

It is an interesting fact, that, in this species, we find in the yellow a tendency to become more and more restricted as we pass westward. In adult spring males from the Atlantic States this color invades the cheeks, and even stains the lores and eyelids. In two adult spring males from Chicago it is confined within the maxillæ, the cheeks being clear ash, and the loral streak and orbital ring pure white; while in an adult male (autumnal, however) from the East Humboldt Mountains (Nevada, No. 53,354, U. S. Geol. Expl., 40th par.) the yellow is restricted to a medial strip, even the sides of the throat being ashy; the ash invades the back too, almost to the rump, while in Eastern specimens it extends no farther back than the nape. A male (No. 10,656, J. Xantus) from Fort Tejon, Cal., is much like the Nevada specimen, though the peculiar features of the remote Western form are less exaggerated; it is about intermediate between the other specimen and the specimens from Chicago. As there is not, unfortunately, a sufficiently large series of these birds before us, we cannot say to what extent these variations with longitude are constant.

HABITS. The Nashville Warbler appears to be a species of somewhat irregular occurrence; at one time it will be rather abundant, though never very numerous, and at another time comparatively rare. For a long while our older naturalists regarded it as a very rare species, and knew nothing as to its habits or distribution. Wilson, who first met with it in 1811, never found more than three specimens, which he procured near Nashville, Tenn. Audubon only met with three or four, and these he obtained in Louisiana and Kentucky. These and a few others in Titian Peale’s collection, supposed to have been obtained in Pennsylvania, were all he ever saw. Mr. Nuttall at first regarded it as very rare, and as a Southern species. In that writer’s later edition he speaks of it as a bird having a Northern distribution as far as Labrador. Dr. Richardson records the occurrence of a single straggler in the fur country. So far as known, it occurs as a migrant in all the States east of the Missouri, and is a summer resident north of the 40th parallel. It probably breeds in the high ground of Pennsylvania, though this fact is inferred rather than known. It breeds in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and in Maine in the vicinity of Calais, being more abundant there than anywhere else, as far as has been ascertained.

Two individuals of this species have been taken in Greenland: one at Godthaab, in 1835; and the other at Fiskenæsset, August 31, 1840.

In Massachusetts it has so far been found in only a few restricted localities, Andover, Lynn, and Hudson, though it undoubtedly occurs elsewhere. About the time Wilson obtained his first specimen, a living bird of this species flew into the parlor of the late Colonel Thomas H. Perkins of Brookline, and is now in the collection of his grandson, Dr. Cabot. The latter gentleman states that when he first began making collections this Warbler was a very rare visitant to his neighborhood, but has of late become much more common, though varying greatly in this respect in different seasons. Specimens have been obtained in Western Iowa by Mr. H. W. Parker, of Grinnell.

A few instances of its occurrence west of the Mississippi Valley are known. One of these was by Xantus near Fort Tejon; another near Lake Tahoe, in the Sierra Nevada, by Mr. Gruber; and in the East Humboldt Mountains, Nevada, by Mr. Ridgway. Specimens of this Warbler were obtained in the winter by M. Boucard at Oaxaca, Mexico.

In the summer of 1854, Mr. Charles S. Paine found it breeding in Randolph, Vt., but was unable to discover the nest. “They spend the summer,” he wrote, “among low bushes, and probably build their nests among the thickets. I have watched their movements on several occasions. Once I detected an old bird with food in her bill about to feed her young. I could hear the young birds, yet was unable to find the nest.” Two years later, Mr. George O. Welch, of Lynn, found the nest of this Warbler on the ground in a small thicket. It contained young partially fledged, and one egg unhatched. The nest was built in a slight depression, in a dry place, among fallen leaves and in the shelter of a thicket of young oak-trees. This egg in shape was of a rounded oval, and measured .59 by .50 of an inch; one end was slightly more pointed than the other. The ground-color was white, slightly tinged with pink, and marked over the entire surface with purplish-brown dots. Around the larger end these spots form a beautiful wreath of confluent markings. Since then other nests have been found in the same locality, all on the ground and built in like situations. They have a diameter of four and a height of two inches. The cavity has a diameter of two and a depth of one and a quarter inches. The outer portions are built of dry mosses, intermingled with strips of the bark of the wild grape and the red cedar and a few herbaceous twigs, and lined with a thick layer of dried carices, small leaves of the white pine, and fine grasses. The whole structure is loosely put together. The nests are generally concealed by overarching leaves, which, however, form no part of the nest itself.

The late Elijah P. Barrow, of Andover, Mass., a young naturalist of much promise, found several nests of this rare Warbler, all of which were concealed by grass. The eggs he found varied in length from .59 to .61 of an inch, and in breadth from .50 to .51 of an inch. Both parents, as observed by him, were entirely silent.

The Nashville Warbler has been said to be a comparatively silent and songless bird, rarely giving forth any sounds, and these are compared by Dr. Richardson to the creaking noise made by the whetting of a saw. Wilson compares these sounds to the cracking of dry twigs or the striking together of small pebbles. Mr. J. A. Allen speaks of its song as being similar to that of the Chestnut-sided Warbler, which latter bird, as is well known, has notes so closely resembling those of the Summer Yellow-Bird that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other by their notes. Mr. T. M. Trippe states, also, that this Warbler has a very fine song, resembling that of the Summer Yellow-Bird more nearly than any other.

These Warblers arrive in Massachusetts about the first of May, and remain about three weeks, when the larger portion move farther north.

More recently Mr. Paine writes me that the Nashville Warbler has of late years become a common bird in certain localities in Central Vermont. They come and keep company with the Canada Warbler, but are more restless than that species at the time of their first appearance. They always in the breeding-season take up their abode in thickets, where there are also tall trees. Mr. Paine adds that their song consists of repetitions of single notes, the last terminating somewhat abruptly. Their song ceases by the 10th of June. After their young are ready to fly, they disperse about the woods and fields, and are then not readily discovered.

Helminthophaga virginiæ, BAIRD.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN WARBLER; VIRGINIA’S WARBLER.

Helminthophaga virginiæ, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. under explanation of plates, 1860, xi, pl. lxxix, fig. I (Fort Burgwyn, N. M.); Rev. 177.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 85.

SP. CHAR. Somewhat like H. ruficapilla. Male. Top and sides of head, back, and wings light ashy-plumbeous; quills and tail-feathers brown, edged with pure ashy-plumbeous, the latter indistinctly and narrowly margined with whitish internally and at the end. Rump, with upper and lower tail-coverts, bright yellow, in vivid contrast with the rest of the body. Crown with a concealed patch of rich chestnut. Rest of under parts brownish-white, with a patch of rich yellow on the jugulum. Inside of wings and axillars pure white. A white ring round the eye. Bill and legs dusky. The colors much duller in autumn.

Female, spring. Similar to the male, but chestnut spot on crown obsolete, the yellow jugular patch less distinct, the upper tail-coverts more greenish, and the lower less rich yellow.

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.

Helminthophaga luciæ, COOPER, Pr. Cal. Acad. July, 1861, 120 (Fort Mohave).—BAIRD, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 178.—ELLIOT, Illust. Birds N. Am. I, v.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 84.

SP. CHAR. General form and size that of H. ruficapilla. Above light-cinereous; beneath white, having a soiled, very pale buff, almost white tinge on the throat, breast, and flanks. A patch on the vertex, as in H. ruficapilla, and the upper tail-coverts, dark chestnut-brown. Lores to nostrils and region round the eye, like the throat, in rather decided contrast to the ash of the crown. Quills and tail-feathers brown, narrowly edged externally with gray. An obsolete terminal white patch on the inner web of the outer feather; this web in most of the other tail-feathers likewise narrowly edged with white. Axillars and inner face of wings white. Iris brown. Tarsi blue. Length, in life, 4.40; extent, 6.90; wing, 2.40. Length of skin, 3.90; wing, 2.33; tail, 1.86; tarsus, .64; middle toe and claw, .50; bill above, .35; gape, .50.

HAB. Fort Mohave, Colorado River (Middle Province of United States); Fort Whipple, Arizona.

HABITS. This is also a new or recently discovered species of this interesting group of Warblers. In regard to its nest and eggs nothing is positively ascertained, yet as all the birds of this genus are known to build on the ground, and to have a great uniformity in the characteristics of their eggs, it seems to be a matter of natural inference that this species also is a ground builder, and has eggs similar to those of the Nashville Warbler. For the little we know in regard to its habits and distribution, we are indebted to the observations of Dr. J. G. Cooper of California, who first discovered it, and to Dr. Coues, who has since met with it in Arizona.

Dr. Cooper first observed this species near Fort Mohave, where it made its appearance about the last of March. His attention was called to it by its peculiar notes, resembling those of some Dendroicæ, but fainter. After considerable watching and scrambling through dense mezquite thickets in its pursuit, he succeeded in shooting one, and found it to be a new species. Afterwards they became more numerous, frequenting the tops of the mezquite-trees in pursuit of insects, and constantly uttering their short but pleasing notes. About ten days after the first appearance of the males, Dr. Cooper obtained the first female, and thinks that without doubt they are much later in their migrations, as is the case with other Warblers. He was not able to discover their nest, having to leave the valley late in May.

Mr. Holden obtained other specimens of this bird, near the 34th parallel, in March of 1863.

Dr. Coues met with three individuals of this species near Fort Whipple, where it is a summer resident. It arrives there between the 15th and the 20th of April, and remains until the latter part of September. It mates about the last of April, and the young birds appear early in June.

Dr. Coues regards its habits as more like those of the true Ground Warblers than those of the other species of this group. It shows a decided preference for thickets and copses, rather than for high open woods, and is also an exceedingly shy and retiring species. To the extreme difficulty of observing or procuring it Dr. Coues attributes its having so long remained unnoticed.

It is described as exceedingly active in all its motions, and quite as restless as a Polioptila, to which class, in its colors, it also bears a close resemblance. The only note Dr. Coues ever heard it utter was a quick and often repeated tsip, as slender and as wiry as that of a Gnatcatcher. Dr. Cooper, however, has described its song as rich and pleasing, the little performer being mounted on the top of some mezquite or other bush. Dr. Cooper supposes this species to breed, not in the Colorado Valley, but in the more mountainous regions.

Dr. Coues hazards the conjecture that this bird builds in low bushes. Should it prove so, it would in this respect differ from all the other members of this well-marked group, and from the other Ground Warblers, which, in its general habits, it so much resembles.

Helminthophaga celata, var. celata, BAIRD.

ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER.

Sylvia celata, SAY, Long’s Exp. R. Mts. I, 1823, 169.—BON. Am. Orn. I, pl. v, fig. 2.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. clxxviii. Sylvicola cel. RICH. Vermivora cel. JARD. Helinaia cel. AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. cxii. Helmitherus cel. BON.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1857, 212 (Orizaba). Helminthophaga cel. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 257; Rev. Am. Birds, I, 1865, 176 (in part).—DALL & BANNISTER (Alaska).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 298 (Oaxaca, December); 1859, 373; 1862, 19 (La Parada). H. celata, var. celata, RIDGW. Rept. U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Par.

SP. CHAR. Above grayish olive-green, rather brighter on the rump. Beneath entirely greenish yellowish-white, except a little whitish about the anus; the sides tinged with grayish-olivaceous. A concealed patch of pale orange-rufous on the crown, hidden by the grayish tips to the feathers. Eyelids and an obscure superciliary line yellowish-white, a dusky obscure streak through the eye. Inner webs of tail-feathers broadly edged with white. Female with little or none of the orange on the crown, and the white edgings to inner webs of tail-feathers. Young lacking the orange entirely, and with two fulvous-whitish bands on the wing. Length, 4.70; wing, 2.25; tail, 2.00.

HAB. Middle Province of North America; Yukon and McKenzie River district. Very rare in the Eastern Province of United States; Mexico in winter; Oaxaca, La Parada, (SCLATER); Orizaba, winter (SUMICHRAST).

This variety inhabits the interior regions of North America, from the Yukon southward into Mexico; westward, its range meets that of the var. lutescens at about the meridian of 116°, while eastward it extends beyond the Mississippi, though rare east of the latter region. Specimens from Southern Illinois (where it is abundant in its migrations) and from Wisconsin are precisely like Rocky Mountain examples; but several in the collection before us from the South Atlantic States (Florida, Georgia, etc.) are so different as almost to warrant their separation as a different variety. These individuals are most like the style of the interior,—var. celata,—but are even less yellowish, and the whole plumage is very dark and dingy; all of them, too, lack any trace whatever of orange on the crown. Should all specimens from this region agree in the latter respect, the series from the Southeastern States is certainly entitled to recognition as a variety, for which we propose the name obscura.

HABITS. The geographical distribution of H. celata is involved in some doubt, owing probably to its irregularity of migration. In a few occasional instances this species has been observed in the Atlantic States. Several have been obtained near Philadelphia. Mr. Audubon affirms to having seen it in the Middle States about the 10th of May, and in Maine later in the month. Beyond that he did not trace it. Mr. J. A. Allen procured one specimen of this bird in Springfield, Mass., May 15, 1863. There were quite a number among the fruit-trees of the garden and orchard, then in bloom, and, mistaking them for Helminthophaga ruficapilla, he at first neglected to shoot any, until, being in doubt, he procured one, and found it the Orange-Crown. The group passed on, and one was all he obtained. It is not given by Mr. Turnbull as one of the birds of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, nor by Mr. Boardman or Professor Verrill as occurring in Maine. I am informed by Mr. Ridgway that it is a regular spring and autumn migrant in Southern Illinois, and in some seasons is quite common.

It was taken as a migratory species at Oaxaca, Mexico, during the winter months, by M. A. Boucard.

Mr. Audubon’s account of the habits and movements of this species must be received with much caution. His description of its nest is entirely inaccurate, and much that he attributes to this species we have reason to believe relates to the habits of other birds.

On the Pacific coast it seems to be quite abundant, at different seasons, from Cape St. Lucas to the arctic regions, where it breeds. Mr. Kennicott obtained several specimens at Fort Yukon and at Fort Resolution, and Mr. Boss met with them at Fort Simpson. Xantus obtained these birds both at Fort Tejon and at Cape St. Lucas. It is common in Southern California during the winter, frequenting low bushes and the margins of streams. Dr. Gambel met with it in early spring on the island of Santa Catalina, where he had an opportunity of listening to its simple and lively song. This he describes as commencing in a low, sweet trill, and ending in tshe-up. It is sometimes considerably varied, but is described as generally resembling er-r,r,r,r-shè-up.

Dr. Cooper speaks of this Warbler as an abundant and constant resident of California, near the coast, and found in summer throughout the Sierra Nevada. In March they begin to sing their simple trill, which, he says, is rather musical, and audible for a long distance.

Dr. Coues met with this Warbler in Arizona, at Fort Yuma, September 17, at Fort Mohave, October 1, and also at the head-waters of Bill Williams River. Lieutenant Couch found it at Brownsville, Tex., seeking its food and making its home among the low shrubbery.

Dr. Suckley found it very abundant at Fort Steilacoom, in Washington Territory, where it kept in shady places among thick brush, generally in the vicinity of watercourses. Dr. Heermann found a few pairs incubating near the summits of the highest mountains on the Colorado River. The nests of this species, seen by Mr. Kennicott, were uniformly on the ground, generally among clumps of low bushes, often in the side of a bank, and usually hidden by the dry leaves among which they were placed. He met with these nests in the middle of June in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake. They were large for the size of the bird, having an external diameter of four inches, and a height of two and a half, and appearing as if made of two or three distinct fabrics, one within the other, of nearly the same materials. The external portions of these nests were composed almost entirely of long, coarse strips of bark loosely interwoven with a few dry grasses and stems of plants. Within it is a more elaborately interwoven structure of finer dry grasses and mosses. These are softly and warmly lined with hair and fur of small animals.

Nests from more arctic regions are of a different style of structure, homogeneous in materials,—which are chiefly stems of small plants and the finer grasses,—and are of a more compact make and smaller in size.

Their eggs are from four to six in number, and vary in length from .70 to .60 of an inch, and in breadth from .50 to .45 of an inch. They have a clear white ground, marked with spots and small blotches of reddish-brown and fainter marking of purplish-slate. The number of spots varies greatly, some eggs being nearly unspotted, others profusely covered.

Mr. Ridgway met with this Warbler in great abundance during its autumnal migration among the shrubbery along the streams of the Sierra Nevada, at all altitudes. In summer it was only seen among the high aspen woods on the Wahsatch Mountains. Fully fledged young birds were numerous in July and August. Their usual note was a sharp chip.

This bird was found breeding near Fort Resolution, on the Yukon, at Fort Rae, and at Fort Anderson.

The notice of geographical distribution of the different races, at the beginning of the article, will serve to show to what varieties the preceding remarks severally belong.

Helminthophaga celata, var. lutescens, RIDGWAY.

PACIFIC ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER.

Helminthophaga celata, COOPER & SUCKLEY, P. R. R. XII, ii, 1859, 178.—LORD, Pr. R. Art. Inst. Woolwich, IV, 1864, 115.—BAIRD, Rev. Am. Birds, I, 1865, 176 (in part).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 83. H. celata, var. lutescens, RIDGWAY, Report U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Par.

SP. CHAR. Male. Upper surface continuous bright olive-green. Whole lower parts, including superciliary stripe and eyelids, bright yellow, almost gamboge; abdomen somewhat whitish. Inner webs of tail-feathers just perceptibly edged with white. Whole crown bright orange-rufous, scarcely concealed. Wing, 2.40; tail, 1.90; bill, .40; tarsus, .67; middle toe, .45. Wing-formula, 2, 3, 1, 4. Female. Similar, but orange of crown almost obsolete. Wing, 2.30; tail, 1.90. Young of the year. Similar to adult, but with a brownish tinge above; middle and secondary coverts tipped with dull fulvous, furry, inconspicuous bands. No trace of orange on the crown.

HAB. Pacific Province of North America, from Alaska to Cape St. Lucas. Straggling eastward to about the 116th meridian. Not found in Mexico?

The differences between the Pacific coast specimens of the H. celata and those from the interior regions—first pointed out in the Review of American Birds—are very readily appreciable upon a comparison of specimens. The present bird is a coast variety, entirely replacing the true celata (var. celata) in the region above indicated.

Helminthophaga peregrina, CABAN.

TENNESSEE WARBLER.

Sylvia peregrina, WILS. Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 83, pl. xxv, fig. 2.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cliv. Sylvicola per. RICH. Vermivora per. BON. Helinaia per. AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. cx. Helmitherus per. BON. Helminthophaga per. CAB. Mus. Hein.—IB. Jour. Orn. 1861, 85 (Costa Rica).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 258; Rev. 178.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1860, 31 (Guatemala).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 373 (Oaxaca); Catal. 1861, 29, no. 180.—LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322 (Panama).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba, very rare). Sylvia tennessæi, VIEILLOT, Encycl. Méth. II, 1823, 452. ? Sylvia missuriensis, MAX. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 117.

SP. CHAR. Top and sides of the head and neck ash-gray; rest of upper parts olive-green, brightest on the rump. Beneath dull white, faintly tinged in places, especially on the sides, with yellowish-olive. Eyelids and a stripe over the eye whitish; a dusky line from the eye to the bill. Outer tail-feather with a white spot along the inner edge near the tip. Female with the ash of the head less conspicuous; the under parts more tinged with olive-yellow. Length, 4.50; wing, 2.75; tail, 1.85.

HAB. Eastern Province of North America; Calais, Me.; north to Fort Simpson, H. B. T.; Mexico; Oaxaca? Guatemala; Costa Rica; Panama R. R. Very rare in Cuba. Veragua (SALVIN). Chiriqui (LAWRENCE).

Autumnal specimens and young birds are sometimes so strongly tinged with greenish-yellow as to be scarcely distinguishable from H. celata. The wing is, however, always longer, and the obscure whitish patch on the inner edge of the exterior tail-feather, near its tip, is almost always appreciable. In celata this edge is very narrowly and uniformly margined with whitish.

A young bird of the year, from Port Simpson (27,228), has two distinct greenish-white bands on the wings, and the forehead and cheeks greenish-yellow. A corresponding age of H. celata has the wing-bands more reddish-brown, the wings shorter, and no white patch on the outer tail-feather.

HABITS. Like the Nashville Warbler the present species has received a name inappropriate to one with so northern a distribution. It was first obtained on the banks of the Cumberland River by Wilson, and has since been known as the Tennessee Warbler. But two specimens were ever obtained by him, and he regarded it as a very rare species. He found them hunting nimbly among the young leaves, and thought they possessed many of the habits of the Titmice. Their notes he described as few and weak, and in their stomachs he found, upon dissection, small green caterpillars and a few winged insects.

Mr. Audubon also regarded it as a rare species, and only three specimens ever fell within his observations. These were obtained in Louisiana and at Key West. He describes them as appearing to be nimble, active birds, expert catchers of flies, and fond of hanging to the extremities of branches, uttering a single mellow tweet as they fly from branch to branch in search of food, or while on the wing.

Mr. Nuttall appears not to have met with it. Dr. Richardson procured only a single specimen at Cumberland House, in the latter part of May. This was in a dense thicket of small trees, and was flying about among the lower branches. He was unable to discover its nest, or to learn anything in regard to its habits.

A little more light has since then been given both as to its geographical distribution and its mode of nesting. Specimens of this species have been obtained in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Oaxaca, Mexico, and Panama. A specimen of this species was also taken in Colombia, S. A., by Mr. C. W. Wyatt. Dr. Gundlach mentions it as occasionally found in Cuba. Mr. Drexler secured specimens of it at Moose Factory and at Fort George in the arctic regions. Specimens were taken by Mr. Bernard R. Ross at Fort Simpson. Mr. Robert Kennicott met with it on the northern shores of Lake Winnipeg, June 6. They were then abundant, and had already mated. He again met with them at Fort Resolution, and Mr. Clarke found them at Fort Rae, Mr. W. F. Hall in Maine, Mr. Bell on the Upper Missouri, and Professor Baird in Pennsylvania. Mr. Ridgway has obtained it both in spring and in fall in Southern Illinois, where it is abundant in some seasons. It does not appear to occur on the Pacific coast.

Mr. Boardman writes that the Tennessee Warbler is, in the summer time, quite a common bird in St. Stephens and vicinity. Its notes, he adds, resemble the low, subdued whistle of the common Summer Yellow-Bird.

Mr. Maynard found this Warbler very common near Lake Umbagog during the breeding-season. It was found in all the wooded localities in the regions north of the neighboring mountains. Its song, he states, resembles that of H. ruficapilla, the notes of the first part being more divided, while the latter part is shriller.

A nest of this Warbler (Smith. Coll., 3476), obtained on the northern shore of Lake Superior by Mr. George Barnston, is but little more than a nearly flat bed of dry, matted stems of grass, and is less than an inch in thickness, with a diameter of about three inches. It is not circular in shape, and its width is not uniform. Its position must have been on some flat surface, probably the ground. The eggs resemble those of all the family in having a white ground, over which are profusely distributed numerous small dots and points of a reddish-brown, and a few of a purplish-slate. They are of an oblong-oval shape, and measure .68 by .50 of an inch.

A nest from near Springfield, Mass., obtained by Professor Horsford, the parent bird having been secured, was built in a low clump of bushes, just above the ground. It is well made, woven of fine hempen fibres of vegetables, slender stems of grass, delicate mosses, and other like materials, and very thoroughly lined with hair. It measures two and three fourths inches in diameter and two in height. The cavity is two inches wide and one and three fourths deep. The eggs measure .60 by .50 of an inch, are oblong-oval in shape, their ground-color a pearly white, marked in a corona, about the larger end, with brown and purplish-brown spots.

GENUS PARULA, BONAP.

Chloris, BOIE, Isis, 1826, 972 (not of Moehring, 1752). (Type, Parus americanus.) Sylvicola, SWAINSON, Zoöl. Journ. III, July, 1827, 169. (Not of Humphrey, Mus. Calonnianum, 1797, 60; genus of land mollusks.) (Same type.) Parula, BONAP. Geog. & Comp. List, 1838. (Same type.) Compsothlypis, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1850, 1851, 20. (Same type.)

GEN. CHAR. In the species of this genus the bill is conical and acute; the culmen very gently curved from the base; the commissure slightly concave. The notch when visible is further from the tip than in Dendroica, but usually is either obsolete or entirely wanting. Bristles weak. The tarsi are longer than the middle toe. The tail is nearly even, and considerably shorter than the wing. Color, blue above, with a triangular patch of green on the back; anterior lower parts yellow.

Two species—one with three varieties—of this genus, as lately restricted, are known in America, only one, however, has as yet been detected within the limits of the United States. They may be distinguished as follows:—

P. americana. Eyelids white. Yellow beneath restricted to anterior half.

Two white bands on wing; a dusky collar across the jugulum. Hab. Eastern Province of United States, south to Guatemala; Bahamas; Cuba; Jamaica; St. Croix; St. Thomas.

P. pitiayumi. Eyelids dusky. Yellow beneath, extending back along sides to the crissum.

Two white bands on wing.

Above plumbeous-blue; lores and eyelids deep black. Abdomen wholly yellow. Wing, 2.20; tail, 1.75. Hab. South America from Bogota to Paraguay … var. pitiayumi.[34]

Above ashy-blue; lores and eyelids scarcely darker. Abdomen wholly white. Wing, 2.35; tail, 2.05. Hab. Tres Marias Islands, Western Mexico … var. insularis.[35]

Only a trace of white on wings, or none at all.

Above indigo-blue. Wing, 2.10; tail, 1.70. Hab. Costa Rica and Guatemala … var. inornata.[36]

[Line drawing: Parula americana, Bonap.]

Compsothlypis gutturalis, CABANIS (Parula gut., BAIRD, Rev. Am. B.), and Conirostrum superciliosum, HARTLAUB (Parula superciliosa, BAIRD, Rev.), have been referred by later systematists to this genus; but they are much more closely related to Conirostrum,—a genus usually assigned to the Cærebidæ. The “P.” gutturalis is confined to Costa Rica; but “P.” superciliosa is a species of the table-lands of Mexico, and likely to be detected in Arizona or New Mexico. The characters of this species are as follows:—

Conirostrum superciliosum, HARTL. R. Z. 1844, 215. Whole dorsal region, including rump, olive-green; rest of upper parts ashy. Anterior half beneath yellow, with a crescentic bar of chestnut-brown across the jugulum; posterior lower parts white, ashy laterally. A conspicuous superciliary stripe of white. Wing, 2.60; tail, 2.10.

Parula americana, BONAP.

BLUE YELLOW-BACKED WARBLER.

Parus americanus, LINN. Syst. Nat. 10th ed. I, 1758, 190. Motacilla am. GMELIN. Sylvia am. LATH., AUD. Sylvicola am. RICH., AUD.—JONES, Nat. in Bermuda, 1839, 59. Parula am. BON. List Birds N. Am. 1838.—GOSSE, Birds Jam. 1847, 154 (Jamaica).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 238; Rev. 169.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1857, 202 (Xalapa).—IB. Ibis, 1859, 10 (Guatemala).—IB. Catal. 1861, 26, 163.—NEWTON, Ibis, 1859, 143 (Santa Cruz; winter).—CASSIN, Pr. A. N. S. 1860, 376 (St. Thomas).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common). Compsothlypis am. CAB. Mus. Hein. 1850, 20.—IB. Jour. III, 1855, 476 (Cuba). Ficedula ludoviciana, BRISSON. Motacilla lud. GM. Motacilla eques, BODD. Sylvia torquata, VIEILL. Thryothorus torq. STEPHENS. Sylvia pusilla, WILS. Sylvicola pus. SWAINS. Figures: AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. xv.—IB. Birds Am. II, pl. xci.—VIEILL. Ois. Am. II, pl. xcix.—WILS. Am. Orn. IV, pl. xxviii.—BUFFON, pl. enl. dccxxxi, fig. 1; dccix, fig. 1.

SP. CHAR. Above blue, the middle of the back with a patch of yellowish-green. Beneath yellow anteriorly, white behind. A reddish-brown tinge across the breast. Lores and space round the eye dusky; a small white spot on either eyelid; sides of head and neck like the crown. Two conspicuous white bands on the wings. Outer two tail-feathers with a conspicuous spot of white. Female similar, with less brown on the breast. Length, 4.75; wing, 2.34; tail, 1.90. Nest of long moss.

HAB. Eastern Province of United States, north to the Lakes (“Greenland”), west to the Missouri Valley; in winter, south to Guatemala (not seen on the west coast of Mexico). West Indies; Bahamas; Cuba; Jamaica; St. Croix; St. Thomas; Jalapa, Guatemala (SCLATER); Orizaba, winter (SUMICHRAST); Yucatan (LAWRENCE); Porto Rico and Inagua (BRYANT).

Autumnal males are browner on the chin, yellower on the throat and jugulum. Head tinged with greenish; secondaries edged with greenish-yellow. Autumnal females are light greenish-olive above, dirty-white beneath.

In very brightly colored spring males, there is frequently (as in 58,335, Philadelphia) a well-defined, broad blackish band across the jugulum, anterior to an equally distinct and rather broader one across the breast, of a brown tint, spotted with black, while the sides are much spotted with chestnut-brown; the blue above is very pure, and the green patch on the back very sharply defined.

HABITS. The Blue Yellow-Back is one of our most interesting and attractive Warblers. Nowhere very abundant, it has a well-marked and restricted area within which it is sparingly distributed. It is found from the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic, and from Canada southward. In its winter migrations it visits the West Indies, the Bahamas, and Central and South America. Halifax on the east, and Platte River on the west, appear to be the northern limit of its distribution. Dr. Woodhouse met with it in the Indian Territory during the breeding-season. Mr. Alfred Newton found this species, apparently only a winter visitant, in the island of St. Croix. Most of the birds left about the middle of March, though a few remained until early in May.

A single specimen of this species was taken at South Greenland in 1857.

This Warbler has been found breeding as far to the south as Tuckertown, N. J., by Mr. W. S. Wood; and at Cape May, in the same State, by Mr. John Krider. At Washington, Dr. Coues found it only a spring and autumn visitant, exceedingly abundant from April 25 to May 15. Possibly a few remained to breed, as he met with them in the first week of August. In the fall they were again abundant from August 25 to the second week in October. He found them inhabiting exclusively high open woods, and usually seen in the tops of the trees, or at the extremities of the branches, in the tufts of leaves and blossoms.

Even where most common it is not an abundant species, and is to be found only in certain localities, somewhat open and swampy thickets, usually not of great extent, and prefers those well covered with the long gray lichens known as Spanish moss. In such localities only, so far as I know, do they breed.

This Warbler has also been ascertained to breed in Southern Illinois, where Mr. Ridgway found it in July, engaged in feeding fully fledged young birds. It is there most common in spring and fall.

A true Warbler in most of its attributes, this bird has many of the habits of Titmice. Like these it frequents the tops of the taller trees, feeding on the small winged insects and caterpillars that abound among the young leaves and blossoms. It has no song, properly so called, its notes are feeble and few, and can be heard only a short distance.

The song of this species is said by Mr. Trippe, of Orange, N. Y., to be a somewhat sharp and lisping, yet quite varied and pleasing, series of notes.

Mr. Audubon speaks of this species as breeding in Louisiana, but his description of the nest differs so entirely from such as are met with in Massachusetts as to suggest doubts as to the correctness of the identification. He describes them as flitting over damp places, the edges of ponds and streams, and pursuing their prey with great activity. They resort to the woods as soon as the foliage appears on the forest trees, and glean among the leaves for the smaller winged insects.

The nests of this Warbler, so far as has fallen under my observation, have always been made of long gray lichens still attached to the trees on which they grow. With great skill do these tiny architects gather up, fasten together, and interweave, one with the other, the hanging ends and longer branches. By an elaborate intertwining of these long fibres they form the principal part, sometimes the whole, of their nests. These structures are at once simple, beautiful, ingenious, and skilfully wrought. When first made, they are somewhat rude and unfinished, but as their family are gathered, the eggs deposited, incubated, and hatched, a change has been going on. Little by little has the male bird busied himself, when not procuring food for his mate, in improving, strengthening, and enlarging the nest. These same acts of improvement upon the original nests are noticed with Humming-Birds, Vireos, and a few other birds.

The nests are sometimes constructed on the sides of trunks of trees, when covered with the long gray lichens, but are more frequently found hanging from branches usually not more than six or eight feet from the ground. Thus surrounded by long hanging mosses in clumps not distinguishable from the nests themselves, they would not be readily recognized were it not that those familiar with the habits of the bird may be readily guided to the spot by the artless movements of the unsuspecting parents.

These birds are confiding, easily approached, and rarely exhibit any signs of alarm. Even when their nest is disturbed they make but little complaint, and do not manifest any very great signs of emotion. When built against a trunk these nests consist only of an interweaving of the moss above and below a very small opening, within which a small cup-shaped flooring has been made of the same material, and usually cannot be removed without destroying all semblance of a nest. When pensile they are imperfectly circular in shape, with an entrance on one side, and rarely with any lining. Occasionally they are models of symmetry and beauty.

The eggs, four or five in number, have a clear white ground, and are sparingly spotted with markings of reddish-brown, slate, purple, and lilac. In some the first predominate, in other the last three shades are more abundant, and usually form a confluent ring around the larger end. They measure from .62 to .65 of an inch in length, and from .49 to .50 in breadth.

SECTION SYLVICOLEÆ.

This section has been already characterized as having a distinctly notched bill, well provided with bristles. Of the two genera one, Perissoglossa, has the bill slender, acute, something like Helminthophaga, and with the tongue lengthened and much lacerated at end; the other, Dendroica, with less acute bill and tongue shorter, merely notched at tip, and a little fringed only.

GENUS PERISSOGLOSSA, BAIRD.

Perissoglossa, BAIRD, Rev. Am. Birds, 1864, 181. (Type, Motacilla tigrina, GM.)

[Line drawing: Perissoglossa tigrina, Baird.]

GEN. CHAR. Form of Dendroica, but bill slender, acute, with very obsolete notch; the commissure gently arched or curved from the base; the gonys also straight, or even slightly concave. Tongue lengthened, narrow, deeply bifid (for one third), and deeply lacerated or fringed externally at the end; the edge along the median portion folded over on the upper surface, but not adherent.

The curvature of the bill in Perissoglossa tigrina is quite peculiar among the Sylvicolidæ with notched bills. Some Helminthophagas (without notch) approximate this character, though in none, excepting H. bachmani, is it in equal amount,—all the others having the gonys very slightly convex, instead of straight, or even slightly concave.

It is most probable that the Helinaia carbonata of Audubon belongs here, as it appears very closely allied to the type of this genus. The two species may be distinguished as follows:—

COMMON CHARACTERS. Male. Top of head black. Above olive, becoming yellowish on rump. Head, neck, and lower parts bright yellow, becoming whitish posteriorly. Dorsal feathers with black centres; breast and sides streaked with black. A black streak through the eye.

P. tigrina. Large white patches on inner webs of tail-feathers.

Sides of head and middle of throat tinged with chestnut. One large white patch on wing, covering both rows of coverts. Outer web of lateral tail-feather blackish.

P. carbonata. No white patches on tail-feathers.

No chestnut about head. Two bands on the wing, the anterior one white, the posterior yellow. Outer web of lateral tail-feather whitish.

Perissoglossa tigrina, BAIRD.

CAPE MAY WARBLER.

Motacilla tigrina, GMELIN, Syn. Nat. I, 1788, 985. Sylvia tig. LATH. Dendroica tig. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 286.—SCLATER, Catal. 1861, 33, no. 198; P. Z. S. 1861, 71 (Jamaica, April).—MARCH, Pr. An. Sc. 1863, 293 (Jamaica; breeds).—A. & E. NEWTON, Ibis, 1859, 144 (St. Croix. Notes on anatomy of tongue).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; not rare).—SAMUELS, 240. Perissoglossa tigrina, BAIRD, Rev. Am. Birds, 1864, 181. Sylvia maritima, WILSON, Am. Orn. VI, 1812, 99, pl. liv, fig. 3.—BON.; NUTT.; AUD. Orn. Biog. V, pl. ccccxiv.—D’ORB. La Sagra’s Cub. 1840, 70, pl. x. Sylvicola mar. JARD., BON., AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxv. Certhiola mar. GOSSE, Birds Jam. 1847, 81.—IB. Illust. Rhimamphus mar. CAB. Jour. III, 1855, 474 (Cuba.)

SP. CHAR. Bill very acute, conical, and decidedly curved. Bill and feet black. Upper part of head dull black, some of the feathers faintly margined with light yellowish-brown. Collar scarcely meeting behind; rump and under parts generally rich yellow. Throat, forepart of breast, and sides, streaked with black. Abdomen and lower tail-coverts pale yellow, brighter about the vent. Ear-coverts light reddish-chestnut. Back part of a yellow line from nostrils over the eye of this same color; chin and throat tinged also with it. A black line from commissure through the eye, and running into the chestnut of the ear-coverts. Back, shoulder, edges of the wing and tail, yellowish-olive; the former spotted with dusky. One row of small coverts, and outer bases of the secondary coverts, form a large patch of white, tinged with pale yellow. Tertials rather broadly edged with brownish-white. Quills and tail dark brown, the three outer feathers of the latter largely marked with white on the inner web; edge of the outer web of the outer feathers white, more perceptible towards the base. Length, 5.25; wing, 2.84; tail, 2.15.

Female. Above olivaceous-ash, most yellowish on rump; no black nor chestnut on head. Wing-coverts inconspicuously edged with whitish. Tail-spots very inconspicuous. Beneath dull white tinged with yellowish on the breast, and streaked as in the male, but with dusky grayish instead of black.

HAB. Eastern Province of United States, north to Lake Winnipeg and Moose Factory; all the West Indies to St. Croix. Breeds in Jamaica. Not recorded from Mexico or Central America.

The chestnut about the head in adult males varies in amount with the individual; sometimes (as in 20,633, May, Moose Factory, Hudson’s Bay Territory) there is an oblong spot of chestnut in the middle of the crown, but generally this is absent. Very frequently the chestnut tinges the throat. All variations in these respects appear, however, to be individual, and not dependent at all on locality. West Indian specimens appear to be absolutely identical with those from North America.

Autumnal specimens are browner, the chestnut markings much obscured.

HABITS. This somewhat rare species, so far as its history and distribution are known with certainty, is migratory in the principal portions of the United States, in the spring and fall passing to the north of the 42d parallel to breed. The first specimen was obtained near the extreme southern point of New Jersey by George Ord, in 1811, and described and figured by Wilson. From this accidental circumstance it derives its inappropriate name of Cape May Warbler. Wilson never met with a second specimen, and Mr. Nuttall was wholly unacquainted with it. Mr. Audubon also never met with a specimen in all his wanderings, and was able to add nothing to its history. Those figured by him were procured by Mr. Edward Harris, near Philadelphia, through which region these birds appear to pass rapidly in their northern migrations.

Mr. J. A. Allen obtained a specimen near Springfield, Mass., May 15, 1863, and specimens have also been procured at East Windsor Hill, Conn., by Dr. Wood. It was not met with in Western Maine by Mr. Verrill, but in Eastern Maine and in New Brunswick Mr. Boardman has found it a not uncommon summer visitant, though of irregular frequency. He has no doubt that they remain there to breed. They reach Calais as early as the second week in May, or as early as their appearance usually in the neighborhood of Philadelphia has been noticed. Mr. Kumlien has also obtained specimens from year to year, about the middle of May, in Southern Wisconsin, where they do not remain to breed, and Mr. Ridgway has taken them in the beginning of May in Southern Illinois.

It is also by no means uncommon in Cuba; was met by the Newtons as a migrant in St. Croix, and is not only one of the birds of Jamaica, but is resident and breeds in the highlands of that island. It is not known to occur in Central America, Mexico, or west of the Mississippi River. Specimens were procured at Moose Factory about May 28.

Its nests and eggs have not been, with certainty, obtained in the United States, though an egg obtained in Coventry, Vt., in 1836, and attributed at the time to this bird, closely resembles its identified eggs from Jamaica. Specimens of the bird, as well as its nests and eggs, have also been received from St. Domingo by Mr. Turnbull of Philadelphia. In the summer of 1871 a nest of this species was found by Mr. H. B. Bailey on the Richardson Lakes, in the extreme northwestern part of Maine. The nest was in a low spruce-tree, less than five feet from the ground, and when found contained only a single egg. Unfortunately it was left until more eggs were deposited, and in the mean while the tree was cut, and the nest and eggs were destroyed.

Mr. W. T. March of Jamaica, in his notes on the birds of that island, states that this species may always be found, in its various changes of plumage, about the mangrove swamps and river-banks. During the summer months it was common about Healthshire and Great Salt Pond, and at other times very generally distributed over the island. He also met with several specimens of its nests and eggs, but their position was not stated. The nests had apparently been taken from a bush or tree, were three and one fourth inches in diameter by two and one half in height, with cavities unusually large and deep for the size of the nests. They were wrought almost entirely of long strips of thin flexible bark, strongly and firmly interwoven. The outer portions consisted of coarser and longer strips, the inner being much finer and more delicate. With the outer portions were also interwoven bits of mosses, lichens, and the outer bark of deciduous trees. The entire fabric was a remarkable one.

The eggs measure .70 by .55 of an inch, have a pinkish-white ground, blotched with purple and brown of various shades and tints. They are disposed chiefly about the larger end, usually in a ring. The eggs are oval in shape and slightly pointed at one end.

Perissoglossa carbonata, BAIRD.

CARBONATED WARBLER.

Sylvia carbonata, AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 308, pl. lx (Kentucky).—NUTT. Helinaia carbonata, AUD. Syn.—IB. Birds Am. II, 1841, 95, pl. cix. Dendroica carbonata, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 287; Rev. Am. Birds, 207.

SP. CHAR. Bill brownish-black above, light blue beneath. Iris hazel. Feet light flesh-color. Upper part of the head black. Forepart of the back, lesser wing-coverts, and sides dusky, spotted with black. Lower back dull yellowish-green, as is the tail, of which the outer web of the outer feather is whitish. Tip of the second row of coverts white, of the first row yellow; quills dusky, their outer webs tinged with yellow. A line from the lore over the eye; sides of the neck and the throat bright yellow. A dusky line behind the eye. The rest of the under parts dull yellow, excepting the sides. Length, 4.75 inches; bill above, 4.42; tarsus, .75. (AUDUBON).

HAB. Kentucky.

This species continues to be known only by the description and figure of Audubon.

Judging from the description, this species is closely related to P. tigrina, but seems to be distinct in the pure black of the top of the head, the absence of orange-brown on the cheeks, the white of the wing being on the middle coverts instead of the greater, and the tail-feathers being yellowish-green; the outer web of outer feather white, instead of a large spot on the inner web, etc. The back appears more distinctly streaked.

HABITS. Two specimens of this Warbler, obtained near Henderson, Ky., May, 1811, by Mr. Audubon, are all its claim to be recognized as a good species. None have since been seen. These birds are described as having been busily engaged in collecting insects among the branches of a dogwood tree. Their motions were like those of other Warblers. This is all we as yet know as to the history of this species, and its claims to be regarded as a good and distinct species are involved in doubt.

GENUS DENDROICA, GRAY.

Sylvicola, GRAY, Genera Birds, 2d ed. 1841, 32. (Not of Humphreys nor Swainson.) Dendroica, GRAY, Genera Birds, Appendix, 1842, 8. Rhimamphus, HARTLAUB, Rev. Zool. 1845, 342. (Not of Rafinesque, Am. Monthly Mag. 1818, and Jour. de Phys. 1819.)

[Line drawing: Dendroica coronata. 38714]

GEN. CHAR. Bill conical, attenuated, depressed at the base, where it is, however, scarcely broader than high, compressed from the middle. Culmen straight for the basal half, then rather rapidly curving, the lower edge of upper mandible also concave. Gonys slightly convex and ascending. A distinct notch near the end of the bill. Bristles, though short, generally quite distinct at the base of the bill. Tarsi long; decidedly longer than middle toe, which is longer than the hinder one; the claws rather small and much curved; the hind claw nearly as long as its digit. The wings long and pointed; the second quill usually a very little longer than the first. The tail slightly rounded and emarginate.

Colors. Tail always with a white or yellow spot; its ground-color never clear olive-green. In D. æstiva edged internally with yellow.

Eggs usually with a white or a bluish-white ground, marked with purplish-brown and obscure lilac; in some, mingled with varying shades of sienna-brown. Nest, so far as known, in bushes and trees, except D. palmarum, which is on the ground.

The genus Dendroica is one of the most extensive as to species of any in North America, and scarcely admits of any subdivision. There is a little variation in the bill, wings, etc., the chief peculiarities being in D. castanea and pennsylvanica, in which the bill is broader, and more depressed, with longer bristles; in D. striata, where the bill is narrow with scarcely any bristles; and in D. palmarum and kirtlandi, where the wings are very short, scarcely longer than the tail. D. palmarum has the tarsus unusually long. The colors in all are strongly marked, and the species are among the most beautiful of all belonging to our fauna, and are the most conspicuous for their numbers and in their migrations.

The difference in manners between certain members of this genus is remarkable; thus, the D. palmarum is very terrestrial in its habits, walking upon the ground with the ease and grace of a Titlark (Anthus), and, like these birds, it has a wagging motion of the tail. On the other hand, the Dendroica dominica is as much a Creeper as is the Mniotilta varia; creeping not only along the branches, but the cornices and lattices of buildings, with the facility of a Nuthatch (Sitta). Both these species, however, may often be seen hopping among the foliage of the trees, now and then snapping an insect on the wing, in the manner of others of the family.

Species and Varieties.

Inner webs of tail-feathers with a large patch, or broad edge, of yellow GROUP A.

Inner webs of tail-feathers with a large patch, or broad edge, of white. Wings with conspicuous white markings GROUP B. Wings without conspicuous white markings[37] GROUP C.

Group A.—Golden Warblers.

Rump and crissum without rufous markings Series I. Rump and crissum with rufous markings Series II.

Series I.

Prevailing color rich yellow, shaded on upper parts with olive-green. ♂ with streaks of chestnut across the breast and along the sides, and with or without a greater or less tinge of the same on the crown. ♀ with the streaks beneath obsolete or entirely wanting; no rufous on crown. Juv. paler and duller than the ♀, sometimes quite ashy.

A. Tarsus less than .65 of an inch. Outer webs of tail-feathers with yellow predominating.

1. D. æstiva. Crown generally pure yellow, sometimes with only a tinge of rufous; lower webs of wing-coverts and tertials pure yellow; rump and upper tail-coverts much mixed with the same. Wing-formula,[38] 12, 3; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.05; bill, from nostril, .30; tarsus, .62. Hab. Entire continent of North America; in winter south to Bogota and Cayenne; Trinidad (only locality in West Indies).

B. Tarsus not less than .70 of an inch. Outer webs of tail-feathers with dusky predominating.

a. Crown without any rufous, or with only a tinge.

2. D. petechia. Nape olive-green (except in juv.); sides streaked (except in juv.). Crown greenish, sometimes tinged with orange-rufous anteriorly; lower webs of wing-coverts, etc., not pure yellow, and rump and upper tail-coverts without any admixture of yellow. Hab. West Indies (except Barbadoes and Trinidad); not on the Continent.

Lower part of throat streaked; outer webs of wing-coverts hardly appreciably different from the general surface. Above golden yellowish-olive; crown generally without a trace of rufous. Wing-formula, 23, 4, 1, 5; wing, 2.55; tail, 2.10; bill, .30; tarsus, .80. Hab. Cuba and the Bahamas … var. gundlachi.[39]

Lower part of throat not streaked; outer webs of wing-coverts decidedly yellowish, and quite different from the general surface. Above greenish yellow-olive; crown almost always strongly tinged with rufous. Wing-formula, 4, 3, 2, 5, 1, 6; wing, 2.70; tail, 2.25; bill, .35; tarsus, .79. Hab. Jamaica and Hayti? … var. petechia.[40]

Whole throat sometimes streaked; back also sometimes with streaks of dark castaneous; green above lighter than in var. petechia, the rump sometimes tinged with yellow. Wing-formula, 2, 3, and 4 equal, 51; wing, 2.50; tail, 2.00; bill, .34; tarsus, .78. Hab. Porto Rico, St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. Bartholomew … var. ruficapilla.[41]

3. D. aureola.[42] Nape always ashy; sides never streaked. Abdomen, anal region, and axillars nearly white; forehead and crown strongly tinged with rufous; nape dark ashy. Wing-formula, 2, 3, and 4 equal, 5, 16; wing, 2.55; tail, 2.00; bill, .32; tarsus, .75. Hab. Galapagos Islands.

b. Crown with only a sharply defined ovate patch of dark purplish-rufous.

4. D. capitalis.[43] A broad superciliary stripe of pure yellow; wing-formula, 3 = 4, 2, 1 = 5; wing, 2.30; tail, 2.00; bill, .30; tarsus, .70. (♀ distinguishable from that of the varieties of petechia by the distinctly yellow upper eyelid, and considerably shorter tarsus.) Hab. Barbadoes Island, West Indies.

c. Head all round rufous.

5. D. vieilloti. (♀ not distinguishable from that of other species.) Hab. Continental Middle America.

Breast and sides with broad streaks of rufous; outer webs of wing-coverts and tertials pure yellow.

Rufous of the throat with the posterior outline sharply defined against yellow of jugulum. Wing-formula, 3, 4, 2, 1, 5; wing, 2.75; tail, 2.10; bill, .34; tarsus, .75. Hab. New Granada (Carthagena, etc.) … var. vieilloti.[44]

Rufous of the throat covering the jugulum and blending with the streaks of the breast. Wing-formula, 3, 2, 4, 1, 5; wing, 2.45; tail, 2.05; bill, .27; tarsus, .64. Hab. Isthmus of Panama … var. rufigula.[45]

Breast and sides with only very narrow or scarcely appreciable streaks of rufous; outer webs of wing-coverts, etc., scarcely different from general surface.

Rufous of the head confined to it, and abruptly defined all round. Wing-formula, 3, 2 = 4, 1, 5; wing, 2.70; tail, 2.25; bill, .31; tarsus, .72. Hab. Mexico (from Honduras and Yucatan to Mazatlan) … var. bryanti.[46]

Series II.

Prevailing color yellow; crown, rump, and crissum with spots of rufous; a band of the same on the side of the head, from bill (meeting both on forehead and on chin) around eye and over ear-coverts.

6. D. eoa.[47] Hab. Jamaica (GOSSE).

Group B.

Base of primaries with white patch.

Two white bands on wing Series I. No white bands on wing Series II.

Base of primaries without white patch.

Rump yellow. Crown with a yellow spot Series III. Crown without a yellow spot Series IV. Rump not yellow. Throat white (with black streaks in striata and pharetra) Series V. Throat yellow or orange Series VI. Throat black, or mixed with black Series VII.

Series I.

7. D. olivacea. ♂. Head and neck, all round, fine light orange-rufous; a broad black “spectacle” along side of the head. ♀. Head yellowish, dusky on top; spectacle obsolete. Hab. Whole of Eastern Mexico; Guatemala.

Series II.

8. D. cærulescens. ♂. Head dark blue above and black underneath; a black patch covering whole lateral and under side of head and lateral lower parts. Rest of upper parts dark blue; bases of primaries and abdomen pure white. ♀. Above olive, with a light superciliary stripe; beneath wholly light greenish-buff; base of primaries white. Hab. Eastern Province of United States; in winter south into Cuba, Jamaica, and St. Domingo.

Series III.

9. D. coronata. A yellow patch on each side of the breast; above ashy streaked with black; belly white. ♂. Breast more or less black; upper parts ash with a bluish tinge. ♀. Breast only streaked with black; ash of upper part grayish or brownish.

Throat white; a white superciliary streak; two white bands on wing. Hab. Eastern Province of North America, north to Alaska and Greenland; in winter south to Panama and West Indies (resident in Jamaica!) … var. coronata.

Throat yellow; no white superciliary streak; one white patch formed by the fusion of the two bands on the wing. Hab. Western Province of North America from British Columbia, south to Cape St. Lucas and Jalisco, Western Mexico; east to Rocky Mountains. … var. auduboni.

Series IV.

10. D. maculosa. Whole lower parts bright yellow; black streaks across breast and along sides; crown ash; lores, auriculars, and back black. ♀ scarcely different. Hab. Eastern Province of North America, from Fort Simpson to Panama; Cuba and Bahamas.

Series V.

A. Above ashy-blue, or soft bluish-green.

11. D. cærulea. Lower parts pure white or greenish-white; with or without a narrow band across the breast; above fine ashy-blue, or soft bluish-green; if blue (♂), the back and crown streaked with black; if green (♀ and juv.), these streaks obsolete. Hab. Eastern Province of United States (rare northward except in Mississippi Valley), south to Bogota in winter; Cuba.

B. Above not ashy-blue nor bluish-green, but streaked with black upon an ashy greenish-olive or yellowish ground, or else bright olive-green.

a. Sides more or less rufous, and without black or dusky streaks on under surfaces.

12. D. pennsylvanica. ♂. Crown pure yellow; throat and auriculars pure white; ♀ ad. similar, but crown greenish, and more or less streaked. Juv. Above bright olive-green, nearly grass-green, without streaks except on the back; side of head, and sides, clear ashy, the latter with or without a trace of chestnut; eyelids and medial lower parts pure white. Hab. Eastern Province of United States, south to Panama; Bahamas.

13. D. castanea. ♂. Crown reddish-chestnut; throat and sides rufous; auriculars black. ♀ similar, but crown thickly streaked, sometimes without a trace of rufous; jugulum and throat only tinged with rufous. Juv. Above greenish-olive, streaks obsolete; beneath, including lower tail-coverts, pale greenish-buff, or whitish-buff, and without any trace of streaks on the sides (distinction from ♀ of D. striata) the sides usually with a tinge of chestnut. Hab. Eastern Province of North America, from Hudson’s Bay Territory to New Granada.

b. Sides without any rufous, and with black or dusky streaks.

Medial lower parts not streaked; inner webs of tail-feathers with broad patch of white.

14. D. striata. ♂. Crown deep black; auriculars and lower parts white; throat with two series of black streaks, converging and forming an angle on the chin. Above ashy streaked with black. ♀ similar, but crown greenish streaked with black; lower parts tinged with greenish. Juv. Above greenish-olive, the streaks obsolete; beneath pale greenish-yellow; the lower tail-coverts pure white. Hab. Eastern Province of North America, north to Greenland and Kodiak, south to Bogota, Cuba, and Bahamas.

Medial lower parts streaked with black; inner webs of tail-feathers merely edged with white.

15. D. pharetra.[48] ♂. Above grayish-white, with broad streaks of black; posteriorly, plain brownish-gray; lower parts with cuneate spots of black. Hab. Jamaica.

Series VI.

A. A black “mask” around the eye and on auriculars, and extending down the side of the throat; a light superciliary stripe continued back into a large space, of similar color, on side of neck.

16. D. blackburniæ. Crown with an orange or yellowish spot (exposed or concealed); superciliary stripe, side of neck and throat, intense orange-red (♂ ad.), or varying from this to pale buff (juv.). ♀ intense black above; back streaked with white or yellowish. ♀ olive-gray above, streaked with black. Juv. olive-gray above without distinct streaks. Hab. Eastern Province of United States, south to Ecuador; Bahamas.

17. D. dominica. Crown without an orange or yellowish spot; superciliary stripe and side of neck pure white; throat gamboge-yellow; above ash, without streaks.

Superciliary stripe bright yellow anterior to the eye. Bill, .45; tarsus, .60; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.00. Hab. Atlantic United States and West Indies … var. dominica.

Superciliary stripe pure white anterior to the eye. Bill, .35; tarsus, .60; wing, 2.70; tail, 2.20. Hab. Mississippi region of United States; Mexico (Yucatan on east coast, and Colima on west coast); Guatemala and Honduras … var. albilora.

B. No black “mask.” Superciliary stripe scarcely reaching behind the eye. Sides of neck ashy like the back.

18. D. graciæ. Auriculars, neck, crown, and upper parts generally, ashy; a supra-loral stripe, a crescent on the lower eyelid, and the anterior lower parts gamboge-yellow. Crissum white.

Back and sides streaked with black; abdomen white.

Yellow of throat terminating abruptly at the jugulum; supra-loral stripe extending about .20 of an inch past the eye, this portion of it white; dorsal streaks broad. Wing, 2.60; tail, 2.20. Hab. Arizona (Fort Whipple) … var. graciæ.

Yellow of throat covering whole jugulum, and not ending abruptly; supra-loral stripe scarcely passing the eye, and wholly yellow; dorsal streaks narrow. Wing, 2.20; tail, 1.95. Hab. British Honduras (Belize) … var. decora.

Back and sides not streaked with black; abdomen yellow.

Yellow of throat extending back to the crissum; supra-loral stripe as in the last; dorsal streaks wanting. Wing, 2.10; tail, 1.95. Hab. Porto Rico … var. adelaidæ.[49]

Series VII.

Throat black in ♂, mixed with black in ♀.

A. Sides streaked; black of throat with its posterior outline concave.

a. Side of head white and black.

19. D. nigrescens. A small yellow spot over the lore; above ash; beneath white. ♂. Whole crown, uniform glossy black; back streaked with black. ♀. Crown ash streaked with black; throat mixed with white anteriorly. Juv. Crown and cheeks ashy; throat mostly white; back without streaks. Hab. Western and Middle Province of United States, south, in winter, into Western Mexico (Oaxaca).

b. Side of head yellow and black, or yellow and olive.

Black of throat covering jugulum; a hidden yellow spot in middle of forehead.

20. D. chrysopareia. Black above, pure white below; no tinge of yellow behind the black jugular patch. Hab. Eastern Middle America, from Guatemala to Texas (San Antonio).

21. D. virens. Olive-green above, the crown and back without streaks; beneath white, the breast and anal region tinged with black. Hab. Eastern Province of North America, from Greenland to Panama; Cuba; Oaxaca; Heligoland, Europe!

Black of throat confined anteriorly to the jugulum; no yellow spot on forehead.

22. D. townsendi. Above olive-green, the crown and back with conspicuous black streaks; beneath yellow anteriorly, and white posteriorly. ♀, black of throat mixed with yellow; juv., no black on throat, and streaks on back obsolete. Hab. North and Middle Province of United States, south, in winter, into Guatemala.

B. Sides not streaked; black of throat with its posterior outline convex.

23. D. occidentalis. Above ash tinged with olive; beneath white. Head nearly all yellow. ♂. Top of head yellow with a few small black spots; nape black; back streaked with black; sides pure white. (♀ not seen.) Juv. Yellow of crown overlaid by olive; above greenish-plumbeous, without any black on nape or back; throat yellowish-whitish; sides tinged with ashy. Hab. Western and Middle Province of United States, south to Guatemala.

Group C.

A. Above ash; no supra-loral stripe; eyelids not yellow.

24. D. kirtlandi. Above, including side of head and neck, bluish-ash; crown and back streaked with black; beneath (except crissum) pale yellow; breast speckled, and sides streaked with black; lores and orbital region, black; eyelids white. Hab. Eastern Province of United States (Cleveland, Ohio), and Bahamas.

25. D. pityophila.[50] Above, including side of head and neck, dull ash; the forehead and crown olive-green; crown and back not streaked; beneath white; the throat and jugulum yellow; sides ashy; no specks on breast, nor streaks on sides, but a few along side of neck, between the ash and yellow. Hab. Cuba.

B. Olive-green or brown above; a supra-loral stripe of yellow; eyelids yellow.

a. Above olive-green, without streaks; crissum white; sides of breast with obsolete grayish streaks.

26. D. pinus. Forehead and ear-coverts olive; abdomen white; yellow supra-loral stripe not continued behind the eye. ♀ more grayish; juv. above umber, beneath light grayish-brown, tinged with yellow. Hab. Eastern Province of United States; Bahamas.

? 27. D. montana. Forehead and ear-coverts yellow; abdomen yellow; yellow supra-loral stripe continued past the eye into the yellow of the auriculars. (♀ and other stages unknown.) Hab. “Blue Mountains of Virginia.”

b. Above olive-green, the back streaked with chestnut; crissum yellow; streaks of black on sides.

28. D. discolor. Bright gamboge-yellow beneath; streak on lores and along side of neck, as well as along sides and flanks, deep black; dorsal feathers chestnut medially. ♀ duller, but similar; juv. not seen. Hab. Eastern Province of United States: in winter, throughout West Indies.

c. Above olive-brown, the back not streaked; crissum gamboge-yellow; streaks of reddish-chestnut on sides.

29. D. palmarum. Ad. Forehead and crown deep rufous; superciliary stripe bright yellow, continued back over auriculars; sexes alike. Juv. and ad. in winter. Crown brownish, streaked with dusky; streaks on sides more dusky. Hab. Eastern Province of North America, north to Fort Simpson and Hudson’s Bay; Bahamas; Cuba, St. Domingo, and Jamaica, in winter.

Dendroica æstiva, BAIRD.

YELLOW WARBLER; SUMMER YELLOW-BIRD.

Motacilla æstiva, GM. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 996.—Sylvia æstiva, LATH.; VIEILL. II, pl. xcv.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. xxxv. 93. Sylvicola æst. SWAINS.—AUD. Birds. Am. II, pl. lxxxviii. Rhimamphus æst. BON.; CAB. Jour. III, 472 (Cuba). _Dendroica æst._ BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 282; Rev. 195.—SCLATER, Catal. 1861, 32, no. 194 (Ecuador, Cayenne, N. Granada).—TAYLOR, Ibis, 1864, 81 (Trinidad).—COOPER & SUCKLEY, P. R. R. XII, II, 1859, 181 (N. W. coast).—SAMUELS, 237.—DALL & BANNISTER, (Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 87. Sylvia carolinensis, LATH. Ind. Orn. II, 1790, 551. ? Sylvia flava, VIEILLOT, II, 1807, 31, pl. lxxxi. Sylvia citrinella, WILS. II, pl. xv, fig. 5. Sylvia childreni, AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, pl. xxxv (young). ? Sylvia rathbonia, AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, pl. lxv. Sylvicola r. AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxix. Motacilla rubiginosa, PALLAS, Zoög. Rosso-Asiat. I, 1831, 496 (Kodiak). Rhimamphus chryseolus, BON. Bull. Soc. Linn. Caen, II, 1851, 32 (D. æstiva, from South America; Cayenne). Other localities: Xalapa, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 363. Guatemala, SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, page 11. Panama, winter, LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322. Turbo, N. Granada, CASS. Pr. A. N. Sc. 1860, 191. Bogota, SCLATER, Pr. 1855, 143. City of Mexico, IB. 1864, 172.

SP. CHAR. Bill lead-color. Head all round, and under parts generally, bright yellow; rest of upper parts yellow-olivaceous, brightest on the rump. Back with obsolete streaks of dusky reddish-brown. Fore breast and sides of the body streaked with brownish-red. Tail-feathers bright yellow; the outer webs and tips, with the whole upper surfaces of the innermost one, brown; extreme outer edges of wing and tail-feathers olivaceous like the back; the middle and greater coverts and tertials edged with yellow, forming two bands on the wings. Female similar, with the crown olivaceous like the back, and the streaks wanting on the back, and much restricted on the under parts. Tail with more brown. Length of male, 5.25; wing, 2.66; tail. 2.25. (No. 940.) Young. Dull brownish-olive above; pale ochraceous-yellow beneath, with the throat more whitish; the yellow of tail restricted to inner half of inner webs. The latter feature will serve to distinguish it from any other North American species.

HAB. Entire North America, and in winter into South America as far as Ecuador, Cayenne, and Trinidad. Not recorded from West Indies, where replaced by allied species.

In the great abundance of this species and its wide range of distribution, there are many variations in size and color, though none that are not readily understood. In young birds the yellow of the tail-feathers is more restricted, sometimes confined to the edge of the inner webs. In adults there is occasionally a tinge of orange in the forehead.

Sylvia rathbonia of Audubon is described with even tail, and the tail-feathers brown, edged externally with yellow; the reverse of æstiva. It is generally, however, considered a synonyme.

Birds of this type (“Golden Warblers”) of six or eight additional species are known to occur in the West Indies, the Galapagos, and in Middle America; one of them, D. bryanti, possibly to be met with in Southern Arizona. (See Baird, Review Am. Birds, 193.)

After comparing a series of about one hundred and twenty North and Central American specimens (the latter being winter visitors to the region where obtained), nothing really characteristic of any particular region can be detected. Specimens from the Pacific coast of the United States are perfectly identical in colors with those from the Atlantic States; and they agree in size and proportions, except of the bill, which is appreciably longer and broader in the Eastern than in the Western birds. The most highly colored examples are from the interior regions, along the Mississippi Valley from Louisiana to Northern Illinois, and over the plains north to Fort Simpson. The majority of the specimens from this region are just appreciably different from others, in having the yellow more intense and prevalent, almost subduing the olive shades above; the crown more tinged with orange. Sometimes (as in No. 4,301, Calcasieu Pass, La.) the rump and upper tail-coverts are absolutely pure yellow, only a medial stripe on the feathers being olivaceous like the back. The orange-rufous tinge on the crown is deepest in Nos. 4,665, Fort Lookout, and 4,300, Calcasieu Pass.

Three adult summer males from Alaska (Nos. 54,429, Kodiak; 54,425, Yukon River; and 27,267, Fort Yukon), as well as one from Maine (52,378, Calais), differ from others in having the olive pervading the whole surface above, even to the bill, the forehead being only tinged with yellow, and the edges of wing-coverts merely inclining to this color. The lower parts are much as in Southern specimens, though the yellow is less intense.

Females from Arizona (as 49,712, Camp Grant, May; 40,664, Fort Whipple, May; and 34,340, Los Pinos, New Mexico, June) differ from others in very bleached plumage, the lower parts being almost white, and the upper surface quite ashy. But this is, in fact, an actual bleaching, frequently to be seen in birds from that region.

HABITS. The geographical range of the common Summer Yellow-Bird is very nearly coextensive with North America. In its northern distribution it is found as far toward the arctic shores as any of our land birds. Richardson speaks of it as well known throughout the fur countries as far as the woods extend, and mentions meeting with it among the earliest arrivals in spring, coming in company with the equally well-known Robin and the Grakle. At Fort Franklin, latitude 66°, he saw it the 15th of May, about the time of its first appearance in New England. This was supposed to be the limit of its northern range, but more recent observations give abundant evidence of its presence, in considerable numbers, to the very shores of the Arctic Ocean. The late Mr. Hepburn, in manuscript notes, states it to be a common summer visitant both of California and Vancouver’s Island, and that along the coast he has traced it as far north as the frontier line of 54° 40′, where it arrives at the beginning of May, but does not nest until the end of the month.

Mr. Dall, in his notes on the birds of Alaska, states that this Warbler is a rather common bird all through that territory, and gives its arrival as about the 10th of May.

Its extreme southern limit is not so distinctly traced, but is at least as far as the northern portions of South America, inclusive of Cayenne and Ecuador. In all of the West Indies except Trinidad it is replaced by several closely allied species or local races. In Trinidad, Mr. E. C. Taylor states that he found this species common, and could perceive no difference from North American specimens. In Guatemala it is abundant in the winter.

Dr. Coues found this Warbler abundant in Arizona, where it is a summer resident, from April 25 to the middle of September. There, as elsewhere, its preference for watercourses was noticed. Wherever found, it is always most abundant in alluvial meadows, and more rare in other localities.

Dr. Samuel Cabot found this Warbler common in Central America, and Dr. Cragin, of Surinam, sent the Boston Society several specimens from Guiana. Dr. Woodhouse found it abundant in Texas and New Mexico, as did Drs. Suckley and Cooper in Washington Territory and California. It breeds over the whole area of North America, from Georgia on the southeast and from Mexico, northward. Dr. Sumichrast found it, only as a migratory bird, abundant on the plains of Mexico.

The notes of Mr. Kennicott and the memoranda of Messrs. McFarlane, Ross, and Lockhart attest the extreme abundance of this species in the farthest Arctic regions. In nearly every instance the nests were placed in willows from two to five feet from the ground, and near water. In one instance Mr. Ross found the eggs of this species in the nest of Turdus swainsoni, which had either been deserted or the parent killed, as the eggs were in it, and would probably have been hatched by the Warbler with her own.

Dr. Cooper found this Warbler very abundant in Washington Territory, and noticed their arrival in large numbers at the Straits of Fuca as early as April 8.

The Summer Yellow-Bird arrives in New England with great uniformity from the first to the middle of May. Its coming is usually the harbinger of the opening summer and expanding leaves. Unlike most of its family, it is confiding and familiar, easily encouraged, by attention to its wants, to cultivate the society of man. It confidingly builds its nest in gardens, often in close vicinity to dwellings, and in the midst of large villages and cities, among the shrubbery of frequented parks. This Warbler, soon after its arrival, begins the construction of its nest. It is usually placed in low bushes, three or four feet from the ground. Occasionally very different positions are chosen. Hedges of buckthorn and hawthorn, barberry-bushes, and other low shrubs, are their favorite places of resort. On one occasion the nest was placed some forty feet from the ground, in the top of a horse-chestnut tree overhanging the main street of a village. Such high positions are, however, not very common.

The nest is invariably fastened to several twigs with great firmness, and with a remarkable neatness and skill. A great variety of materials is employed in the construction of their nests, though not often in the same nest, which is usually quite homogeneous. The more common materials are the hempen fibres of plants, fibrous strips of bark, slender stems of plants and leaves, and down of asclepias. Interwoven with these, forming the inner materials, are the down from willow catkins, the woolly furze from fern-stalks and the Eriophorum virginicum, and similar substances. These are lined with soft, fine grasses, hair, feathers, and other warm materials. Cotton, where procurable, is a favorite material; as also is wool, where abundant. I have known instances where nests were built almost exclusively of one or the other material. A pair of these birds, in 1836, built their nest under a parlor window in Roxbury, where all their operations could be closely watched. When discovered, only the framework, the fastening to the supporting twigs, had been erected. The work of completion was simple and rapid. The female was the chief builder, taking her position in the centre of the nest and arranging the materials in their places as her mate brought them to her. Occasionally, with outstretched wings and expanded tail, she would whirl herself round, giving to the soft and yielding materials their hemispherical form. At intervals she arrested her revolutions to stop and regulate with her bill some unyielding portion. When her mate was dilatory, she made brief excursions and collected material for herself, and when the materials brought her were deemed unsuitable, they were rejected in a most summary and amusing manner. The important part of the tail-feathers in shaping the nest and placing the materials in position was a striking feature in this interesting performance. The greater portion of the nest was thus constructed in a single day.

The wonderful sagacity displayed by this Warbler in avoiding the disagreeable alternative of either having to abandon its own nest or of rearing the young of the intrusive Cow Blackbird, when one of these eggs is dropped in her nest, was first noticed by Mr. Nuttall. The egg of the parasite, being too large for ejectment, is ingeniously incarcerated in the bottom of the nest, and a new lining built over it. Occasionally, either by accident or design, the intrusive egg has been fractured. Mr. Nuttall states that where the parasitic egg is laid after her own, the Summer Yellow-Bird acts faithfully the part of a foster-parent. This, however, is not according to my observations. In several instances I have known the Summer Yellow-Bird utterly refuse to act the part of a foster-parent, and, rather than do so, sacrifice her own eggs. So far as I know, this Warbler will never sit upon or hatch out the egg of the Cowbird, under any circumstances. Some powerful instinct, bordering closely upon reason, seems to teach these intelligent Warblers the character of the intruder, and they sacrifice their own eggs rather than rear the parasite. In this dilemma they will always, so far as I know, incarcerate their own eggs with the Cowbird’s and reconstruct the nest above them. In one instance the same pair of Yellow-Birds twice, in the same nest, covered up alien eggs in this manner, building, in fact, three nests one above the other, between the walls of which had been successively included two eggs of the Cowbird. This three-storied nest measured seven inches in length, and was built almost exclusively of raw cotton. The covering of the imprisoned eggs was about two thirds of an inch thick. In both instances the Cowbird’s eggs had been broken, apparently by design.

So far as I am aware this Warbler raises but one brood in Massachusetts in a season. In Pennsylvania it is said to raise two, and even three. The eggs are usually five and occasionally six in number.

This Warbler is conspicuous in its devotion to its young, evincing a strong attachment and an anxiety in regard even to an unoccupied nest, and betraying the site by this solicitude. They will also resort to various expedients to draw one away from their nest, by feigned lameness and other stratagems and manœuvres.

The song of the Summer Yellow-Bird is simple but pleasing, and is easily recognized when once known, though liable to be confounded with that of the Maryland Yellow-Throat, and also said to resemble the song of several other Warblers.

In confinement they usually become very tame, confiding, and reconciled to their imprisonment, and have been known to perch on an outstretched finger, and to catch flies in a room.

Their eggs vary in length from .61 to .70 of an inch, and in breadth from .49 to .52. They have a ground-color of a light green. Their dots and blotches vary greatly in number, size, and manner of distribution. Their colors are light purple, darker purplish-brown, and other shades of brown and lilac.

Dendroica coronata, GRAY.

YELLOW-RUMP WARBLER; MYRTLE WARBLER.

Motacilla coronata, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 333. _Sylvia coronata_, LATH.; VIEILLOT; WILS.; NUTT.; AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cliii. Sylvicola coronata, SWAINS.; BON.; AUD. Birds, Am. II, pl. lxxvi.—JONES, Nat. Bermuda, 59 (abundant in April). _Dendroica coronata_, GRAY, Genera, 1842, 2.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 272; Rev. 187.—MARCH, P. A. N. Sc. 1863, 292 (Jamaica, in summer; breeding).—GUNDL. Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; common).—COOPER & SUCKLEY, P. R. R. XII, ii, 1859, 180 (Puget Sound).—SAMUELS, 226.—DALL & BANNISTER (Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 89. Rhimanphus cor. CAB. Jour. 1855, 473 (Cuba). _Motacilla canadensis_, LINN. 12th ed. 1766, 334 (_Ficedula canadensis cinerea_, Br. III, 524, pl xxvii, fig. 1). Parus virginianus, LINN. 12th ed. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 342. _Motacilla umbria, cincta, pinguis_, GM. Sylvia xanthopygia, VIEILL. Sylvia xanthoroa, VIEILL. Localities quoted: S. Greenland, REINHARDT, Ibis, 1861, 5. Cordova, SCL. P. Z. S. 1856, 291. Xalapa, IB. 1859, 363. Guatemala, SCL. & SALV. 1859, 11. Panama, LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VIII, 63. Cuba, winter, CAB. Jour. III, 473. Bahamas, winter, BRYANT, Bost. Pr. VII, 1859. Jamaica, GOSSE, Birds Jam. 155. St. Domingo, SALLÉ, P. Z. S. 1857, 231. Costa Rica, LAWR. Orizaba, winter, SUMICHRAST.

SP. CHAR. Above bluish-ash, streaked with black. Under parts white. The forepart of breast and the sides black, the feathers mostly edged narrowly with white. Crown, rump, and sides of breast yellow. Cheeks and lores black. The eyelids and a superciliary stripe, two bands on the wing and spots on the outer three tail-feathers, white. Female of duller plumage and browner above. Length, 5.65; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.50.

HAB. Eastern Province of North America, and northward, extending sparsely along United States boundary to Pacific Ocean; Denver City, Colorado; Fort Yukon; Greenland; Eastern Mexico to Panama R. R.; Western West Indies and Bermuda. Breeds in Jamaica!

Autumnal and winter birds are very much duller and more obscurely colored, the upper parts of an umber cast with the streaks almost obsolete; the black of the breast wanting or but just indicated, and the yellow patches on crown almost concealed by the brown tips to the feathers, and those on side of breast quite dull.

A spring male (52,283) from Washington is remarkable in having the adjoining series of feathers down the middle of the back with their inner webs broadly edged with yellow. In this respect it differs from all others that we have noticed.

HABITS. The Yellow-crowned Wood Warbler is one of the most common species of this genus, as well as one of the most widely distributed. It is found, at different seasons, throughout the eastern part of the continent, as far west as the Great Plains, extending at the far north to the Pacific Ocean. It has been found in Greenland, three specimens having been taken within twenty years, and on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and during the winter in the West India Islands, Mexico, and Central America. Specimens from Florida and Fort Steilacoom, Panama, Guatemala, and Jamaica, and from Fort Rae, Anderson River, and the Yukon, in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, attest its wide distribution. In Jamaica, in the neighborhood of Spanishtown, this species has been known to breed. In view of the fact that this bird is regarded, with good reason, as one of our most northern species, breeding to the very shores of the frozen seas, the occurrence seems erratic and remarkable. Yet it is not without corresponding vagaries in other species, the cærulescens breeding in Cuba and the tigrina in St. Domingo and Jamaica.

Mr. Paine, of East Randolph, Vt., states that these Warblers arrive in his vicinity about the first of May, and remain there nearly two weeks, and then all pass north. They do not return on their southern flight until the last of September, when they remain about three weeks. It is a very active, restless bird, chirping continually and very sharply as it flies around in search of insects, but has not, so far as he knows, any song.

In Southern Illinois, as Mr. Ridgway informs me, this bird is a common winter sojourner, remaining late in spring with the migratory species. It is very abundant throughout the winter in woods, orchards, and door-yards.

Mr. Salvin found this species frequenting the more open districts about Duenas, Guatemala, apparently preferring scattered bushes to the denser underwood, and was an abundant species there throughout the winter season.

It is but quite recently that we have known with certainty its place and manner of breeding. Neither Wilson, Nuttall, nor Audubon appear to have met with its nest, though the latter received one from Professor McCulloch of Halifax.

In the summer of 1855, early in July, I obtained a nest of this species in Parsboro’, Nova Scotia. It was built in a low bush, in the midst of a small village, and contained six eggs. The parents were very shy, and it was with great difficulty that one of them was secured for identification. Though late in the season, incubation had but just commenced.

The nest was built on a horizontal branch, the smaller twigs of which were so interlaced as to admit of its being built upon them, though their extremities were interwoven into its rim. The nest was small for the bird, being only two inches in depth and four and a half in diameter. The cavity is one and a half inches deep and two and a half wide. Its base and external portions consist of fine, light, dry stalks of wild grasses, and slender twigs and roots. Of the last the firm, strong rim of the nest is exclusively woven. Within, the nest is composed of soft, fine grasses, downy feathers, and the fine hair of the smaller mammals.

Mr. Audubon, who observed very closely the habits of these birds during a winter in Florida, describes them as very social among themselves, skipping along the piazza, balancing themselves in the air opposite the sides of the house in search of spiders and insects, diving through the low bushes of the garden after larvæ and worms, and at night roosting among the orange-trees. In his visit to Maine he found them very abundant in early May. The woods seemed alive with them, and wherever he landed, on his way to Labrador, he found them in great numbers.

This Warbler is an expert flycatcher, feeds chiefly on insects, and is a great devourer of small caterpillars; but in the winter its food is largely composed of berries, especially those of the Myrica cerifera. It will also feed on grass-seeds. In the warmer wintry days in Florida, when insects are abundant, Mr. Audubon states that these birds are particularly active in their pursuit, and the trees seem full of them. At this time they emit, at each movement, a single note, twēēt, so very peculiar that they may be at once recognized by the cry.

Wilson states that these Warblers appear in Pennsylvania, from the North, early in October, and stay there several weeks. Some of them remain in the Southern States all winter. They feed with great avidity upon the berries of the red cedar.

In Western Massachusetts it is a very abundant spring and autumn visitant, making but a brief stay in spring, but passing northward in large numbers. In autumn it remains longer, and passes south more leisurely. Mr. B. P. Mann found its nest and eggs in Concord, but this was probably an exceptional instance. In Eastern Maine it arrives May 25, and, as Mr. Boardman thinks, remains to breed. Both Dr. Suckley and Dr. Cooper met with this species in Washington Territory, where it is very rare.

No writers have observed or noted the song of this bird, except Mr. T. M. Trippe (American Nat., II. p. 171), who states that during its spring migrations it has a very sweet song or warble, uttered at short intervals.

It reaches the high northern latitudes late in May, and leaves that region in September. The observations of Mr. McFarlane show that the nests of this bird are moderately common at Anderson River, and are generally built in low spruce-trees four or five feet from the ground. In one or two instances it was placed on the ground.

The eggs of this Warbler vary from .72 to .80 of an inch in length, and from .50 to .55 in breadth. Their ground-color is white, often tinged with a bluish shade, and blotched and spotted with reddish-brown, purple, and darker shades of brown. They are of a rounded oval shape.

Dendroica auduboni, BAIRD.

AUDUBON’S WARBLER; WESTERN YELLOW-RUMP.

Sylvia auduboni, TOWNSEND, J. A. N. Sc. VII, II, 1837.—IB. Narrative, 1839, 342.—AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 52, pl. cccxcv. Sylvicola auduboni, BON. List. 1838.—AUD. Birds Am. II, 1841, 26, pl. lxxvii. Dendroica auduboni, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 273; Rev. 188.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 298 (Oaxaca; October); 1860, 250 (Orizaba).—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1860, 273 (San Geronimo, Guat.).—COOPER & SUCKLEY, P. R. R. Rep. XII, II, 1859, 181.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1864, 172 (City of Mexico).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 88.

SP. CHAR. Above bluish-ash, streaked with black, most marked on the middle of the back; on the head and neck bluish-ash. Middle of crown, rump, chin, and throat, and a patch on the side of the breast, gamboge-yellow; space beneath and anterior to the eyes, forepart of breast and sides, black; this color extending behind on the sides in streaks. Middle of belly, under tail-coverts, a portion of upper and lower eyelids, and a broad band on the wings, with a spot on each of the four or five exterior tail-feathers, white; rest of tail-feathers black. Female brown above; the other markings less conspicuous and less black. Length, 5.25; wings, 3.20; tail, 2.25. Young, first plumage, whole body, including head all round and rump, conspicuously streaked with slaty-black upon an ashy ground above and white below. No yellow on crown, rump, breast, or throat. Wings and tail as in autumnal adult.

HAB. Western and Middle Provinces of the United States; Cape St. Lucas; Western Mexico and Orizaba? Oaxaca (cold regions, October, SCLATER); Guatemala (SALVIN).

This bird is very closely allied to D. coronata, but is distinguished by the yellow (not white) throat; the absence of a superciliary white stripe (the eyelids white, however); the restriction of the black of the face to the lores, and to a suffusion round the eye; and the presence of one broad band on the wings, instead of two narrow ones.

HABITS. This beautiful Warbler, so strikingly simulating the D. coronata in the character of its markings, and now so well known as a common species on the Pacific coast, was first met with by Mr. Townsend near the Columbia River, where he found it very abundant. His account of its habits is inconsistent, and probably not reliable. Mr. Nuttall, who was with Mr. Townsend, differs, also, essentially in his account. He states that he first saw them about the middle of April, and that their song bore a very close resemblance to that of the D. æstiva, but was delivered in a much superior style. They remained his summer companions, breeding among the shady firs on the borders of prairie openings, where there was an abundant supply of insect food. By the 8th of June he found their young already out, in small and busy flocks, solicitously attended by their parents. They greatly resembled the young of the coronata. These birds frequented large trees, particularly the water-oaks, and the lower branches of gigantic firs.

Dr. Cooper found this Warbler one of the most abundant species of Washington Territory, and believed them to be, to some extent, a resident species, as he met them about the Straits of Fuca in March. He speaks of its song as lively, and heard everywhere on the borders of the woods, even near the coast, where few of the smaller species ever visit. In the fall he noticed straggling flocks of the young wandering about the low shrubbery in large numbers. The same writer also states that this species is in winter a very abundant bird in the southern part of California, flitting about among the bushes and low trees. The males are then in the dull plumage of the females, and do not put on their richer hues until March or April. He saw none south of San Francisco after May 1, but they began to reappear in September. As he found newly fledged young near Lake Tahoe, he thinks they breed throughout the higher Sierra Nevada. At the sea level in latitude 37° they appear late in September, and remain until March 20.

Dr. Suckley regarded this bird as the most abundant species visiting the western portion of Washington Territory. Near Fort Steilacoom it was found principally among the oak-trees on the plains.

Dr. Woodhouse found it abundant in New Mexico, confining itself to the timbered and mountainous districts, and especially plentiful among the San Francisco Mountains, feeding among the tall pines. Dr. Coues found it exceedingly common in Arizona, where some spend the winter, and a few possibly remain in the summer to breed.

Dr. Heermann found them remaining in the Sacramento Valley throughout the winter, and quotes Dr. Kennerly as finding these birds on the Boca Grande and at different points in Sonora. Mr. Gambel found these Warblers on all his route from New Mexico to California in great abundance, their habits greatly resembling those of the D. coronata. They display a great deal of familiarity, entering the towns, resorting to the gardens and hedge-rows, and even the corrals of the houses, descending also to the ground in company with Blackbirds and Sparrows.

This Warbler is thus shown to have a very extended distribution. It is now known to be found, at different seasons, from Central America to British Columbia, and from New Mexico to the Pacific.

We are indebted to the late Mr. Hepburn for all the knowledge we possess in reference to its nests, eggs, and breeding-habits. He procured their nests and eggs in Vancouver’s Island. They were built in the forked branches of small shrubs. Around these the materials of which they were built were strongly bound, and to it the nests were thus securely fastened. They were quite long and large for the bird, being four inches in height, and three and a half in diameter. The cavity is small, but deep. The external periphery of the nest is made of coarse strips of bark, long dry leaves of wild grasses, and strong stalks of plants, intermingled with finer grasses, pieces of cotton cloth, and other materials. The inner nest is also a singular combination of various materials, yet carefully and elaborately put together. It is made up of fine grasses, feathers, lichens, mosses, fine roots, etc., all felted together and lined with a warm bedding of fur and feathers. Mr. Hepburn’s observations, so far as they go, seem to show that this bird does not usually build in such lofty positions as Nuttall and others conjectured.

According to Mr. Hepburn, they arrive in Vancouver’s Island in the middle of April, and generally frequent high trees, constructing their nests in the upper branches, though also frequently building in low bushes, a few feet from the ground. The number of their eggs is four. These, he states, have a pure white ground, and are spotted, usually chiefly about the larger end, with red markings.

Mr. Salvin met with both this species and the D. coronata at San Geronimo, November, 1859. They congregated together on the ground, where they principally obtained their food.

Dr. Cooper, in his paper on the fauna of Montana, mentions this Warbler as the only one of the genus seen by him between Fort Benton and Fort Vancouver. It was very common throughout the mountains, and he found it in every portion of the country west of them, even where scarcely a bush was to be seen.

According to the careful observations of Mr. Robert Ridgway, this Warbler, during the summer months, in the Great Basin, chiefly inhabits the pines of the high mountain ranges, as well as the cedar and piñon woods of the desert mountains. In winter it descends to the lower portions, being then found among the willows, or, in small roving companies, hopping among the tree-tops in the river valleys. In manners it is said by him to resemble the coronata, but in their notes they differ very widely. A nest, containing three young, was found by Mr. Ridgway near the extremity of a horizontal branch of a pine-tree, about ten feet from the ground.

The eggs of the Audubon Warbler do not resemble those of any Dendroica with which I am acquainted, but are most like those of the Hooded Warbler. They measure .70 by .50 of an inch, have a reddish or pinkish white ground, and are sparingly marked with fine brown markings, tinted with a crimson shading.

Dendroica maculosa, BAIRD.

BLACK AND YELLOW WARBLER.

Motacilla maculosa, GM. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 984. Sylvia m. LATH.; VIEILL.; BON.; NUTT.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, II, V, pl. 1. 123. Sylvicola m. SWAINS.; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. xcvi. Rhimanphus m. CAB. Jour. III, 1855, 474 (Cuba). Dendroica m. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 284; Review, 206.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 363, 373 (Xalapa).—BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1859 (Bahamas).—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322 (Panama; winter).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very rare).—SAMUELS, 238. Sylvia magnolia, WILS. III, pl. xxiii, fig. 3.

SP. CHAR. Male, in spring. Bill dark bluish-black, rather lighter beneath. Tail dusky. Top of head light grayish-blue. Front, lore, cheek, and a stripe under the eye, black, running into a large triangular patch on the back between the wings, which is also black. Eyelids and a stripe from the eye along the head white. Upper tail-coverts black, some of the feathers tipped with grayish. Abdomen and lower tail-coverts white. Rump and under parts, except as described, yellow. Lower throat, breast, and sides streaked with black; the streaks closer on the lower throat and fore breast. Lesser wing-coverts, and edges of the wing and tail, bluish-gray, the former spotted with black. Quills and tail almost black; the latter with a square patch of white on the inner webs of all the tail-feathers (but the two inner) beyond the middle of the tail. Two white bands across the wings (sometimes coalesced into one) formed by the middle and secondary coverts. Part of the edge of the inner webs of the quills white. Feathers margining the black patch on the back behind and on the sides tinged with greenish. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.50; tail, 2.25. Autumnal males differ in absence of black of back, front, sides of head, and to a considerable degree beneath, and in much less white on the wings and head.

Female in spring. Similar, but all the colors duller. Black of the back restricted to a central triangular patch.

HAB. Eastern Province of North America to Fort Simpson; Eastern Mexico to Guatemala and Panama; Bahamas; Cuba (very rare).

HABITS. The Black and Yellow Warbler, one of the most beautiful of this attractive family, was supposed by our earlier writers to be exceedingly rare. Wilson never met with more than two specimens,—one in Ohio, the other on the Mississippi,—and spoke of it as a very scarce species. In regard to its song he was quite at fault, denying to it any notes deserving the name of song. Nuttall, who had only seen it occasionally in Massachusetts, in the middle of May, regarded it as rare, and was unacquainted with its notes. Its history is now much better known, and neither its great rarity nor its deficiency as to melody can any longer be admitted.

At certain seasons and in particular places it is a very common species. It may be found during the breeding-season throughout North America east of the Great Plains, between latitude 44° and Fort Simpson in the fur country. During its migrations it may be met with in most of the Eastern States, in Eastern Mexico, and the northern portions of South America. It has been found in the Bahamas, and also in Cuba, where it is not common. Specimens have been received from Mexico, Guatemala, and Panama, and from Fort Resolution, Rupert House, and Fort Simpson, in Arctic America, and as far to the west as the mouth of Vermilion River. Dr. Bryant met with it in the Bahamas as early as the 15th of March, where it was quite common. M. Boucard found it at Playa Vicente, in the hot portion of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico.

In Western Massachusetts, Mr. Allen found it a common spring and autumn visitor, occurring in its northern flights from the middle of May to the first of June, and in the autumn as late as September 20. Professor Verrill found it in Western Maine, but not common, both in spring and fall, but had no reason to believe that it bred there. Mr. Boardman does not include it in his list of Calais birds, and I did not find it among the islands in the Bay of Fundy. In the vicinity of Halifax, during the months of June and July, it is one of the most common of the Warblers, occurring in every direction.

Mr. Audubon observed these Warblers in Louisiana, in their migrations, as early as the middle of March; but its appearance there, as well as in Kentucky and Ohio, appeared to be occasional and accidental. In autumn he has met with them in large numbers among the mountains of Northern Pennsylvania, They were passing southward with their young. While on his way to Labrador he noticed them in Maine, near Eastport, in May, very abundant along the roads, the fields, and the low woods, as well as in the orchards and gardens. The season was then not advanced, the weather cold; and these birds sheltered themselves by night among the evergreens, and were often so chilled as to be readily taken by the hand. He also met them wherever he landed in the neighboring islands in the Bay of Fundy and at Labrador.

The song of this Warbler is clear and sweetly modulated, and surpasses that of most of this family. It seems to prefer the interior of low woods, where its notes may chiefly be heard during the early summer, as it sings while it is searching for its food among the branches, in the manner of the Vireos.

Like nearly all the members of this family, in its search for food it blends the habits of the Creepers with those of the Flycatchers, feeding upon insects in their every form, running up and down the trunks for the ova, larvæ, and pupæ, expertly catching the insect on the wing, and equally skilful in hovering over the expanded bud and searching the opening leaves.

Mr. Audubon found its nest placed deep among the branches of low fir-trees, supported by horizontal twigs, constructed of moss and lichens, and lined with fibrous roots and feathers. One found in Labrador, in the beginning of July, contained five eggs, small and rather more elongated than is common in this genus. They were white, and sprinkled with reddish dots at the larger end. The female fluttered among the branches, spreading her wings and tail in great distress, and returning to her nest as soon as the intruders were a few yards off. In August he saw a number of their young already following their parents and moving southward. In his expedition to Texas, Mr. Audubon again met this bird, in considerable numbers, early in April. Their eggs, he states, measure three fourths of an inch in length by nine sixteenths in breadth. In some the ground-color, instead of pure white, is of a yellowish tinge.

The writer found this Warbler abundant near Halifax in the early summer of 1850, frequenting the thick hemlock woods, confiding in its habits, unsuspicious, and easily approached. The distress, as described by Audubon, manifested in behalf of its own young, it is as ready to exhibit when the nest of a feathered neighbor is disturbed. A pair of Hudson’s Bay Titmice, protesting against the invasion of their home, by their outcries brought a pair of these Warblers to their sympathetic assistance; and the latter manifested, in a more gentle way, quite as much distress and anxiety as the real parents. With expanded tail and half-extended wings they fluttered overhead among the branches, approaching us almost within reach, uttering the most piteous outcries.

Sir John Richardson found this Warbler as common and as familiar as the D. æstiva on the Saskatchewan, and greatly resembling it in habits, though gifted with a much more varied and agreeable song.

Mr. Kennicott met this Warbler on Great Slave Lake, June 12, 1860, where he obtained a female, nest, and five eggs. The nest, loosely built, was placed in a small spruce about two feet from the ground, and in thick woods. The bird was rather bold, coming to her nest while he stood by it. This nest was only one and a half inches deep, with a diameter of three and a half inches; the cavity only one inch deep, with a diameter of two and a half inches. It was made almost entirely of fine stems of plants and slender grasses, and a few mosses. The cavity was lined with finer stems, and fine black roots of herbaceous plants.

The eggs of this Warbler are, in shape, a rounded oval, one end being but slightly more pointed than the other. They measure .62 of an inch in length and .49 in breadth. Their ground-color is a light ashen hue, or a dull white, and this is more or less sprinkled with fine dots and blotches of a light brown. For the most part these are grouped in a ring about the larger end.

Mr. R. Deane, of Cambridge, found this bird breeding near Lake Umbagog. Its nest was in the fork of a low spruce about three feet from the ground. The nest contained four eggs, and was made of dry grasses, spruce twigs, and rootlets. It was lined with fine black roots, being a rather coarse structure for a Warbler. The eggs were nearly spherical, averaging .62 by .51 of an inch. Their ground-color was a creamy-white, sparsely marked with a few large blotches of lilac and umber.

Dendroica cærulea, BAIRD.

CÆRULEAN WARBLER; WHITE-THROATED BLUE WARBLER.

Sylvia cærulea, WILS. Am. Orn. II, 1810, 141, pl. xvii, fig. 5. Sylvicola c. SWAINS.; JARD.; RICH.; BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. xlix; NUTT. Dendroica c. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 280; Rev. 191.—GUNDL. Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very rare).—SAMUELS, 579. Sylvia rara, WILSON, II, pl. xxvii, fig. 2.—BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. xlix. Sylvia azurea, STEPH. Shaw, Zoöl. X, 1817.—BON. Am. Orn. II, 1828, pl. xxvii (♀).—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. xlviii, xlix; NUTT. Sylvia bifasciata, SAY, Long’s Exped. I, 1823, 170. Sylvia populorum, VIEILL. Encyc. Méth. II, 1823, 449 (from Wilson). Other localities: Bogota, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1857, 18. _Panama R. R._, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322. Yucatan, LAWR. Veragua, SALV.

SP. CHAR. Male. Above bright blue, darkest on the crown, tinged with ash on the rump; middle of back, scapulars, upper tail-coverts, and sides of the crown, streaked with black. Beneath white; a collar across the breast, and streaks on the sides, dusky-blue. Lores, and a line through and behind the eye (where it is bordered above by whitish), dusky-blue; paler on the cheeks. Two white bands on the wings. All the tail-feathers except the innermost with a white patch on the inner web near the end. Female, greenish-blue above, brightest on the crown; beneath white, tinged with greenish-yellow, and obsoletely streaked on the sides; eyelids and a superciliary line greenish-white. Length, 4.25; wing, 2.65; tail, 1.90.

HAB. Eastern United States, north to Niagara Falls; Cuba (very rare); Guatemala; Veragua, Panama, and Bogota. Not recorded from Mexico (except Yucatan), or West Indies (except Cuba).

The autumnal adult plumage of both sexes is, in every respect, exactly like the spring dress. Young males in late summer are very similar to adult females, but are purer white below, and less uniform greenish-blue above, the dark stripes on sides of the crown and black centres to scapulars being quite conspicuous; the young female, at the same season, is similar in pattern to the adult, but is dull green above, without any tinge of blue, and light buffy-yellow below.

There is considerable variation in adult males, especially in the width of the pectoral collar; one (No. 60,877, Mt. Carmel, Wabash Co., Ill., Aug. 9) has this entirely interrupted. In this individual there is no trace of a whitish supra-auricular streak; while others from the same locality, and obtained at the same date, have the band across the jugulum continuous, and a quite distinct white streak over the ear-coverts.

HABITS. Of this somewhat rare Warbler very little is as yet well known. Its habits and distribution during the breeding-season need more light than we now possess to enable us to give its story with any degree of exactness. Its appearance in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri early in May, when Warblers that go north to breed are on their way, at first suggested its belonging to that class. It is not known to proceed any farther north, except in accidental instances; though the writer has been assured, and has no reason to doubt the fact, that it abounds and breeds in the neighborhood of Niagara Falls. I can find no good evidence that it ever occurs in Massachusetts. Individuals have been obtained in northern South America, Panama, and Cuba. Dr. Woodhouse describes it as quite common in Texas and in the Indian Territory, where it breeds, as he obtained both the old and the young birds. It was also abundant among the timbered lands of the Arkansas and its tributaries. It was not obtained in any other of the government expeditions, nor was it found in Arizona by Dr. Coues. Mr. T. M. Trippe noticed a single individual near Orange, N. Y. Wilson supposed them to breed in Pennsylvania, though he was never able to find their nests. He usually met with these birds in marshes or on the borders of streams among the branches of poplars. Their habits were those of the Flycatchers. He saw none later than the 20th of August. Describing this species as the Blue-green Warbler, as met with by him on the banks of the Cumberland early in April, he mentions its gleaning for food among the upper branches of the tallest trees, rendering it difficult to be procured. Its resemblance, in habits, to Flycatchers, he again remarks. Its only note was a feeble cheep.

According to Audubon, this Warbler appears in Louisiana, where it also breeds early in spring, and leaves the first of October. Like all its family, it is quite lively, has a similar flight, moves sideways up and down the branches, and hangs from the ends of the twigs in its search for insects.

Mr. Audubon also states that the liveliness of the notes of this Warbler renders it conspicuous in the forests, the skirts of which it frequents. Its song, though neither loud nor of long continuance, he speaks of as extremely sweet and mellow. He found it as numerous in the State of Louisiana as any other Warbler, so that he could sometimes obtain five or six in a single walk.

The nest he describes as placed in the forks of a low tree or bush, partly pensile, projecting a little above the twigs to which it is attached, and extending below them nearly two inches. The outer part is composed of the fibres of vines and the stalks of herbaceous plants, with slender roots arranged in a circular manner. The nest is lined with fine dry fibres of the Spanish moss. The eggs are five in number, of a pure white with a few reddish spots about the larger end. When disturbed during incubation, the female is said to trail along the branches with drooping wings and plaintive notes, in the manner of D. æstiva. After the young have left the nest, they move and hunt together, in company with their parents, evincing great activity in the pursuit of insects. They are also said to have a great partiality for trees the tops of which are thickly covered with grapevines, and to occasionally alight on tall weeds, feeding upon their seeds.

In his visit to Texas, Mr. Audubon met a large number of these birds apparently coming from Mexico. On one occasion he encountered a large flock on a small island.

Mr. Nuttall mentions finding these birds very abundant in Tennessee and also in West Florida.

In only a single instance has the writer met with this Warbler. This was about the middle of June, at the Fairmount Water Works in the city of Philadelphia, where, among the tops of the trees, a single individual was busily engaged in hunting insects, undisturbed by the large numbers and vicinity of visitors to the grounds. It kept in the tops of the trees, moving about with great agility.

Mr. Ridgway gives the Cærulean Warbler as the most abundant species of its genus in the Lower Wabash Valley, not only during the spring and fall migrations, but also in the summer, when it breeds more plentifully even than the D. æstiva. It inhabits, however, only the deep woods of the bottom lands, where it is seldom seen, and only to be distinguished by the naturalist. Inhabiting, mostly, the tree-tops, it is an inconspicuous bird, and thus one that easily escapes notice. In its habits it is perhaps less interesting than others of its genus, being so retired, and possessing only the most feeble notes.

Dendroica blackburniæ, BAIRD.

BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER; ORANGE-THROATED WARBLER.

Motacilla blackburniæ, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 977. Sylvia bl. LATH.; WILSON, III, pl. xxiii.—NUTT.; AUD. Orn. Biog. II, V, pl. cxxxv, cccxcix. Sylvicola bl. JARD.; RICH.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxvii. Rhimanphus bl. CAB. Mus. Hein. 1850, 19. Dendroica bl. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 274; Rev. 189.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 363 (Xalapa); IB. 1860, 64 (Ecuador).—IB. Catal. 1861, 30, no. 187 (Pallatanga and Nanegal, Ecuador).—SAMUELS, 227.—SUNDEVALL, Ofv. 1869, 611.—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 478. ? Motacilla chrysocephala, GMELIN, I, 1788, 971 (Figuier orangé et F. étranger, BUFF. V, 313, pl. lviii, fig. 3, Guiana). Sylvia parus, WILS. V, pl. xliv, fig. 3.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxxxiv. Sylvicola parus, AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxiii. Sylvia lateralis, STEPH. ? Motacilla incana, GMEL. I, 1788, 976. Sylvia incana, LATH.; VIEILL. ? Sylvia melanorhoa, VIEILL. Nouv. Dict. XI, 1817, 180 (Martinique).—IB. Encycl. Méth. II, 444. Localities quoted: Bogota, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1855, 143. Panama, LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VII, 62. Costa Rica, CAB. Jour. 1860, 328. Bahamas, BRYANT, Bost. Pr. VII, 1859. Veragua, SALVIN. Orizaba (winter; rare), SUMICHRAST.

SP. CHAR. Upper parts nearly uniform black, with a whitish scapular stripe and a large white patch in the middle of the wing-coverts. An oblong patch in the middle of the crown, and the entire side of the head and neck (including a superciliary stripe from the nostrils), the chin, throat, and forepart of the breast, bright orange-red. A black stripe from the commissure passing around the lower half of the eye, and including the ear-coverts; with, however, an orange crescent in it, just below the eye, the extreme lid being black. Rest of under parts white, strongly tinged with yellowish-orange on the breast and belly, and streaked with black on the sides. Outer three tail-feathers white, the shafts and tips dark brown; the fourth and fifth spotted much with white; the other tail-feathers and quills almost black. Female similar; the colors duller; the feathers of the upper parts with olivaceous edges. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.83; tail, 2.25.

HAB. Eastern Province of United States; Eastern Mexico, and south to Bogota and Ecuador; Bahamas alone of West Indies with certainty.

Autumnal males resemble the females. They have two white bands instead of one; the black stripes on the sides are larger; under parts yellowish; the throat yellowish, passing into purer yellow behind.

Autumnal young birds have the same pattern of coloration, but the dark portions are dull grayish-umber, with the streaks very obsolete, and the light parts dull buffy-white, tinged with yellow on the jugulum; there is neither clear black, bright yellow, nor pure white on the plumage, except the latter on the wing-bands and tail-patches.

HABITS. This somewhat rare and very beautiful Warbler requires additional investigation into its habits before its history can be regarded as satisfactorily known. Save in reference to its wider distribution during its southern migrations, little more is known as to its habits than where Audubon left its history nearly thirty years since. The Smithsonian collection has specimens from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois, and from Central America. Mr. Sclater has received specimens from Mexico, and from Ecuador in South America. Other writers mention having specimens from Guiana, Martinique, and Panama, and Dr. Bryant found it in the Bahamas. It is thus known to have a wide distribution from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River, as far to the north probably as Labrador. Its area of reproduction is not known with exactness, but the southern limit is supposed to be the high wooded districts of Pennsylvania, New York, and New England. A young bird was taken by Holböll, October 16, 1845, at Frederikshaab, Greenland. In 1837 an egg was sent me from Coventry, Vt., which purported to belong to this bird; and in the following summer its nest and eggs were procured in a wild, secluded part of Roxbury, Mass. In neither case was the identification entirely free from doubt.

Dr. Bachman states that when a resident of Lansingburg, N. Y., in 1833, he saw a pair of these birds in the act of constructing their nest. Mr. Allen has no doubt that a few breed in the vicinity of Springfield, Mass., as he has obtained them as late as June 24. He found it most common in mixed or hard-wood forests. It arrives about the middle of May. Professor Verrill gives it as a summer resident of Western Maine, though rarely seen on account of its habit of keeping concealed among the dense foliage. Mr. Boardman gives the same account of its residence in summer in the neighborhood of Calais.

Mr. Audubon did not regard this bird and his “Hemlock Warbler” as the same species, but gave distinct and different accounts of their habits. We have therefore to receive with caution these records of peculiarities. He found the Blackburnian Warbler breeding in Northeastern Maine, in New Brunswick, in the Magdaleine Islands, and in Labrador and Newfoundland. He states, correctly, that it has a very sweet song of five or six notes, much louder than seemed possible from the size of the bird. It pursues its insect prey among the branches of the fir-trees, moving along after the manner of the common Redstart.

Mr. McCulloch, of Halifax, gave Mr. Audubon a nest of this bird with three eggs. The nest was formed externally of different textures, lined with fine delicate strips of bark and a thick bed of feathers and horse-hair. The eggs were small, conical, with a white ground spotted with light red at the larger end. The nest was in the small fork of a tree five feet from the ground, and near a brook.

The nest obtained in Roxbury was in a bush, a few feet from the ground, in a very wild region of forest and rocks. Externally, except in its length, which was less, it resembled a nest of the G. trichas, being made of coarse, dry grasses. Internally it was much more warmly lined with feathers and soft fur than is the case in nests of the Yellow-Throat. The eggs were of a crystal whiteness, marked at their larger end with dark purple, and but for their smaller size might have been mistaken for those of G. trichas. The position of the nest, however, was conclusive in regard to this point. The egg from Coventry was substantially similar, except that reddish-brown dots were mingled with the purple markings, in the form of a wreath around the larger end.

Wilson describes this Warbler as songless, but attributes to its counterpart, the Hemlock Warbler, a very sweet song of a few low notes,—a very different account from that given by Audubon of the song of the Blackburnian.

Mr. Paine states that this species is resident during the summer months in Randolph, Vt. It is, he says, a very close companion of the D. virens, arriving at the same time with it even to a day, or about the 10th of May. Its dry chirping song may then be heard in striking contrast with the sweet notes of the virens. He was not able to find its nest.

Mr. C. W. Wyatt met with this species as a winter resident at Alto, in Colombia, South America. Its upward range seemed to be terminated only by the paramos. Among the oaks on the Pamplona road he found it very common just under the paramo, the bright orange throat of the male making it a very conspicuous bird. He was led to believe that they were not found there at a lower elevation than five thousand feet.

Dendroica dominica, BAIRD.

YELLOW-THROATED GRAY WARBLER.

Motacilla dominica, L. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. 1766, 334 (Ficedula dominica cinerea, BRISS. III, 520, pl. xxvii, fig. 3). Dendroica dominica, BAIRD, Rev. Am. Birds, 209. Motacilla superciliosa, BODDÆRT, Tableau Pl. enl. 686, fig. 1, 1783. Dendroica superciliosa, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 289.—SCLATER (Xalapa, Oaxaca, Jamaica, Mexico).—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1860, 274 (Duenas, Guat.; Sept.).—MARCH, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1863, 293 (Jamaica).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common). Motacilla flavicollis, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 959. Sylvia fl. LATH.; WILS. II, pl. xii, fig. 6. Motacilla pensilis, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 960. Sylvia p. LATH.; VIEILL. (St. Domingo).—BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lxxxv; NUTT. Sylvicola pens. RICH; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxix.—GOSSE, Birds Jam. 1847, 156 (Jamaica). Rhimanphus pens. CAB. Jour. III, 474 (Cuba). Other localities: Cordova, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1856, 291. St. Domingo, SALLÉ, P. Z. S. 1857, 231. Jamaica, GOSSE, Birds Jam. 156.

SP. CHAR. Upper parts uniform grayish-blue. Chin and throat bright yellow; under parts white. Forehead, and sometimes most of crown, lores and cheeks, sides of throat, and numerous streaks on the sides of the breast, black. A stripe from the nostrils over and behind the eye, a crescent on the lower eyelid, the sides of the neck behind the black cheekpatch, and two conspicuous bands on the wings, white. Terminal half of the outer webs of the outer two, and terminal third of the third tail-feathers, white. Female almost precisely similar. Length, 5.10; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.30. (3,322.)

HAB. Eastern Province of United States, north to Washington and Cleveland; in winter abundant in Cuba; St. Domingo and Jamaica; Mexico (Colima on west coast), and Guatemala. Resident in Jamaica?

An autumnal male (No. 1,098, Washington, D. C.) has the bluish-ash above obscured by a wash of brown; the black “mask” less sharply defined, the streaks on forehead wanting; the yellow paler and duller, and the white beneath soiled with brownish.

In general pattern of coloration this species resembles two others; one from Arizona, the other from Porto Rico. The diagnoses are as follows:—

COMMON CHARACTERS. Upper parts ash-gray, the forehead and sides of vertex black. A line from nostril to above eye (passing into white behind), chin, and throat, yellow, margined laterally with blackish; crissum, inside of wings, axillars; and two bands on wings, white.

Superciliary line extending to the nape, and white, excepting sometimes anterior to the eye. Cheeks black, separated from the ash of the neck by a white patch. Eyelids and infra-ocular crescent white. Back not streaked. Bill lengthened, gonys almost concave.

Yellow confined to jugulum; rest of under parts white; the sides streaked with black … dominica.

Superciliary line scarcely extending beyond the eye, and yellow, excepting at extreme end. Cheeks ashy, like sides of neck; dusky only near the eye, and not bordered on side of neck behind by white. Eyelids and infra-ocular crescent yellow. Back streaked. Bill short, gonys slightly convex.

Yellow of under parts confined to jugulum; rest of under parts white; the sides streaked with black … graciæ.

Yellow of under parts extending to crissum. Sides scarcely streaked … adelaidæ.[51]

In the Review (p. 209) several variations in this species are noted; but at that time there was not a sufficient number of specimens to warrant our coming to a conclusion as to their value. Now, however, we have better material before us, and upon the examination of about thirty specimens, including two series of nearly equal numbers,—one from the Atlantic States and the West Indies, the other from the Mississippi region and Middle America,—find that there are two appreciably different races, to be distinguished from each other by points of constant difference. All birds of the first series have the bill longer than any of the latter, the difference in a majority of the specimens being very considerable; they also have the superciliary stripe bright yellow anteriorly, while among the latter there is never more than a trace of yellow over the lores, and even this minimum amount is discernible only in one or two individuals. The West Indian form is, of course, the true dominica, and to be distinguished as var. dominica; as none of the synonymes of this species were founded upon the Mexican one, however, it will be necessary to propose a new name; accordingly, the term var. albilora is selected as being most descriptive of its peculiar features.

The following synopsis, taken from typical specimens, shows the differences between these two races:—

(No. 3,322, ♂, Liberty County, Georgia.) Bill (from nostril), .45; tarsus, .60; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.00. Superciliary stripe, anterior to eye, wholly bright yellow; yellow of chin and maxillæ extending to the bill. Hab. In summer, Atlantic States of United States, north to Washington. In winter, and possibly all the year, in Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Jamaica … var. dominica.

(No. 61,136, ♂, Belize, Honduras.) Bill (from nostril), .35; tarsus, .60; wing, 2.70; tail, 2.20. Superciliary stripe wholly white; yellow of chin and maxillæ bordered narrowly next the bill with white. Hab. In summer, the Mississippi region of United States, north to Lake Erie; common in South Illinois. In winter, and possibly all the year, in Mexico, south to Guatemala, Yucatan on the Atlantic, and Colima on the Pacific side … var. albilora.

HABITS. The history of the Yellow-throated Warbler is very imperfectly known. Its geographical distribution is irregular and apparently eccentric. Found occasionally, rather than frequently, in the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States, it occurs irregularly as far north as Washington, New York City, Cleveland, O., Union County, Ill., and Kansas. In the last place it is supposed also occasionally to breed. West of this it has not been traced in any portion of the United States. It was obtained in Tamaulipas, Mexico, by Lieutenant Couch, and on the western coast Mr. Xantus found it at Colima. Mr. Sclater has also procured it from other portions of Mexico, and M. Boucard took it at Oaxaca. It has been obtained in Guatemala and Jamaica. In the latter place it is found the entire season. In Cuba, in the winter, it is quite common. It has also been found in St. Domingo, and probably in the other West India Islands. Mr. Gosse states that these birds do not appear in Jamaica before the 16th of August, and that they leave by the first of April. On the other hand, Mr. March, in his notes on the birds of that island, states that on the 8th of August he obtained an old bird and two young, the latter of which he was confident had been hatched on the island, and his son had met with the birds all through the summer, and had procured a specimen on the 4th of June.

Wilson states that the habits of this species partake more of those of the Creeper than of the true Warbler. He met with it in Georgia in the month of February. He speaks of its notes as loud, and as resembling those of the Indigo-Bird. It remained some time creeping around the branches of the same pine, in the manner of a Parus, uttering its song every few minutes. When it flew to another tree, it would alight on the trunk and run nimbly up and down in search of insects. They are said to arrive in Georgia in February, after an absence of only three months. Wilson states that they occur as far north as Pennsylvania, but does not give his authority. The food of this species appears to be larvæ and pupæ, rather than winged insects. Those dissected by Mr. Gosse in Jamaica were found to have quite large stomachs, containing caterpillars of various kinds.

Nuttall and Audubon are very contradictory in their statements touching its nesting, and it is not probable that the accounts given by either are founded upon any reliable authorities. The former describes a nest remarkable both for structure and situation, said to have been found in West Florida, suspended by a kind of rope from the end of branches over a stream or a ravine. This nest, entirely pensile, is impervious to rain, and with an entrance at the bottom. He gives a very full and minute description of this nest, but gives no authority and no data to establish its authenticity. We can therefore only dismiss it as probably erroneous.

On the other hand, Mr. Audubon claims to have seen its nest, of which he gives a very different account. He describes it as very prettily constructed, like the nests of any other of this genus, its outer parts made of dry lichens and soft mosses, the inner of silky substances and fibres of the Spanish moss. The eggs are said to be four in number, with a white ground-color and a few purple dots near the larger end. He thinks they raise two broods in a season in Louisiana. These nests are not pensile, but are placed on the horizontal branch of the cypress, from twenty to fifty feet above the ground. It closely resembles a knot or a tuft of moss, and therefore is not easily discovered from below.

A nest containing a single egg, found by Mr. Gosse near Neosho Falls, and supposed to belong to this species, but not fully identified, was built in a low sapling a few feet from the ground, and is a very neat structure, such as is described by Audubon. The egg is pure crystal-white, oblong and pointed, and marked with purple and brown.

Mr. Ridgway informs me that in Southern Illinois, at least in the valley of the Lower Wabash, the Yellow-throated Warbler may be said to be at least a regular, though not common, summer sojourner. Though it inhabits chiefly the swampy portions of the bottom-lands, it makes frequent visits to the orchards and door-yards, less often, however, in the breeding than in the migrating season. In its manners it is almost as much of a Creeper as the Mniotilta varia, being frequently seen creeping not only along the branches of trees, but over the eaves and cornices of buildings, with all the facility of a Nuthatch.

Eggs supposed to be of this species, taken near Wilmington, N. C., by Mr. Norwood Giles (16,199, Smith. Coll.), have a ground-color of dull ashy-white, with a livid tinge. They are thickly speckled, chiefly around the larger end, with irregular markings of rufous, and fainter ones of lilac interspersed with a very few minute specks of black. They are broadly ovate in form, and measure .70 by .55 of an inch.

Dendroica graciæ, COUES.

ARIZONA WARBLER.

Dendroica graciæ (COUES), BAIRD, Rev. Am. Birds, I, April, 1865; p. 210.—ELLIOT, Illust. Birds N. Am. I, vi.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 563 (Appendix).

SP. CHAR. Adult male (No. 40,680, May 1, 1865, Dr. E. Coues). Whole upper parts, including ear-coverts and sides of neck, ash-gray; small cuneate streaks over the crown, coalesced laterally into a broad stripe on each side, with larger cuneate streaks on the interscapular region, and inconspicuous linear streaks on upper tail-coverts, black. Two conspicuous white bands across the wing, formed by the tips of middle and secondary coverts; secondaries passing externally into light ash. Lateral tail-feather entirely white, except about the basal third of the inner web (the dusky running some distance toward the end along the edge), and a broad streak covering most of the terminal fourth of the outer web, which are clear dusky; the next feather has the outer web exactly the same, but almost the basal half of the inner is dusky; on the next the white is confined to an oblong spot (not touching the inner edge) on about the terminal third, while the outer web is only edged with white; the rest have no white at all. A superciliary stripe extending about .20 of an inch behind the eye (that portion behind the eye white), the lower eyelid, maxillæ, chin, throat, and jugulum pure gamboge-yellow. Rest of lower parts, including lining of wing, pure white; the sides conspicuously streaked with black; lores, and a few obsolete streaks along the junction of the ash and yellow, dusky. Wing, 2.60; tail, 2.20; bill (from nostril), .30; tarsus, .60. Adult female (40,685, May 24). Similar to the male, but colors duller, and markings less sharply defined. Wing, 2.45; tail, 2.00. Young (36,992, August 11). Above brownish-gray without streaks. Beneath ochraceous-white, obsoletely streaked along the sides. Yellow superciliary stripe not well defined, and only a tinge of yellow on the jugulum, the throat being grayish-white. Wings and tail nearly as in the adult. The young in autumnal plumage is similar, but the yellow occupies its usual area; it is, however, much duller, as well as lighter, than in the adult.

HAB. Fort Whipple, near Prescott, Arizona. Belize, British Honduras (var. decora).

This species is most closely related to D. adelaidæ, from Porto Rico; but in the latter the yellow beneath extends back to the crissum, covering even the sides; there are also no streaks on the sides or back; the proportions, too, are quite different, the wings and tail being scarcely three fourths as long, while the bill and feet are much the same size, the tarsi even much shorter. A specimen (No. 41,808 ♂) from Belize, Honduras, differs so essentially from the Fort Whipple specimens, that it is, beyond doubt, entitled to a distinctive name. The differences between these two very well marked races can best be expressed in a table, as follows:—

(40,680, ♂, Fort Whipple, Arizona). Bill (from nostril), .30; tarsus, .60; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.20. Superciliary stripe extending .20 behind the eye, that portion behind the eye white; yellow of jugulum not spreading over breast (ending 1.35 from the bill). Streaks of crown coalesced into a broad stripe on each side; those of back broad, and those on upper tail-coverts almost obsolete. Wing-bands, .20 wide. Lore dusky-grayish. Hab. Fort Whipple, near Prescott, Arizona; abundant, breeding (COUES) … var. graciæ.

(41,808, ♂, Belize). Bill, .30; tarsus, .60; wing, 2.20; tail, 1.95. Superciliary stripe scarcely passing the eye, wholly yellow; yellow of jugulum spreading over breast (ending 1.60 from the bill). Streaks of the crown scarcely coalesced along its sides; those on back not longer than those on crown, and those on upper tail-coverts very conspicuous. Wing-bands, .10 wide. Lore deep black. Hab. Belize, Honduras, resident? … var. decora.

HABITS. We are indebted to Dr. Elliott Coues for all that we at present know in reference to this recently discovered species. He first met with it July 2, 1864, in the Territory of Arizona. Dr. Coues first noticed this bird among the pine woods covering the summit of Whipple’s Pass of the Rocky Mountains. He saw no more in his journey into Central Arizona until he was again among the pines at Port Whipple. There he again found it, and it proved to be a very common bird. Dr. Coues anticipates that this species will yet be found to occur in the forests of the San Francisco Mountains, and that its range will be ascertained to include all the pine tracts of New Mexico and Arizona, from the valley of the Rio Grande to that of the Great Colorado River. He also has no doubt that it breeds near and around Fort Whipple.

Specimens found at Belize, first believed to be identical with those from Arizona, are now referred to a race called decora.

According to Dr. Coues’s observations, the Warbler arrives at Fort Whipple about the 20th of April, and remains in that neighborhood until the third week in September. It is found almost exclusively in pine woods, is active, industrious, and noisy, and possesses very marked flycatching habits, flying out from its perch to catch passing insects. It has been, so far, found almost exclusively among the tallest trees.

In regard to the song of this species, Dr. Coues states that it appears to have several different notes. One of these is the ordinary tsip, given out at all times by both old and young of all kinds of small insectivorous birds. Its true song, heard only in spring, consists of two or three loud sweet whistles, sometimes slurred, followed by several continuous notes, resembling chir-r-r, in a wiry but clear tone. Their notes are of great power for the size of the bird. It also has another and quite different song, which Dr. Coues thought greatly resembled the notes of the common American Redstart.

As all the birds he noticed had mated by the first of May, he has no doubt that they raise two broods in a season; and the fact that he found newly fledged young as late as the middle of August seems to corroborate the correctness of his supposition. In regard to the eggs, nest, or breeding-habits of this species, we have as yet no information.

Dendroica pennsylvanica, BAIRD.

CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER.

Motacilla pennsylvanica, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 333, no. 19; GMELIN. Sylvia p. LATH.; WILSON, I, pl. xiv, fig. 5. _Dendroica p._ BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 279; Rev. 191.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 11; 1860, 273 (Coban, Guat.; November).—SAMUELS, 231. Sylvia icterocephala, LATH. Ind. Orn. II, 1790, 538.—VIEILL.; BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lix. Sylvicola ict. SWAINS.; JARD.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxi. Dendroica ict. SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 363 (Xalapa), 373 (Oaxaca). Other localities: Bahamas, BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1859. _Costa Rica_, CAB. Jour. 1860, 328. Panama, winter, LAWR., Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322. Yucatan, LAWR. Veragua, SALV.

SP. CHAR. Male. Upper parts streaked with black and pale bluish-gray, which becomes nearly white on the forepart of the back; the middle of the back glossed with greenish-yellow. The crown is continuous yellow, bordered by a frontal and superciliary band, and behind by a square spot of white. Loral region black, sending off a line over the eye, and another below it. Ear-coverts and lower eyelid and entire under parts pure white, a purplish-chestnut stripe starting on each side in a line with the black mustache, and extending back to the thighs. Wing and tail-feathers dark brown, edged with bluish-gray, except the secondaries and tertials, which are bordered with light yellowish-green. The shoulders with two greenish-white bands. Three outer tail-feathers with white patches near the end of the inner webs.

Female like the male, except that the upper parts are yellowish-green, streaked with black; the black mustache scarcely appreciable. Length, 5.00; wing, 2.50; tail, 2.20.

HAB. Eastern Province of the United States; Bahamas; Guatemala to Costa Rica and Panama R. R. Not recorded from Mexico proper or West Indies, except Bahamas.

The young in autumn is very different from either male or female in spring. The entire upper parts are of a continuous light olive-green; the under parts white; the sides of the head, neck, and breast ash-gray, shading insensibly into and tingeing the white of the chin and throat. No black streaks are visible above or on the cheeks, and the eye is surrounded by a continuous ring of white not seen in spring. In this plumage it has frequently been considered as a distinct species.

The male in this plumage may usually be distinguished from the female by possessing a trace, or a distinct stripe, of chestnut on the flanks, the young female at least lacking it.

HABITS. The geographical distribution of this common species during its season of reproduction is inferred rather than positively known. So far as I am aware, it is not known to breed farther south than Massachusetts. Yet it is probable that, when we know its history more exactly, it will be found during the breeding-season in different suitable localities from Pennsylvania to Canada. Mr. H. W. Parker, of Grinnell, Iowa, mentions this bird as common in that neighborhood.

Until recently it was regarded as a rather rare species, and to a large extent it had escaped the notice of our older ornithological writers. Wilson could give but little account of its habits. It passed rapidly by him in its spring migrations. He did not regard it as common, presumed that it has no song, and nearly all that he says in regard to it is conjectural. Mr. Audubon met with this species but once, and knew nothing as to its habits or distribution. Mr. Nuttall, who observed it in Massachusetts, where it is now known to be not uncommon in certain localities, also regarded it as very rare. His account of it is somewhat hypothetical and inexact. Its song he very accurately describes as similar to that of the D. æstiva, only less of a whistle and somewhat louder. He represents it as expressed by tsh-tsh-tsh-tshyia, given at intervals of half a minute, and often answered by its mate from her nest. Its lay is characterized as simple and lively. Late in June, 1831, he observed a pair collecting food for their young on the margin of the Fresh Pond swamps in Cambridge.

Mr. Allen has found this species quite common in Western Massachusetts, arriving there about the 9th of May, and remaining through the summer to breed. He states—and his observations in this respect correspond with my own—that during the breeding-season they frequent low woods and swampy thickets, nesting in bushes, and adds that they are rarely found among high trees. They leave there early in September.

Professor Verrill found this Warbler a common summer visitant in Western Maine, arriving about the second week in May, and remaining there to breed. Mr. Boardman thinks it reaches Eastern Maine about the middle of May, and is a common summer resident. I did not meet this species either in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, nor was Dr. Bryant more fortunate, but Lieutenant Bland gives it in his manuscript list of the birds found in the neighborhood of Halifax.

Mr. Ridgway informs me that this species breeds in the oak openings and among the prairie thickets of Southern Illinois.

During the eight months that are not included in their season of reproduction, this species is scattered over a wide extent of territory. Their earliest appearance in the Northern States (at Plattesmouth) is April 26, and they all disappear early in September. At other times they have been met with in the Bahamas, in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. It has not yet been detected in the West Indies. M. Boucard obtained specimens at Playa Vicente, in the hot country of Oaxaca, Mexico.

In the neighborhood of Calais, Mr. Boardman informs me that this Warbler is common, and that its habits resemble those of the Black-poll Warbler more than those of any other of the genus. It always nests in bushes or in low trees, and in the vicinity of swamps.

Among the memoranda furnished to the late Mr. Kennicott by Mr. Ross is one to the effect that the Chestnut-sided Warbler was observed at Lake of the Woods, May 29. How common it is at this point is not stated.

Mr. C. S. Paine regards the Chestnut-sided Warbler as one of the sweetest singers that visit Vermont. He describes it as very confiding and gentle in its habits. It is chiefly found inhabiting low bushes, in the neighborhood of taller trees, and it always builds its nest in the fork of a low bush, not more than from three to five feet from the ground. He has seen many of their nests, and they have all been in similar situations. They will permit a very near approach without leaving their nests. These are constructed about the last of May. Their song continues until about the last of June. After this they are seldom heard.

J. Elliot Cabot, Esq., had the good fortune to be the first of our naturalists to discover in June, 1839, the nest and eggs of this Warbler. It was fixed on the horizontal forked branch of an oak sapling, in Brookline, Mass. The female remained sitting on her nest until so closely approached as to be distinctly seen. The nest was of strips of red-cedar bark, and well lined with coarse hair, and was compact, elastic, and shallow. It contained four eggs, the ground-color of which was white, over which were distributed numerous distinct spots of umber-brown. These were of different sizes, more numerous towards the larger end.

In regard to their breeding in Pennsylvania, Mr. Nuttall mentions in the second edition of his work that he met them among the Alleghanies at Farranville in full song, and had no doubt that they were nesting there at the time.

The Chestnut-sided Warbler usually constructs its nest in localities apart from cultivated grounds, on the edges of low and swampy woods, but in places more or less open. Quite a number of their nests have been met with by Mr. George O. Welch, of Lynn, Mass. Their more common situation has been barberry-bushes. The nests vary from about two and a half to three and a half inches in external height, and have a diameter of from three to four inches. The cavity is about two inches deep. They are usually composed externally of loosely intertwined strips of the bark of the smaller vegetables, strengthened by a few stems and bits of dry grasses, and lined with woolly vegetable fibres and a few soft hairs of the smaller animals. They are usually very firmly bound to the smaller branches by silky fibres from the cocoons of various insects. These nests were all found in open places, in low, wild marshy localities, but none far from a cultivated neighborhood, and the situations chosen for the nests do not differ materially from those usually selected by the common D. æstiva.

The eggs of this Warbler are of an oblong-oval shape, have a ground-color of a rich creamy-white, and are beautifully spotted, chiefly about the larger end, with two shades of purple and purplish-brown. They measure .65 by .49 of an inch.

Dendroica striata, BAIRD.

BLACK-POLL WARBLER.

Muscicapa striata, FORSTER, Phil. Trans. LXII, 383, 428. _Motacilla s._ GMELIN. Sylvia s. LATH.; VIEILLOT; WILS.; BON.; NUTT.; AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxxxiii.—LEMBEYE, Av. Cuba, 1850, 33. Sylvicola s. SWAINSON; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxviii.—REINHARDT, Vid. Med. for 1853, 1854, 73 (Greenland).—MAX. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 113. Mniotilta s. REINH. Ibis, 1861, 6 (Greenland). Rhimanphus s. CAB. Jour. III, 475 (Cuba). Dendroica s. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 280; Rev. 192.—COUES, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1861, 220 (Labrador coast).—GUNDL. Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; rare).—SAMUELS, 233.—DALL & BANNISTER (Alaska). _? D. atricapilla_, LANDBECK, Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1864, 56 (Chile). Other localities quoted: Bogota, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1855, 143. Bahamas, BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1839.

SP. CHAR. Male. Crown, nape, and upper half of the head black; the lower half, including the ear-coverts, white, the separating line passing through the middle of the eye. Rest of upper parts grayish-ash, tinged with brown, and conspicuously streaked with black. Wing and tail-feathers brown, edged externally (except the inner tail-feathers) with dull olive-green. Two conspicuous bars of white on the wing-coverts, the tertials edged with the same. Under parts white, with a narrow line on each side of the throat from the chin to the sides of the neck, where it runs into a close patch of black streaks continued along the breast and sides to the root of the tail. Outer two tail-feathers with an oblique patch on the inner web near the end; the others edged internally with white. Female similar, except that the upper parts are olivaceous, and, even on the crown, streaked with black; the white on the sides and across the breast tinged with yellowish; a ring of the same round the eye cut by a dusky line through it. Length of male, 5.75; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.25.

HAB. Eastern Province of all North America to Arctic Ocean; Alaska; Greenland; Cuba, in winter (rare); Bahamas; Bogota. Chile? Not recorded from intermediate localities.

The autumnal dress of young birds is very different from that of spring. The upper parts are light olive-green, obsoletely streaked with brown; beneath greenish-yellow, obsoletely streaked on the breast and sides, the under tail-coverts pure white, a yellowish ring round the eye, and a superciliary one of the same color. In this dress it is scarcely possible to distinguish it from the immature D. castanea. The differences, as far as tangible, will be found detailed under the head of the latter species.

The young bird in its first dress is also quite different, again, from the autumnal-plumaged birds. The upper parts are hoary-grayish, the lower white; each feather of the whole body, except lower tail-coverts, with a terminal bar or transverse spot of blackish, those on the upper parts approaching the base of the feathers along the shaft. Wings and tail much as in the autumnal plumage.

HABITS. The appearance of this beautiful and familiar Warbler in New England is the sure harbinger of the summer. The last of the migrants that do not tarry, it brings up the rear of the hosts of hyperborean visitors. This species ranges over the whole extent of eastern North America, from Mexico to the Arctic seas. It has not been found farther west than the Great Plains and the Rio Grande. Wherever found it is abundant, and its lively and attractive manners and appearance render it a pleasing feature. It is not known to stop to breed in Massachusetts, but it lingers with us till the last blossom of the apple falls, and until the Bluebird and the Robin have already well-fledged broods, sometimes as late as the 10th of June, and then suddenly disappears.

Dr. Woodhouse found it abundant in Texas and the Indian Territory, and individuals have been procured in Missouri and Nebraska. It has been found abundant in the Arctic regions, around Fort Anderson, Fort Yukon, and Fort Good Hope. A single specimen was taken near Godhaab, Greenland, in 1853, as recorded by Professor Reinhardt. Dr. Bryant met with it in the Bahamas, in the spring of 1859, where it was abundant from the 1st to the 10th of May. He describes its habits as similar to those of the Mniotilta varia, climbing around the trunks of trees in search of insects with the same facility. Single specimens have been procured from Greenland on the northeast, and from Bogota and Cuba. Dr. Coues found it abundant in Labrador in all well-wooded situations, and describes it as a most expert flycatcher, taking insects on the wing in the manner of the Contopus virens.

Mr. Allen has never noted the arrival of this bird in Western Massachusetts before the 20th of May, nor later than the 1st of June. They again become abundant the last of September, and remain into October. In Eastern Maine Mr. Boardman reports them abundant, and as remaining to breed. They are there more numerous about open pastures than most Warblers. They nest in low trees, about swampy places.

In Central Vermont, Mr. Paine states, the Black-Poll is the last of all the migrant birds that come from the South, and is seen only a few days in the first of June. It seldom stays more than a day or two, and then passes north. It appears singular that a bird coming so late should go yet farther north to breed. He states that its song consists only of a few low, lisping peeps. It may usually be seen wandering over fields in which there are a few scattered trees, and seems to be a very active, restless bird.

The writer also met with them in great abundance about Eastport, and in the islands of the Grand Menan group. It was the most common Warbler in that locality. The low swampy woods seemed filled with them, and were vocal with their peculiar love-notes.

Wilson states that he occasionally found this Warbler in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and was confident they would be found to breed in those States, but this has never been confirmed. He regarded it as a silent bird, and Mr. Audubon does not compliment its vocal powers. Yet it is a pleasing and varied, if not a powerful singer. Mr. Trippe speaks of its song as faint and lisping, and as consisting of four or five syllables.

None of our birds, before its history was well known, has been made the occasion for more ill-founded conjectures than the Black-Poll. Wilson was at fault as to its song and its Southern breeding, and imagined it would be found to nest in high tree-tops, so as not to be readily detected. Nuttall, on the other hand, predicted that it would be found to breed on the ground, after the manner of the Mniotiltae, or else in hollow trees. Mr. Audubon, finding its nest in Labrador, indulges in flights of fancy over its supposed rarity, which, seen in the light of our present knowledge, as an abundant bird in the locality where his expedition was fitted out, are somewhat amusing. That nest was in a thicket of low trees, contained four eggs, and was placed about four feet from the ground, in the fork of a small branch, close to the main stem of a fir-tree. Its internal diameter was two inches, and its depth one and a half. It was formed, externally, of green and white moss and lichens, intermingled with coarse dry grasses. It was lined, with great care, with fine, dry, dark-colored mosses, resembling horse-hair, with a thick bed of soft feathers of ducks and willow grouse.

In passing north, these Warblers, says Audubon, reach Louisiana early in February, where they glean their food among the upper branches of the trees overhanging the water. He never met with them in maritime parts of the South, yet they are abundant in the State of New Jersey near the sea-shore. As they pass northward their habits seem to undergo a change, and to partake more of the nature of Creepers. They move along the trunks and lower limbs, searching in their chinks for larvæ and pupæ. Later in the season, in more northern localities, we again find them expert flycatchers, darting after insects in all directions, chasing them while on the wing, and making the clicking sound of the true Flycatcher.

They usually reach Massachusetts after the middle of May, and their stay varies from one, usually, to nearly four weeks, especially when their insect-food is abundant. In our orchards they feed eagerly upon the canker-worm, which is just appearing as they pass through.

Around Eastport and at Grand Menan they confine themselves to the thick swampy groves of evergreens, where they breed on the edges of the woods. All of the several nests I met with in these localities were built in thick spruce-trees, about eight feet from the ground, and in the midst of foliage so dense as hardly to be noticeable. Yet the nests were large and bulky for so small a bird, being nearly five inches in diameter and three in height. The cavity is, however, small, being only two inches in diameter, and one and a fourth to one and a half in depth. They were constructed chiefly of a collection of slender young ends of branches of pines, firs, and spruce, interwoven with and tied together by long branches of the Cladonia lichens, slender herbaceous roots, and finer sedges. The nests were strongly built, compact and homogeneous, and were elaborately lined with fine panicles of grasses and fine straw. In all the nests found, the number of eggs was five.

It is a somewhat noticeable fact, that though this species is seen in New England only by the middle of May, others of its kind have long before reached high Arctic localities. Richardson records its presence at the Cumberland House in May, and Engineer Cantonment by the 26th of April. Mr. Lockhart procured a nest and five eggs at Fort Yukon, June 9. All the nests taken in these localities were of smaller size, were built within two feet of the ground, and all were much more warmly lined than were those from Grand Menan. In a few instances Mr. McFarlane found the nests of this species actually built upon the ground. This, however, is an abnormal position, and only occasioned by the want of suitable situations in protected localities. In one instance a nest was taken on the first of June, containing well-developed embryos. Yet this same species has frequently been observed lingering in Massachusetts a week or more after others of its species have already built their nests and begun hatching.

The eggs of this species measure .72 by .50 of an inch. Their shape is an oblong-oval. Their ground-color is a beautiful white, with a slight tinge of pink, when fresh. They are blotched and dotted over the entire surface with profuse markings of a subdued lavender, and deeper markings of a dark purple intermixed with lighter spots of reddish-brown. The usual number is five, though six are occasionally found in a nest.

Dendroica castanea, BAIRD.

BAY-BREASTED WARBLER.

Sylvia castanea, WILS. Am. Orn. II, 1810, 97, pl. xiv, fig. 4.—BON.; NUTT.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lxix. Sylvicola castanea, SWAINS.; JARD.; RICH.; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxx. _Rhimanphus castaneus_, CAB. Dendroica castanea, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 276; Rev. 189.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—CASSIN, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1860, 193 (Isthmus Darien; winter).—LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322 (Isthmus Panama; winter).—SAMUELS, 228. Sylvia autumnalis, WILS. III, pl. xxiii, fig. 2.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lxxxviii.

SP. CHAR. Male. Crown dark reddish-chestnut; forehead and cheeks, including a space above the eye, black; a patch of buff-yellow behind the cheeks. Rest of upper parts bluish-gray streaked with black, the edges of the interscapulars tinged with yellowish, of the scapulars with olivaceous. Primaries and tail-feathers edged externally with bluish-gray, the extreme outer ones with white; the secondaries edged with olivaceous. Two bands on the wing and the edges of the tertials white. The under parts are whitish with a tinge of buff; the chin, throat, forepart of breast, and the sides, chestnut-brown, lighter than the crown. Two outer tail-feathers with a patch of white on the inner web near the end; the others edged internally with the same. Female with the upper parts olive, streaked throughout with black, and an occasional tinge of chestnut on the crown. Lower parts with traces of chestnut, but no stripes. Length of male, 5.00; wing, 3.05; tail, 2.40.

HAB. Eastern Province of North America to Hudson’s Bay; Guatemala, south to Isthmus of Darien. Not recorded from Mexico or West Indies.

The female and immature males of this species differ much from the spring males, and are often confounded with other species, especially with D. striata. A careful comparison of an extensive series of immature specimens of the two species shows that in castanea the under parts are seldom washed uniformly on the throat and breast with yellowish-green, but while this may be seen on the sides of the neck and breast, or even across the latter, the chin and throat are nearly white, the sides tinged with dirty brown, even if the (generally present) trace of chestnut be wanting on the sides. There is a buff tinge to the under tail-coverts; the quills are abruptly margined with white, and there are no traces (however obsolete) of streaks on the breast. In D. striata the under parts are quite uniformly washed with greenish-yellow nearly as far back as the vent, the sides of the breast and sometimes of the belly with obsolete streaks; no trace of the uniform dirty reddish-brown on the sides; the under tail-coverts are pure white. The quills are only gradually paler towards the inner edge, instead of being rather abruptly white.

HABITS. The Bay-breasted Warbler is one of the many species belonging to this genus whose history is yet very imperfectly known. Everywhere quite rare, it is yet distributed from the Atlantic to the Great Plains, and from the Gulf of Mexico far into the Hudson Bay Territory. In the winter it is known to extend its migrations as far to the south as the northern portions of South America. It has not been traced to Mexico nor to the West India Islands, but has been procured by Mr. Salvin in Guatemala. Nearly all the specimens obtained in the United States have either been taken before the 12th of May or in the autumn, indicative of a more northern breeding-place. In Eastern Massachusetts it is exceedingly rare, passing through after the middle of May and returning in September. Mr. Maynard has obtained a specimen as late as June 19, which, though not necessarily proving that any breed there, indicates that the line of their area of reproduction cannot be distant. In the western part of the same State, Mr. Allen has found it from May 20 to the 25th, and has obtained one specimen in July. In Western Maine, Mr. Verrill has noted its occurrence from the middle of May to June, but it is very rare; and Mr. Boardman reports the same for Eastern Maine, where it is a summer resident. He writes that he has several times shot specimens in the early summer, but that he could never find the nest. It is also given by Lieutenant Bland as one of the birds found in the vicinity of Halifax. It was not observed by any of the governmental exploring expeditions, nor found in Arizona by Dr. Coues. Mr. Lawrence has received specimens from Panama, obtained in winter, Mr. Cassin from Darien, and Mr. Sclater from Guatemala.

This species so far eluded the notice of Mr. Audubon as to prevent him from giving any account of its habits. He only mentions its occasional arrival in Pennsylvania and New Jersey early in April, and its almost immediate and sudden disappearance. He several times obtained them at that period, and yet has also shot them in Louisiana as late as June, while busily searching for food among the blossoms of the cotton-plant.

Wilson also regarded this species as very rare. He reports it as passing through Pennsylvania about the middle of May, but soon disappearing. He describes these birds as having many of the habits of Titmice, and displaying all their activity. It hangs about the extremity of the twigs, and darts about from place to place with restless diligence in search of various kinds of larvæ. Wilson never met with it in the summer, and very rarely in the fall.

Mr. Nuttall noticed this species passing through Massachusetts about the 15th of April. He regarded it as an active insect-hunter, keeping in the tops of the highest trees, darting about with great activity, and hanging from the twigs with fluttering wings. One of these birds that had been wounded soon became reconciled to its confinement, and greedily caught at and devoured the flies that were offered. In its habits and manners it seemed to him to greatly resemble the Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Mr. T. M. Trippe speaks of this Warbler as one of the last to arrive near Orange, N. Y. Owing to the fact that at that time the foliage is pretty dense, and that it makes but a short stay, it is not often seen. He speaks of it as not quite so active as the other Warblers, keeping more on the lower boughs, and seldom ascending to the tops of the trees.

Mr. C. W. Wyatt met with this species at Naranjo, in Colombia, South America.

Eggs of this bird obtained by Mr. George Bush at Coldwater, near Lake Superior, are of an oblong-oval shape, measuring .75 by .52 of an inch, and except in their superior size and fewer markings might be mistaken for eggs of D. æstiva. Their ground-color is a bluish or greenish white. The markings are very few and fine, except those in the crown around the larger end, and there the blotches are deeper and more numerous. Their colors are dark reddish-brown and purple.

Mr. Maynard found this species the most abundant of the Sylvicolidæ at Lake Umbagog, where it breeds. Two nests were taken in June. One was found June 3, in a tree by the side of a cart-path in the woods, just completed. It was built in the horizontal branch of a hemlock, twenty feet from the ground, and five or six from the trunk of the tree. By the 8th of June it contained three fresh eggs. The other was built in a similar situation, fifteen feet from the ground, and contained two fresh eggs.

These nests were large for the bird, and resembled those of the Purple Finch. They were composed outwardly of fine twigs of the hackmatack, with which was mingled some of the long hanging Usnea mosses. They were very smoothly and neatly lined with black fibrous roots, the seed-stalks of Cladonia mosses, and a few hairs. They had a diameter of about six inches, and a height of about two and a half inches. The cavity was three inches wide and an inch and a quarter deep. The eggs varied in length from .71 to .65 of an inch, and in breadth from .53 to .50. Their ground-color was a bluish-green, thickly spotted with brown, and generally with a ring of confluent blotches of brown and lilac around the larger end. Occasionally the spots proved to be more or less of an umber-brown, and in some specimens the spots were less numerous than in others.

These birds were found in all the wooded sections of that region, where they frequented the tops of tall trees. Their song, he states, in its opening, is like that of the Black-Poll, with a terminal warble similar to that of the Redstart, but given with less energy.

Dendroica cærulescens, BAIRD.

BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER.

Motacilla canadensis, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 336 (not p. 334, which is D. coronata). Sylvia canadensis, LATH.; WILSON.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxlviii, clv.—SALLÉ, P. Z. S. 1857, 231 (St. Domingo). Sylvicola canadensis, SWAINS.; JARD.; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. xcv. Rhimanphus can. CAB. Dendroica canadensis, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 271.—IB. P. Z. S. 1861, 70 (Jamaica).—GUNDL. Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common).—SAMUELS, 224. Motacilla cærulescens, GM. S. Nat. I, 1788, 960. Sylvia cær. LATH.; VIEILL. II, pl. lxxx.—D’ORB. Sagra’s Cuba, Ois. 1840, 63, pl. ix, figs. 1, 2. Dendroica cær. BAIRD, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 186. Sylvia pusilla, WILS. V, pl. xliii, fig. 3 (Juv.). Sylvia leucoptera, WILS. Sylvia palustris, STEPH. Sylvia macropus, VIEILLOT. Sylvia sphagnosa, BON.; NUTTALL; AUD. Sylvicola pannosa, GOSSE, Birds Jam. 1847, 162 (female).—IB. Illust. no. 37.

SP. CHAR. Above uniform continuous grayish-blue, including the outer edges of the quill and tail-feathers. A narrow frontal line, the entire sides of head and neck, chin and throat, lustrous black; this color extending in a broad lateral stripe to the tail. Rest of under parts, including the axillary region, white. Wings and tail black above, the former with a conspicuous white patch formed by the bases of all the primaries (except the first); the inner webs of the secondaries and tertials with similar patches towards the base and along the inner margin. All the tail-feathers, except the innermost, with a white patch on the inner web near the end. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.25.

Female, olive-green above and dull yellow beneath. Sides of head dusky olive, the eyelids and a superciliary stripe whitish. Traces of the white patches at the base of the primaries and of the tail.

HAB. Eastern Province of United States; Jamaica, Cuba, and St. Domingo in winter; very abundant; Bahamas (BRYANT). Not recorded from Mexico or Central America.

The white patch at the base of the primary, together with the total absence of outer markings on the wings, is peculiar to this species, and is found in both sexes. The female is more different from the male than that of any other species.

The plumage of the male in autumn is similar to the spring dress, but the back and wings are washed with greenish, and the black of the throat variegated with white edges to the feathers. A younger male (788, October 10, Carlisle, Penn.) differs in having the black appearing in patches, the throat being mostly white; there is also a narrow white superciliary stripe.

HABITS. The Black-throated Blue Warbler, at different seasons of the year, is distributed over nearly the whole eastern portion of North America. Abundant in the West Indies in winter, as also in the South Atlantic States in early spring and late in fall, it is found during the breeding-season from Northern New York and New England nearly to the Arctic regions. A few probably stop to breed in the high portions of Massachusetts, and in late seasons they linger about the orchards until June. They undoubtedly breed in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Dr. Woodhouse states that he found it abundant in Texas; but this is the only instance, so far as is known, of its occurring west of the Mississippi Valley.

Towards the close of the remarkably mild winter of 1866, a pair of these birds were observed for several days in a sheltered portion of Boston. They were in excellent condition, and were very busily employed hunting for the larvæ and eggs of insects and spiders in the corners and crevices of the walls of houses and out-buildings, evidently obtaining a full supply. In Southern Illinois, Mr. Ridgway cites this Warbler as one of the least common of the spring and fall visitants.

Audubon found this species in nearly every Southern and Southwestern State during their migrations. They arrive in South Carolina late in March, are most abundant in April, and leave early in May. They keep in the deep woods, passing among the branches about twenty feet from the ground. He traced them as far north as the Magdaleine Islands, but found none in Newfoundland, and but a single specimen in Labrador. They breed in Nova Scotia, and a nest was given him found near Halifax by Dr. MacCulloch. These were said to be usually placed on the horizontal branch of a fir-tree, seven or eight feet from the ground, and to be composed of fine strips of bark, mosses, and fibrous roots, and lined with fine grasses and a warm bed of feathers. The eggs, five in number, were white, with a rosy tint, and sprinkled with reddish-brown dots, chiefly at the larger end.

This Warbler is an expert catcher of the smaller winged insects, pursuing them quite a distance, and, when seizing them, making the clicking sound of the true Flycatcher. So far as they have been observed, they have no song, only a monotonous and sad-sounding cheep.

Nuttall, in the second edition of his Manual, mentions having observed several pairs near Farranville, Penn., on the Susquehanna, and among the Alleghanies. It was in May, and in a thick and shady wood of hemlock. They were busy foraging for food, and were uttering what he describes as slender, wiry notes.

In Western Massachusetts, Mr. Allen states it to be common from the 15th to the 25th of May, and again in September. They were found by Mr. C. W. Bennett on Mount Holyoke during the breeding-season, and by Mr. B. Hosford on the western ridges during the same period. They are common, Mr. Boardman states, in the thick woods about Calais, through all the breeding-season.

In Jamaica, during the winter, it exclusively frequents the edges of tall woods in unfrequented mountainous localities. They are found in that island from October 7 until the 9th of April. Mr. Gosse, who has closely observed their habits during winter, speaks of their playing together with much spirit for half an hour at a time, chasing each other swiftly round and round, occasionally dodging through the bushes, and uttering at intervals a pebbly cheep. They never remain long alighted, and are difficult to kill. Restlessness is their great characteristic. They often alight transversely on the long pendent vines or slender trees, hopping up and down without a moment’s intermission, pecking at insects. They are usually very plump and fat.

De la Sagra states that this bird occasionally breeds in Cuba, young birds having been killed that had evidently been hatched there. The record of this Warbler, as presented by different authors, is apparently inconsistent and contradictory: rare with some observers, abundant with others; remaining in Jamaica until well into April, yet common in South Carolina in March, and even appearing in Massachusetts in midwinter; supposed to breed in the highlands of Cuba, yet, except in the case of the nest taken near Halifax, its manner of breeding was unknown until lately. It is probably rare in lowlands everywhere, and nowhere common except among mountains, and, while able to endure an inclement season where food is abundant, is influenced in its migratory movements by instinctive promptings to change its quarters entirely in reference to a supply of food, and not by the temperature merely. Its presence in Boston in winter was of course a singular accident; but its plump condition, and its contented stay so long as its supply of food was abundant, sufficiently attested its ability to endure severe weather for at least a limited period, and while its food was not wanting. Mr. Trippe states that these birds reach Northern New Jersey during the first week of May, and stay a whole month, remaining there longer than any other species. At first they have no note but a simple chirp; but, before they leave, the males are said to have a singular drawling song of four or five notes.

Mr. Paine states that this Warbler is a resident, but not very common bird, in Randolph, Vt. He has usually noticed it in the midst of thick woods, not generally in tall trees, but among the lower branches or in bushes. The song he describes as very short and insignificant, its tones sharp and wiry, and not to be heard at any great distance. He knows nothing as to its nest. They arrive at Randolph from the South about the middle of May.

We are indebted to Mr. John Burroughs for all the knowledge we possess in relation to the nest and eggs of this species, which had previously baffled the search of other naturalists. He was so fortunate as to meet with their nest in the summer of 1871. Early in July, in company with his nephew, Mr. C. B. Deyoe, Mr. Burroughs visited the same woods, in Roxbury, Delaware County, N. Y., in which he had in a previous year found the nest of the Mourning Ground Warbler. The trees were mostly hemlock, with an undergrowth of birch and beech. They first noticed the parent birds with food in their bills, and then set about deliberately to find their nest by watching their movements. But the birds were equally vigilant, and watched them quite as determinedly. “It was diamond cut diamond.” They were so suspicious, that, after loading their beaks with food, they would swallow it themselves, rather than run the risk of betraying their secret by approaching the nest. They even apparently attempted to mislead them by being very private and confidential at a point some distance from the nest. The two watched the birds for over an hour, when the mosquitoes made it too hot for them to hold out any longer, and they made a rush upon the ground, determined to hunt it over inch by inch. The birds then manifested the greatest consternation, and when, on leaping over an old log, the young sprang out with a scream, but a few feet from them, the distracted pair fairly threw themselves under their very feet. The male bird trailed his bright new plumage in the dust; and his much more humbly clad mate was, if anything, more solicitous and venturesome, coming within easy reach. The nest was placed in the fork of a small hemlock, about fifteen inches from the ground. There were four, and perhaps five, young in the nest, and one egg unhatched, which, on blowing, proved to have been fresh.

The nest measures three and a half inches in diameter, and a trifle more than two in height. The cavity is broad and deep, two and a third inches in diameter at the rim, and one and a half deep. Its base and periphery are loose aggregations of strips of decayed inner bark from dead deciduous trees, chiefly basswood, strengthened by fine twigs, rootlets, and bits of wood and bark. Within this is a firm, compact, well-woven nest, made by an elaborate interweaving of slender roots and twigs, hair, fine pine-needles, and similar materials.

The egg is oval in shape, less obtuse, but not pointed, at one end, with a grayish-white ground, pinkish when unblown, and marked around the larger end with a wreath, chiefly of a bright umber-brown with lighter markings of reddish-brown and obscure purple. A few smaller dottings of the same are sparingly distributed over the rest of the egg. Its measurements are .70 by .50 of an inch. It more nearly resembles the eggs of the D. maculosa than any other, is about five per cent larger, a little more oblong, and the spots differ in their reddish and purplish tinge, so far as one specimen may be taken as a criterion.

Dendroica olivacea, SCLAT.

OLIVE-HEADED WARBLER.

Sylvia olivacea, GIRAUD, Birds Texas, 1841, 14, pl. vii, fig. 2.— SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1855, 66. Sylvicola olivacea, CASSIN, Ill. Birds Texas, etc. 1855, 283, pl. xlviii. Rhimamphus olivaceus, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1856, 291 (Cordova). Dendroica olivacea, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 298 (Oaxaca; cold region).—IB. P. Z. S. 1859, 363 (Jalapa).—IB. Catal. 1861, 31, no. 190.—BAIRD, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 205. Sylvia tæniata, DUBUS, Bull. Acad. Brux. XIV, 1847, 104.—IB. Rev. Z. 1848, 245. Sylvicola tæniata, BON. Consp. 1850, 309.

SP. CHAR. Head and neck all round, with jugulum, brownish-saffron, with a greenish tinge on the nape. Rest of upper parts ashy. Middle and tips of greater wing-coverts white, forming two bands on the wing; a third white patch at the bases of the primaries (except the outer two), and extending forwards along the outer edges. Secondaries edged externally with olive-green. Inner webs of quills conspicuously edged with white. Under parts, except as described, white, tinged with brownish on the sides; a narrow frontal band, and a broad stripe from this through eye and over ear-coverts, black. Outer tail-feather white, except at base and towards tip; greater portion of inner web of next feather also white, much more restricted on the third. Length, 4.60; wing, 2.88; tail, 2.15; tarsus, .75.

A female specimen (14,369), perhaps also in autumnal plumage, has the saffron replaced by clear yellowish, except on the top of head and nape, which are olive-green. The black frontal and lateral bands are replaced by whitish, leaving only a dusky patch on the ears.

HAB. Mexico (both coasts to the southward); Guatemala.

This species is given by Mr. Giraud as occurring in Texas, but it is possible that he may have been misled as to the true locality. It may, however, be yet detected along the southern border of the United States.

Nothing is known of its habits.

Dendroica nigrescens, BAIRD.

BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER.

Sylvia nigrescens, TOWNSEND, J. A. N. Sc. VII, II, 1837, 191 (Columbia River).—AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 57, pl. cccxcv. Vermivora nig. BON.; NUTT. Sylvicola nig. AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. xciv. Rhimanphus nig. CAB. 1850. Dendroica nig. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 270; Rev. 186.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 298; 1859, 374 (Oaxaca; high mountains in March).—HEERMANN, P. R. R. Rep. X, iv, 40.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, P. R. R. Rep. XII, ii, 1859, 180.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 90. ? Sylvia halseii, GIRAUD, Birds Texas, 1838, pl. iii, fig. 1, ♀ (suggested by Sclater).

SP. CHAR. Head all round, forepart of the breast, and streaks on the side of the body, black; rest of under parts, a stripe on the side of the head, beginning acutely just above the middle of the eye, and another parallel to it, beginning at the base of the under jaw (the stripes of opposite sides confluent on the chin), and running further back, white. A yellow spot in front of the eye. Rest of upper parts bluish-gray. The interscapular region and upper tail-coverts streaked with black. Wing-coverts black, with two narrow white bands; quills and tail-feathers brown, the two outer of the latter white, with the shafts and a terminal streak brown; the third brown, with a terminal narrow white streak. Bill black; feet brown. Length, 4.70; wing, 2.30; tail, 2.10.

HAB. Western and Middle Provinces of United States. Migratory southward into Western Mexico (Oaxaca); Orizaba (winter, SUMICHRAST).

Female (53,373, East Humboldt Mountains, Nev., July 14). Similar to the male, but crown ash medially streaked with black, instead of continuous black; the streaks on back narrow and inconspicuous; the black of the throat confined to the jugulum, appearing in spots only on anterior half. A young female (No. 53,376, East Humboldt Mountains, August 10) is plain brownish-ash above, lacking entirely the streaks on the back, and those on sides of crown extremely obsolete. There is no black whatever on throat or jugulum, which, with the well-defined supra-loral stripe and lower parts in general, are soiled white, more brownish laterally. The other features, including the yellow spot over the lores, with the wing and tail markings, are much as in the adult. A young male (53,375), same locality and date, differs from the last in having the sides of the crown black, and the throat-patch almost complete, but much hidden by the broad white borders to the feathers. An adult autumnal male (7,690, Calaveras River) is like the spring adult, but the ash is overspread by brownish, nearly obliterating the dorsal streaks, and dividing the black of the crown; the black throat-patch is perfectly defined, but much obscured by white borders to the feathers.

HABITS. The Black-throated Gray or Dusky Warbler, so far as is now known, belongs to the Western and Middle Provinces, occurring certainly as far to the south as San Diego, in California, and as far to the north as Fort Steilacoom, in Washington Territory, penetrating in winter into Mexico. The most easterly localities in which it has been met with are in Arizona and New Mexico. The Smithsonian Institution has received specimens also from Columbia River, Calaveras, Cal., and Fort Defiance.

This species was first obtained and described by Mr. Townsend, who found it abundant in the forests of the Columbia, where it breeds and remains until nearly winter. Its nest, which he there met with, resembles that of Parula americana, only it is made of the long and fibrous green moss, or Usnea, peculiar to that region, and is placed among the upper branches of oak-trees, suspended between two small twigs.

Mr. Nuttall states that it arrives on the Columbia early in May, and from the manner in which its song was delivered at intervals, in the tops of deciduous trees, he had no doubt that they were breeding in those forests as early as May 23. This song he describes as delicate, but monotonous, uttered as it busily and intently searches every leafy bough and expanding bud for insects and their larvæ in the spreading oak, in which it utters its solitary notes. Its song is repeated at short and regular intervals, and is said by Mr. Nuttall to bear some resemblance to t-shee-tshāy-tshaitshee, varying the feeble sound very little, and with the concluding note somewhat slenderly and plaintively raised. Dr. Suckley speaks of this bird as moderately abundant near Fort Steilacoom, generally met with on oaks, and very much resembling Dendroica auduboni in its habits. Its arrival there he gives as occurring in the first week in April, or a month earlier than stated by Nuttall.

Dr. Cooper met with a pair at Puget Sound that appeared to have a nest, though he sought for it in vain. He describes its note as faint and unvaried.

Dr. Coues met with this Warbler in the vicinity of Fort Whipple, Arizona. He speaks of it as common there as a spring and autumn migrant. He thinks that a few remain to breed. It arrives in that Territory about April 20, and is found until late in September. It is most common among the pine-trees, and in its general habits is stated to resemble the new species D. graciæ.

Dr. Heermann found a few birds of this species near Sacramento, and also on the range of mountains dividing the Calaveras and the Mokelumne Rivers. During the survey by Lieutenant Williamson’s party, Dr. Heermann met with a single specimen among the mountains, near the summit of the Tejon Pass. It was in company with other small birds, migrating southward, and gleaning its food from among the topmost branches of the tallest oaks. He states that its notes closely resemble the sounds of the locust.

Dr. Cooper states that these birds appear at San Diego by the 20th of April, in small flocks migrating northward, and then uttering only a faint chirp. They frequent low bushes along the coast, but as they proceed farther north they take to the deciduous oaks as the leaves begin to expand, early in May, at which time they reach the Columbia River. He has never met with any in California after April.

Mr. Ridgway observed this species only in the pine and cedar woods of the East Humboldt Mountains, where, in all probability, they were breeding. He observed numerous families of young birds following their parents in the months of July and August. He met with them only among the cedars and the woods of the nut-pine, and never among the brushwood of the cañons and ravines. He states that the common note of this bird greatly resembles the sharp chirp of the Dendroica coronata, and is louder and more distinct than that of D. auduboni.

Mr. A. Boucard obtained specimens of these birds at Oaxaca, Mexico, during the winter months.

Dendroica chrysopareia, SCL. & SALV.

YELLOW-CHEEKED WARBLER.

Dendroica chrysopareia, SCLATER & SALVIN, P. Z. S. 1860, 298.—IB. Ibis, 1860, 273 (Vera Paz, Guatemala).—IB. 1865.—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 477.—BAIRD, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 183.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 93.

SP. CHAR. (229, Salvin collection.) Head and body above black, the feathers with olive-green edges, especially on the back, obscuring the ground-color; rump clear black. Entire side of head (extending to nostrils and on lower jaw), and the partially concealed bases of the feathers on the median line of the forehead, yellow, with a narrow black line from lores, through the eye, widening behind, but not crossing through the yellow. Beneath, including inside of wings, white; a large patch of black covering the chin and throat, and occupying the entire space between the yellow patches of the two sides of the head and neck, and extended along the sides in a series of streaks. Feathers of crissum with black centres. Wings above ashy, with two white bands across the coverts, the scapulars streaked with blackish; first quill edged externally with white, the rest with gray. Tail-feathers blackish, edged externally with ashy, the lateral with white at the base. Outer tail-feather white on the inner web, except a stripe along the shaft near the end; second similar, but the white not reaching so far towards the base; third with a short patch of white in the end. Bill and legs brownish-black. Bill unusually thick. Length, 4.50; wing, 2.50; tail, 2.40; tarsus, 2.75.

HAB. Vera Paz, Guatemala; San Antonio, and Medina River, Texas. (HEERMANN and DRESSER.)

The capture of specimens of this species at San Antonio, Texas, by Dr. Heermann, and on the Medina River by Mr. Dresser, entitles it to a place in our fauna. The specimen described above is Mr. Salvin’s type.

HABITS. A single specimen is said to have been taken near San Antonio, Texas, by Dr. Heermann. It is thought to be probably a bird belonging to the fauna of Arizona and New Mexico, and is given hypothetically by Dr. Cooper among the birds of California. In its appearance it resembles D. virens, D. townsendii, and D. occidentalis. It was originally described by Salvin from a single specimen obtained in Guatemala. Another pair was afterward obtained by Mr. Salvin on the highest point of the road between Salama and Tactic. In regard to its habits, nothing is on record.

Dendroica virens, BAIRD.

BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER.

Motacilla virens, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 985. Sylvia virens, LATH.; VIEILLOT; WILS. II; NUTT.; BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, pl. cccxcix.—GÄTKE, Naumannia, 1858, 423 (Heligoland, Europe, an original description). Sylvicola virens, SW.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxiv.—REINHARDT, Vid. Med. for 1853, 1854, 72, 81 (Greenland). Rhimanphus virens, CAB. Mus. Hein. Jour. III, 1855, 474 (Cuba; winter).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1856, 291 (Cordova). Dendroica virens, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 267; Rev. 182.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 1 (Guatemala).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 363 (Oaxaca?); 373 (Xalapa); Ibis, 1865, 89.—LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VII, 1861, 293 (Panama).—GUNDL. Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba).—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 232.—SAMUELS, 222. Mniotilta virens, REINHARDT, Ibis, III, 1861, 5 (Julianhaab, Greenland).

SP. CHAR. Male. Upper parts, exclusive of wing and tail, clear yellow olive-green; the feathers of the back with hidden streaks of black. Forehead and sides of head and neck, including a superciliary stripe, bright yellow. A dusky olive line from the bill through the eye, and another below it. Chin, throat, and forepart of the breast, extending some distance along on the sides, continuous black; rest of under parts white, tinged with yellow on the breast and flanks. Wings and tail-feathers dark brown, edged with bluish-gray; two white bands on the wing; the greater part of the three outer tail-feathers white. Female similar, but duller; the throat yellow; the black of breast much concealed by white edges; the sides streaked with black. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.58; tail, 2.30.

HAB. Eastern Province of United States; Greenland; Heligoland, Europe; south to Panama R. R. In Mexico, Xalapa, Cordova, and Oaxaca? Cuba alone in West Indies. Mexico (everywhere in winter, SUMICHRAST).

The autumnal male has the black of throat and breast obscured by whitish tips. Females are yellowish-white beneath, tinged with grayish towards the tail.

As shown in the generic chapter, D. virens is the type of a section of olivaceous Warblers with black chin and throat. The following more elaborate diagnoses of the group may facilitate its study, the species being quite closely related:—

COMMON CHARACTERS. Upper parts more or less olivaceous-green, with the feathers streaked centrally with black (sometimes concealed). Sides of head yellow. Chin and throat black; rest of the under parts, including inside of wings, white, with or without yellow on breast. Wings with two white bands. Inner web of lateral tail-feather almost entirely white from the base.

Above bright olive-green with concealed black streaks; tail-coverts ashy. Sides conspicuously streaked with black; crissum unspotted. Jugulum sometimes faintly tinged with yellowish. An obscure dusky-olive stripe through the eye, and a crescentic patch of the same some distance beneath it … virens.

Above olivaceous-ashy (rump pure ash), with more distinct black spots. Top and sides of head clear yellow, the feathers of the crown tipped with black, or clouded with dusky plumbeous. No dark markings or stripes on side of head. No distinct black streaks beneath; black of throat restricted to front of neck … occidentalis.

Prevailing color of upper parts black, with olivaceous edgings on the back; rump and upper tail-covert pure black. Sides and crissum streaked with black. A simple black stripe through the eye; no patch beneath it … chrysopareia.

Above olive-green. Upper tail-coverts ashy, with central black streaks. Feathers of head above black, with olive-green edges. A broad olivaceous black stripe through eye from lores, involving the ears, in which is a yellowish crescentic patch below the eye. Black feathers of throat and chin edged with yellow. Jugulum and sides of breast also yellow. Sides streaked with black. No distinct black streaks on crissum … townsendii.

HABITS.—The Black-throated Green Warbler, like nearly all the members of this highly interesting genus, has, to a very great degree, escaped the closer observations of our older ornithologists. Wilson only noticed it as it passed through Pennsylvania in its early spring migrations. He mentions its frequenting the higher branches of forest trees in search of the larvæ of the smaller insects that feed upon the opening buds, and describes it as a lively, active bird, having only a few chirping notes. All had passed on by the 12th of May. Their return he was never able to notice, and he became afterwards satisfied that a few remained all the summer in the higher grounds of that State, having obtained several in June, 1809.

Audubon met with this bird from Newfoundland to Texas, but never found it breeding. Nowhere abundant, there were large tracts of country where he never met with it, or where it was of rare occurrence. He found it most abundant in the vicinity of Eastport, Me. He also met with it during summer, in New England generally, Northern Pennsylvania, and New York, but not in Labrador. He describes its habits as a mingling of those of the Warblers and of the Vireo, and its notes as resembling those of the latter. In its search for food he found it quite regardless of the near presence of man. In its spring migrations it passes through the woods usually in pairs, in the fall reappearing in flocks of six or seven. In breeding it occurs only in single pairs, and each pair appropriates to itself a large tract of territory within which no other is usually found. After October, all have passed beyond the limits of the United States.

During the winter months it appears to be quite common in different parts of Mexico and Central America. In the large collection of Guatemalan skins collected by Dr. Van Patten, and purchased by the Boston Natural History Society, this bird was one of the most abundant of the migratory species. Specimens were taken by Mr. Boucard at Playa Vicente, in the hot country of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Dr. Woodhouse found this Warbler common in the Indian Territory and in Texas, and Lieutenant Couch met with it in Tamaulipas, Mexico, in March, 1853. With these exceptions it has not been observed in any of the government surveys, or found west of the valley of the Rio Grande. Besides the points named, it has been obtained in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and in the West Indies, in Central and in the northern portions of South America. Reinhardt gives it as accidental in Greenland. A single stray specimen was obtained in Heligoland, Europe, October 19, 1858.

Mr. Paine, of Randolph, Vt., notes the arrival of this bird about the 10th of May. He speaks of it as a very sweet singer, and as usually seen in the tops of tall trees, the hemlock being its favorite resort. There it chants its sweet sad notes through even the heat of the day. It continues in song nearly throughout the summer. Later in the season it frequents the open fields, in which it is seldom seen in the breeding-season. Its food, which it catches on the wing in the manner of Vireos, consists of the smaller winged insects, caterpillars, and other larvæ. In the fall, according to Mr. Audubon, it feeds upon various kinds of small berries.

It reaches Massachusetts the first of May, and is most numerous about the 15th, when the larger proportion pass farther north. In Western Maine, Professor Verrill states it to be a summer but not a common visitant; and near Calais, Mr. Boardman has found it breeding, but does not regard it as at all common, though in the year 1867 he found it quite abundant in the thick woods in that neighborhood during its breeding-season. Dr. Bryant also speaks of it as one of the most common of the Warblers observed by him near Yarmouth, N. S. A single specimen was taken at Julianhaab, Greenland, in 1853, and sent to the Royal Museum of Copenhagen.

In the vicinity of Boston, especially in the high grounds of Norfolk and Essex Counties, it is a not uncommon species, and its nests are found in certain favorite localities. Nuttall regards May 12 as the average of their first appearance. Busy, quiet, and unsuspicious of man, they were seen by him, collecting, in early October, in small groups, and moving restlessly through the forests preparatory to departing south. June 8, 1830, he found a nest of this species in a solitary situation among the Blue Hills of Milton, Mass. The nest was in a low and stunted juniper (a very unusual location). As he approached, the female remained motionless on the edge of the nest, in such a manner as to be mistaken for a young bird. She then darted to the ground, and, moving away expertly, disappeared. The nest contained four eggs, which he describes as white inclining to flesh-color, variegated at the larger end with pale purplish points interspersed with brown and black. The nest was formed of fine strips of the inner bark of the juniper, and tough white fibrous bark of other plants, lined with soft feathers and the slender tops of grass. The male bird was singing his simple chant, resembling the syllables tē-dē-teritsé-a, pronounced loud and slow, at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the nest. He describes his song as simple, drawling, and plaintive. He was constantly interrupting his song to catch small flies, keeping up a perpetual snapping of his bill.

Several nests of this bird, given me by Mr. George O. Welch of Lynn, have been found by him in high trees in thick woods on the western borders of that city. They are all small, snug, compact structures, built on a base of fine strips of bark, bits of leaves, and stems of plants. The upper rims are a circular intertwining of fine slender twigs, interwoven with a few fine stems of the most delicate grasses. The inner portions of these nests are very softly and warmly bedded with the fine down and silky stems of plants. They have a diameter of three and a quarter inches, and a height of one and a half. The cavity is two inches in diameter, and one and a half in depth. The eggs measure .70 by .50 of an inch, have a white or purplish-white ground, and are blotched and dotted with markings of reddish and purplish brown, diffused over the entire egg, but more numerous about the larger end. One end is much more pointed than the other.

Dendroica townsendi, BAIRD.

TOWNSEND’S WARBLER.

Sylvia townsendi, “NUTTALL,” TOWNSEND, J. A. N. Sc. VII, II, 1837, 191.—AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, pl. cccxciii. Sylvicola t. BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, 1841, pl. xcii. Dendroica t. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 269; Rev. 185.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1858, 298 (Oaxaca; high lands in winter); 1859, 374 (Totontepec; winter); Ibis, 1865, 89.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—COOPER & SUCKLEY, P. R. R. XII, II, 1859, 179 (Cal.).—TURNBULL, Birds of East Penn., etc. 1869, 42.—SUNDEVAL, Ofvers. 1869, 610 (Sitka).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 91.

SP. CHAR. Spring male. Above bright olive-green; the feathers all black in the centre, showing more or less as streaks, especially on the crown, where the black predominates. Quills, tail, and upper tail-covert feathers dark brown, edged with bluish-gray; the wings with two white bands on the coverts; the two outer tail-feathers white with a brown streak near the end; a white streak only in the end of the third feather. Under parts as far as the middle of the body, with the sides of head and neck, including a superciliary stripe and a spot beneath the eye, yellow; the median portion of the side of the head, the chin and throat, with streaks on the sides of the breast, flanks, and under tail-coverts, black; the remainder of the under parts white. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.65; tail, 2.25.

Spring female. Resembling the male, but the black patch on the throat replaced by irregular blotches upon a pure yellow ground.

HAB. Western Province of United States, north to Sitka; Mexico, into Guatemala. Migratory. Accidental near Philadelphia.

The autumnal adult male is much like the spring female, but the black throat-patch is perfectly defined, though much obscured by the yellow edges of the feathers, instead of broken into small blotches. The young male in autumn is similar in general appearance, but there are no streaks above, except on the crown, where they are mostly concealed; the stripe on side of head is olivaceous, instead of black; and nearly all the black on the throat is concealed.

A fine adult male of this species was taken near Philadelphia, Penn., in the spring of 1868, and is now in the collection of the late W. P. Turnbull, Esq., of that city.

HABITS. In regard to the habits of this very rare Western Warbler very little is as yet positively known, and nothing whatever has been ascertained as to its nesting or eggs. The species was first met with by Mr. Townsend, October 28, 1835, on the banks of the Columbia River, and was named by Mr. Nuttall in honor of its discoverer. It is spoken of by these gentlemen as having been a transient visitor only, stopping but a few days, on its way north, to recruit and feed, previous to its departing for the higher latitudes in which it spends the breeding-season. It is, however, quite as probable that they disperse by pairs into solitary places, where for a while they escape observation. When the season again compels them to migrate, they reappear on the same path, only this time in small and silent flocks, as they slowly move toward their winter quarters. These birds also are chiefly to be found in the tops of the loftiest firs and other evergreens of the forests, where it is almost impossible to procure them.

Dr. Cooper observed one of this species at Shoalwater Bay, December 20, 1854. It was in company with a flock of Titmice and other small birds. The following year, in November, he saw a small flock in California, frequenting the willows in a low wet meadow, and was so fortunate as to procure a pair.

Ridgway met with it in the East Humboldt Mountains, where it was rather common in September, inhabiting the thickets of aspens, alders, etc., along the streams.

Mr. P. L. Sclater obtained several fine specimens of this Warbler from the west coast of Central America, and Mr. Salvin found it a winter visitant at Duenas, where he met with it even more frequently than the Dendroica virens, with which he found it associated. Skins were found among the birds taken by Dr. Van Patten in Guatemala. A single specimen has been taken in Pennsylvania.

Mr. A. Boucard obtained specimens of this species in the mountainous district of Totontepec, in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Dendroica occidentalis, BAIRD.

WESTERN WARBLER.

Sylvia occidentalis, TOWNSEND, J. A. N. Sc. VII, ii, 1837, 190 (Columbia River).—IB. Narrative, 1839, 340.—AUD. Orn. Biog. V, pl. lv. Sylvicola occ. BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. xciii. Dendroica occ. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 268; Rev. 183.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, R. R. Rep. XII, ii, 1859, 178 (N. W. coast).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 92. Dendroica chrysopareia, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1862, 19 (La Parada, Mex.) (not of P. Z. S. 1860, 19); Ibis, 1865, 89; 1866, 191. Dendroica niveiventris, SALVIN, P. Z. S. May 26, 1863, 187, pl. xxiv, fig. 2 (Guatemala).

SP. CHAR. Spring male. Crown with sides of the head and neck continuous bright yellow, feathers of the former edged narrowly with black; rest of upper parts dark brown, edged with bluish-gray, so much so on the back and rump feathers as to obscure the brown, and with an olivaceous shade. Chin, throat, and forepart of breast (ending convexly behind in a subcrescentic outline), with the nape, black; rest of under parts white, very faintly streaked on the sides with black. Two white bands on the wing, two outer tail-feathers, and the terminal portion of a third, white; the shafts, and an internal streak towards the end, dark brown. Bill jet-black; legs brown. Length, 4.70; wing, 2.70; tail, 2.30.

Spring female. Similar, but duller gray above; the yellow of the head less extended, and the throat whitish spotted with dusky.

HAB. Western Province of United States and Mexico (Moyapam, winter, SUMICHRAST) to Guatemala. Not seen at Cape St. Lucas.

An autumnal adult male (30,681, Guatemala, December, received from Mr. Salvin, and a type specimen of his “niveiventris”) is much like the spring male, having the throat wholly black, the feathers, however, faintly margined with whitish; there are no black spots on the crown, but, instead, an olivaceous stain; the nape is olivaceous instead of black, and the black centres to dorsal feathers more concealed; the ash above is less pure, and there is no trace of streaks on the sides. A female (autumnal?)—38,141—from Orizaba, Mexico, is grayish-olivaceous above, including the whole top of the head, except beneath the surface; the feathers on top of head have conspicuous black centres, but there are none on the back; the sides of the head, and the bases of the feathers on its top, are soiled yellow; the throat is dirty white, with the feathers dusky beneath the surface; the breast and sides have a strong brownish tinge. Another female, and an autumnal one (probably of the year), is more brown above, the specks on the top of the head exceedingly minute; there are also obscure streaks along the sides, where there is a strong brownish tinge.

HABITS. The Western or Hermit Wood Warbler, so far as known, is limited in its distribution to the Pacific coast from Central America to Washington Territory. Specimens procured from Volcan de Fuego, Mexico, Arizona, and California, are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. But little is positively known as to its history or habits. Nuttall, who first met with it in the forests on the banks of the Columbia, had no doubt that it breeds in the dark forests bordering on that river. He described it as a remarkably shy and solitary bird, retiring into the darkest and most silent recesses of the evergreens, and apparently living among the loftiest branches of the gigantic firs of that region. In consequence of its peculiar habits it was with extreme difficulty that his party could get a sight of this retiring species. Its song, which he frequently heard from these high tree-tops at very regular intervals for an hour or two at a time, he describes as a faint, moody, and monotonous note, delivered when the bird is at rest on some lofty twig, and within convenient hearing of its mate.

Mr. Townsend, who was one of the same party, shot a pair of these birds near Fort Vancouver, May 28, 1835. They were flitting among the tops of the pine-trees in the depths of the forest, where he frequently saw them hanging from the twigs, in the manner of Titmice. Their notes, uttered at different intervals, he describes as very similar to those of the Black-throated Blue Warbler (D. cærulescens).

Dr. Suckley obtained, June, 1856, two specimens at Fort Steilacoom. He also describes them as very shy, feeding and spending most of their time in the tops of the highest firs, so high up as to be almost out of the reach of fine shot. The species he regards as not at all rare on the Pacific coast, but only difficult of procuring, on account of the almost inaccessible nature of its haunts.

Dr. Coues procured a single specimen of this species in Arizona early in September. It was taken in thick scrub-oak bushes. He thinks it may be a summer resident of that Territory, but, if so, very rare.

A single specimen was also obtained at Petuluma, Cal., by Mr. Emanuel Samuels, May 1, 1856.

It was also observed, August 29, by Mr. Ridgway, among the bushes of a cañon among the East Humboldt Mountains. He describes its single note as a lisped pzeet.

Three individuals of this species were collected by Mr. Boucard in Southern Mexico in 1862, and were referred by Dr. Sclater to D. chrysopœia (P. Z. S., 1862, p. 19). Subsequently Mr. Salvin described as a new species, under the name of D. niveiventris, other individuals of the D. occidentalis obtained by him in Guatemala. The true specific relations of the specimens both from Southern Mexico and Central America have since been made clear by Dr. Sclater, Ibis, 1865, p. 87, enabling us to give this species as a winter visitant of the countries above named. Mr. Salvin states (Ibis, 1866, p. 191) that these birds were found in most of the elevated districts where pines abound. He procured specimens in the Volcan de Fuego, in the hills above the Plain of Salama, and near the mines of Alotepeque.

Dendroica pinus, BAIRD.

PINE-CREEPING WARBLER.

Sylvia pinus, WILS. Am. Orn. III, 1811, 25, pl. xix, fig. 4.—BON.; NUTT.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxi. Thryothorus pinus, STEPH. Sylvicola pinus, JARD.; RICH.; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxii.—JONES, Nat. Bermuda, 1859, 59 (abundant in Oct.). Rhimanphus pinus, BON. Dendroica pinus, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 277; Rev. 190.—SCLATER, Catal. 1861, 31, no. 189.—COUES, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1861, 220 (Labrador coast).—SAMUELS, 229.—BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1867, 67 (Inagua). Sylvia vigorsii, AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 153, pl. xxx. Vireo vigorsii. NUTT.

SP. CHAR. Spring male. Upper parts nearly uniform and clear olive-green, the feathers of the crown with rather darker shafts. Under parts generally, except the middle of the belly behind, and under tail-coverts (which are white), bright gamboge-yellow, with obsolete streaks of dusky on the sides of the breast and body. Sides of head and neck olive-green like the back, with a broad superciliary stripe; the eyelids and a spot beneath the eye very obscurely yellow; wings and tail brown; the feathers edged with dirty white, and two bands of the same across the coverts. Inner web of the first tail-feather with nearly the terminal half, of the second with nearly the terminal third, dull inconspicuous white. Length, 5.50; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.40. (1,356.)

Spring female. Similar, but more grayish above, and almost grayish-white, with a tinge of yellow beneath, instead of bright yellow. Young. Umber-brown above, and dingy pale ashy beneath, with a slight yellowish tinge on the abdomen. Wing and tail much as in the autumnal adult.

HAB. Eastern Province of United States, north to Massachusetts; winters in United States. Not recorded in West Indies or Middle America (except Bahamas and Bermuda?).

Autumnal males are much like spring individuals, but the yellow beneath is softer and somewhat richer, and the olive above overlaid with a reddish-umber tint.

HABITS. The Pine-creeping Warbler is found more or less abundantly throughout the United States from the Atlantic to the Valley of the Mississippi. Dr. Woodhouse states that it is common in Texas and New Mexico. It was not, however, met with by any other of the government exploring parties. Dr. Gerhardt found it quite common in Northern Georgia, where it remains all the winter, and where it breeds very early in the season. On the 19th of April he found a nest of these birds with nearly full-grown young. It has not been found in Maine by Professor Verrill nor by Mr. Boardman, nor in Nova Scotia by Lieutenant Bland. Mr. Allen has found it breeding abundantly in the western part of Massachusetts, where it is one of the earliest Warblers to arrive, and where it remains until October. In 1861 they were abundant in the pine woods near Springfield as early as April 4, although the ground at that time was covered with snow. During the last weeks of April and the early part of May they frequent the open fields, obtaining much of their food from the ground in company with D. palmarum, the habits of which, at this time, it closely follows. Later in the season they retire to the pine forests, where they remain almost exclusively throughout the summer, chiefly on the tops of the tallest trees. For a few weeks preceding the first of October they again come about the orchards and fields. In its winter migrations it does not appear to leave this country, and has not been found in any of the West India Islands, in Mexico, nor in South or Central America. It breeds sparingly in Southern Illinois.

Mr. Jones found these birds numerous in Bermuda late in September, but they all disappeared a few weeks later. Dr. Bryant found them at Inagua, Bahamas.

Wilson first noticed this Warbler in the pine woods of the Southern States, where he found it resident all the year. He describes it as running along the bark of pine-trees, though occasionally alighting and feeding on the ground. When disturbed, it always flies up and clings to the trunks of trees. The farther south, the more numerous he found it. Its principal food is the seeds of the Southern pitch-pine and various kinds of insects. It was associated in flocks of thirty in the depths of the pine barrens, easily recognized by their manner of rising from the ground and alighting on the trunks of trees.

Audubon also speaks of this bird as the most abundant of its tribe. He met with them on the sandy barrens of East Florida on the St. John’s River early in February, at which period they already had nests. In their habits he regarded them as quite closely allied to the Creepers, ascending the trunks and larger branches of trees, hopping along the bark searching for concealed larvæ. At one moment it moves sideways along a branch a few steps, then stops and moves in another direction, carefully examining each twig. It is active and restless, generally searching for insects among the leaves and blossoms of the pine, or in the crevices of the bark, but occasionally pursuing them on the wing. It is found exclusively in low lands, never in mountainous districts, and chiefly near the sea.

Its nest is usually placed at considerable height, sometimes fifty feet or more from the ground, and is usually fastened to the twigs of a small branch. In Massachusetts it has but a single brood in a season, but at the South it is said to have three.

The flight of this Warbler is short, and exhibits undulating curves of great elegance. Its song is described as monotonous, consisting merely of continuous and tremulous sounds. Mr. Audubon found none beyond New Brunswick, and it has never been found in Nova Scotia so far as I am aware.

Both old and young birds remain in Massachusetts until late in October, and occasionally birds are seen as far to the north as Philadelphia in midwinter. At this season they abound in the pine forests of the Southern States, where they are at that time the most numerous of the Warblers, and where some are to be found throughout the year.

In the summer their food consists of the larvæ and eggs of certain kinds of insects. In the autumn they frequent the Southern gardens, feeding on the berries of the cornel, the box grape, and other small fruit. Mr. Nuttall states that their song is deficient both in compass and in variety, though not disagreeable. At times, he states, it approaches the simpler trills of the canary; but is usually a reverberating, gently rising or murmuring sound like er-r´-r´r´r´r´r´-ah, or in the springtime like twe twe-tw tw tw-tw tw, and sometimes like tsh-tsh-tsh-tw-tw-tw-tw, exhibiting a pleasing variety in its cadences. The note of the female is not unlike that of the Black and White Creeper.

On the 7th of June, Mr. Nuttall discovered a nest of this Warbler in a Virginia juniper-tree in Mount Auburn, some forty feet from the ground, and firmly fixed in the upright twigs of a close branch. It was a thin but very neat structure. Its principal material was the old and wiry stems of the Polygonum tenue, or knot-weed. These were circularly interlaced and inter-wound with rough linty fibres of asclepias and caterpillars’ webs. It was lined with a few bristles, slender root-fibres, a mat of the down of fern-stalks, and a few feathers. Mr. Nuttall saw several of these nests, all made in a similar manner. The eggs in the nest described were four, and far advanced towards hatching. They were white, with a slight tinge of green, and were freely sprinkled with small pale-brown spots, most numerous at the larger end, where they were aggregated on a more purplish ground. The female made some slight complaint, but immediately returned to the nest, though two of the eggs had been taken.

Mr. Nuttall kept a male of this species in confinement. It at once became very tame, fed gratefully from the hand, from the moment it was caught, on flies, small earthworms, and minced flesh, and would sit contentedly on any hand, walking directly into a dish of water offered for drink, without any precautions, or any signs of fear.

Mr. J. G. Shute found a nest of these Warblers in Woburn as early as May 8. It contained four eggs, the incubation of which had commenced. Three other nests were also found by him in the same locality, all of them between the 8th and the 24th of May, and all built on branches of the red pine and near the top. Several nests of this Warbler, found in Lynn, Mass., by Mr. George O. Welch, are alike in their mode of construction, and differ in their materials from other accounts. They are all somewhat loosely put together, and are composed externally of fine strips of the bark of the red cedar, fine inner bark of several deciduous trees, dry stalks of plants, the exuviæ of insects, and fine dry grasses. The cavities of these nests, which are comparatively large and deep, were lined with the fur of the smaller mammals, the silky down of plants, and feathers. A few fine wiry roots were also intermingled. These nests are about two and a half inches in height and three in diameter.

The eggs of this Warbler are of a rounded oval shape, have an average length of .72 of an inch, and a breadth of .55. They resemble in size and appearance the eggs of the D. castanea, but the spots are more numerous, and the blotches larger and more generally distributed. The ground-color is a bluish-white. Scattered over this are subdued tintings of a fine delicate shade of purple, and upon this are distributed dots and blotches of a dark purplish-brown, mingled with a few lines almost black.

Dendroica montana, BAIRD.

BLUE MOUNTAIN WARBLER.

Sylvia montana, WILS. Am. Orn. V, 1812, 113, pl. xliv, fig. 2 (“Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania”).—AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 294 (“California”!) Sylvicola montana, JARD.; AUD. Birds Am. II, 1841, 69, pl. xcviii. Dendroica montana, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 279; Rev. 190. Sylvia tigrina, VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 34, pl. xciv (U. S. and St. Domingo).

SP. CHAR. This species is four inches and three quarters in length; the upper parts a rich yellow-olive; front, cheeks, and chin yellow, also the sides of the neck; breast and belly pale yellow, streaked with black or dusky; vent plain pale yellow. Wings black; first and second rows of coverts broadly tipped with pale yellowish-white; tertials the same; the rest of the quills edged with whitish. Tail black, handsomely rounded, edged with pale olive; the two exterior feathers on each side white on the inner vanes from the middle to the tips, and edged on the outer side with white. Bill dark brown. Legs and feet purple-brown; soles yellow. Eye dark hazel. (Wilson.)

HAB. “Blue Mountains of Virginia.” St. Domingo?

This species is only known from the description of Wilson, Vieillot, and Audubon, and we are not aware that a specimen is to be found in any collection. If described correctly, it appears different from any established species, although the most nearly related to D. pinus, which, however, differs in the absence of a yellow frontlet, in having a greener back, less distinct streaks beneath, and in the white of the anal region.

HABITS. Whether the Blue Mountain Warbler is a genuine species or an unfamiliar plumage of a bird better known to us in a different dress is a question not altogether settled to the minds of some. It was described by Wilson from a single specimen obtained near the Blue Ridge of Virginia. Audubon found another in the collection of the Zoölogical Society. From this he made his drawing. A third has also been met with and described by Vieillot. We know nothing in regard to its habits, except that its song is said to be a single screep, three or four times repeated. Its breeding-habits, its manner of migration, and the place of its more abundant occurrence, yet remain entirely unknown.

Dendroica kirtlandi, BAIRD.

KIRTLAND’S WARBLER.

Sylvicola kirtlandi, BAIRD, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. V, June, 1852, 217, pl. vi (Cleveland, Ohio).—CASSIN, Illust. I, 1855, 278, pl. xlvii. Dendroica kirtlandi, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 286; Rev. 206.

SP. CHAR. Above slate-blue, the feathers of the crown with a narrow, those of the middle of the back with a broader, streak of black; a narrow frontlet involving the lores, the anterior end of the eye, and the space beneath it (possibly the whole auriculars), black; the rest of the eyelids white. The under parts are clear yellow (almost white on the under tail-coverts); the breast with small spots and sides of the body with short streaks of black. The greater and middle wing-coverts, quills, and tail-feathers are edged with dull whitish. The two outer tail-feathers have a dull white spot near the end of the inner web, largest on the first. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.80; tail, 2.70. (4,363.)

HAB. Northern Ohio, and Bahamas.

In addition to the type which is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, a second specimen was obtained by Dr. Samuel Cabot, of Boston, taken at sea between the islands of Abaco and Cuba. It must, however, be considered as one of the rarest of American birds.

HABITS. Kirtland’s Warbler is so far known by only a few rare specimens as a bird of North America, and its biography is utterly unknown. The first specimen of this species, so far as is known, was obtained by Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, of Cleveland, O., in May, 1851. It was shot by that naturalist in woods near that city, and was by him given to Professor Baird, who described it in the Annals of the New York Lyceum. It appears to be closely allied to both the D. coronata and D. auduboni, and yet to be a specifically distinct bird. A second specimen, in the cabinet of Dr. Samuel Cabot, Jr., of Boston, was obtained at sea, between the islands of Cuba and Abaco. A third specimen was obtained June 9, 1860, near Cleveland, and is in the collection of Mr. R. K. Winslow, of that city. Another specimen is also reported as having been obtained in the same neighborhood, but not preserved; and Dr. Hoy, of Racine, Wis., is confident that he has seen it in the neighborhood of that place. At present all that we can give in regard to its history, habits, or distribution must be inferred from these few and meagre facts.

Dendroica palmarum, BAIRD.

YELLOW RED-POLL WARBLER.

Motacilla palmarum, GMEL. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 951 (based on Palm Warbler, LATHAM, Syn. II, p. 498, no. 131, St. Domingo). Sylvia p. LATH.; VIEILLOT, II, pl. lxxiii.—BON.; D’ORB. Sagra’s Cuba, Ois. 1840, 61, pl. viii. Sylvicola p. SALLÉ, P. Z. S. 1857, 231 (St. Domingo). Dendroica p. BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 288; Rev. 207.—SCLATER, Catal. 1861, 33, no. 199.—IB. P. Z. S. 1861, 71 (Jamaica; April).—BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1859 (Bahamas).—IB. 1867, 91 (Hayti).—BREWER, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1867, 139.—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common).—SAMUELS, 240. Sylvia petechia, WILS. VI, pl. xxviii, fig. 4.—BON.; NUTT.; AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. clxiii, clxiv. Sylvicola petechia, SWAINS.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. xc. Sylvicola ruficapilla, BON. Rhimanphus ruf. CAB. Jour. III, 1855, 473 (Cuba; winter).

SP. CHAR. Adult in spring. Head above chestnut-red; rest of upper parts brownish olive-gray; the feathers with darker centres, the color brightening on the rump, upper tail-coverts, and outer margins of wing and tail-feathers, to greenish-yellow. A streak from nostrils over the eye, and under parts generally, including the tail-coverts, bright yellow; paler on the body. A maxillary line; breast and sides finely but rather obsoletely streaked with reddish-brown. Cheeks brownish (in highest spring plumage chestnut like the head); the eyelids and a spot under the eye olive-brown. Lores dusky. A white spot on the inner web of the outer two tail-feathers, at the end. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.42; tail, 2.25. Sexes nearly alike.

Autumnal males are more reddish above; under parts tinged with brown, the axillars yellow.

HAB. Eastern Province of North America to Fort Simpson and Hudson’s Bay; Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, and St. Domingo in winter. Not noted from Mexico or Central America.

This species varies considerably in different stages, but can generally be recognized. Immature specimens resemble those of P. tigrina, but differ in the chestnut crown, browner back, less bright rump, brighter yellow of under tail-coverts, smaller blotches on tail, no white bands on the wings, etc., as well as in the shape of the bill.

HABITS. The Red-Poll Warbler belongs, in its geographical distribution, to that large class of birds which visit high northern latitudes to breed, passing back and forth over a wide extent of territory, from the West India Islands to the extreme northern portions of the continent. Specimens have been procured from Cuba, Jamaica, St. Domingo, and the Bahamas, in fall, winter, and spring, where, at such times, they seem to be generally quite common. It has not been observed in Mexico or in Central or South America. It has been met with on the western shore of Lake Michigan, but nowhere farther to the west. It has been found in the Red River Settlement, Fort George, Fort Simpson, and Fort Resolution, in the Hudson Bay Territory. It is not known, so far as I am aware, to breed south of latitude 44°. Wilson and Nuttall both state that this bird remains in Pennsylvania through the summer, but they were probably misinformed; at least, there is no recent evidence to this effect. Wilson also states that he shot specimens in Georgia, near Savannah, early in February, and infers that some pass the entire winter in Georgia, which is not improbable, as this bird can endure severe weather without any apparent inconvenience.

There are several marked peculiarities in the habits of this Warbler which distinguish it from every other of its genus. Alone of all the Dendroicæ, so far as is known, it builds its nest on the ground, and is quite terrestrial in its habits, and, notwithstanding the statements of earlier writers, these are quite different from all others of this genus. It has very little of the habits of the Creeper and still less of the Flycatcher, while it has all the manners of the true Ground Warbler, and even approximates, in this respect, to the Titlarks.

My attention was first called to these peculiarities by Mr. Downes of Halifax, in the summer of 1851; and I was surprised to find it nesting on the ground, and yet more to note that in all its movements it appeared fully as terrestrial as the Maryland Yellow-Throat, or the Towhee Finch. Since then Mr. Boardman and other naturalists have found its nest, which is always on the ground.

Mr. MacCulloch, in the fourth volume of the Journal of the Boston Natural History Society, has given an interesting paper upon the terrestrial peculiarities of this species, showing them to be nearly identical with those of the seiuri, with whom he thinks it should be classed. In its terrestrial movements this bird is shown to be quite at home, while other Warblers, when driven by necessity to feed upon the ground, are awkward, and manifest a want of adaptation.

Dr. Henry Bryant, another very close and accurate observer, in his notes on the birds of the Bahamas, referring to this Warbler, speaks of it as extremely abundant, but confined to the sea-shore. “Its habits,” he adds, apparently with some surprise, “are decidedly terrestrial, and it approaches, in this respect, to the Titlarks. They were constantly running along the edges of the road, or else hopping amongst the low branches in the pastures. I did not see a single individual seeking for food amidst the large trees. These birds could be constantly seen running up and down in the market in search of small flies. These they caught either on the ground or else by hopping up a few inches, scarcely opening the wings, and alighting directly.”

Mr. J. A. Allen, in his Birds observed in Western Massachusetts, shows that these peculiarities of habits in this Warbler had not escaped his notice. He speaks of it as “frequenting, in company with D. pinus, the edges of thickets, orchards, and open fields, and is much on the ground.”

Mr. George A. Boardman, writing me from St. Stephen, March, 1867, says: “The Yellow Red-Poll is one of our most common Warblers, and, unlike most other Warblers, spends much of its time feeding upon the ground. It is no uncommon thing to see a dozen or two on the ground in my garden at a time, in early spring. Later in the season they have more of the habits of other Warblers, and are in summer expert flycatchers. In the fall we again see them mostly upon the ground, feeding with the Blue Snowbirds (Junco hyemalis) and the Chipping Sparrow. They breed in old brushy pastures, and very early, nesting alongside of some little knoll, and, I think, always upon the ground. The nest is very warmly lined with feathers.”

Mr. MacCulloch, in the paper already referred to, states that during their autumnal migrations they seem invariably to exhibit the habits of true Sylvicolidæ, gleaning among branches of trees for the smaller insects, and not unfrequently visiting the windows of dwellings in search of spiders and insects.

In their migrations through Massachusetts these Warblers are everywhere quite abundant in the spring, but in their return in autumn are not observed in the eastern part of the State, though very common in the western from September into November, remaining long after all the other Warblers are gone. None remain during the summer.

In Western Maine, Mr. Verrill states, it is quite common both in spring and in fall, arriving in April, earlier than any other Warbler, and again becoming abundant the last of September.

I found it plentiful in the vicinity of Halifax, where it occurs throughout the summer from May to September.

Mr. Ridgway gives this species as perhaps the most numerous of the transient visitants, in spring and fall, in Southern Illinois. It is very terrestrial in its habits, keeping much on the ground, in orchards and open places, and its movements are said to be wonderfully like those of Anthus ludovicianus.

In the vibratory motions of its tail, especially when upon the ground, these birds greatly resemble the Wagtails of Europe. They have no other song than a few simple and feeble notes, so thin and weak that they might almost be mistaken for the sounds made by the common grasshopper.

The Red-Poll usually selects for the site of its nest the edge of a swampy thicket, more or less open, placing it invariably upon the ground. This is usually not large, about three and a half inches in diameter and two and a half in depth, the diameter and depth of the cavity each averaging only half an inch less. The walls are compactly and elaborately constructed of an interweaving of various fine materials, chiefly fine dry grasses, slender strips of bark, stems of the smaller plants, hypnum, and other mosses. Within, the nest is warmly and softly lined with down and feathers.

Mr. Kennicott met with a nest of this bird at Fort Resolution, June 18. It was on the ground, on a hummock, at the foot of a small spruce, in a swamp. When found, it contained five young birds.

Their eggs are of a rounded-oval shape, and measure .70 of an inch in length by .55 in breadth. Their ground-color is a yellowish or creamy-white, and their blotches, chiefly about the larger end, are a blending of purple, lilac, and reddish-brown.

Dendroica discolor, BAIRD.

PRAIRIE WARBLER.

Sylvia discolor, VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 37, pl. xcviii.— BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. xiv; NUTT.—LEMBEYE, Aves Cuba, 1850, 32, pl. vi, fig. 2. Sylvicola discolor, JARD.; RICH.; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. xcvii.—GOSSE, Birds Jam. 1847, 159. Rhimanphus discolor, CAB. Jour. III, 1855, 474 (Cuba; winter). Dendroica discolor, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 290; Rev. 213.—NEWTON, Ibis, 1859, 144 (St. Croix).—BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1859 (Bahamas).—IB. 1866 (Porto Rico); 1867, 91 (Hayti).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common).—SAMUELS, 241. Sylvia minuta, WILSON, III, pl. xxv. fig. 4.

SP. CHAR. Spring male. Above uniform olive-green; the interscapular region with chestnut-red centres to feathers. Under parts and sides of the head, including a broad superciliary line from the nostrils to a little behind the eye, bright yellow, brightest anteriorly. A well-defined narrow stripe from the commissure of the mouth through the eye, and another from the same point curving gently below it, also a series of streaks on each side of the body, extending from the throat to the flanks, black. Quills and tail-feathers brown, edged with white; the terminal half of the inner web of the first and second tail-feathers white. Two yellowish bands on the wings. Female similar, but duller. The dorsal streaks indistinct. Length, 4.86; wing, 2.25; tail, 2.10.

First plumage of the young not seen.

HAB. Atlantic region of United States, north to Massachusetts; South Illinois; in winter very abundant throughout all the West India Islands, as far, at least, as the Virgin Islands. Not recorded from Mexico or Central America.

Autumnal specimens have the plumage more blended, but the markings not changed. A young male in autumnal dress is wholly brownish olive-green above, the whole wing uniform; the forehead ashy, the markings about the head rather obsolete, the chestnut spots on the back and the black ones on the sides nearly concealed.

HABITS. The Prairie Warbler, nowhere an abundant species, is pretty generally, though somewhat irregularly, distributed through the eastern portion of the United States from Massachusetts to Georgia during its breeding-season. The Smithsonian Museum embraces no specimens taken west of Philadelphia or Washington. I have had its nest and eggs found in Central New York. Mr. Audubon speaks of its occurring in Louisiana, but his accounts of its nesting are so obviously inaccurate that we must receive this statement also with misgivings. Wilson, however, obtained specimens in Kentucky, and gave to it the inappropriate name of Prairie Warbler. Nuttall regarded it as rare in New England, which opinion more careful observations do not confirm. They certainly are not rare in certain portions of Massachusetts. In Essex County, and, according to Mr. Allen, in the vicinity of Springfield, they are rather common. The Smithsonian possesses specimens from the Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and other West India islands. Dr. Gundlach speaks of it as common in Cuba. In the Bahamas, Dr. Bryant found these Warblers more abundant than he had ever known them in the United States. In January all the males were in winter plumage, some not having changed by April to their summer costume. He regarded them as constant residents of those islands. They had all paired off by the middle of April.

In the island of St. Croix, Mr. Edward Newton observed these Warblers from the 10th of September to the 27th of March. They were present on the island about two thirds of the year, and while they were found were very common.

In Jamaica, according to Mr. March, they are numerous throughout the entire year, though less abundant during the summer months. They were always plentiful in the gardens about the Malpighia glabra, capturing small insects from the ripe fruit.

Mr. Gosse, on the contrary, regarded it as only a winter visitant of that island, appearing by the 18th of August, and disappearing by the 11th of April. He observed them among low bushes and herbaceous weeds, along the roadside, near the ground, examining every stalk and twig for insects. Others flew from bushes by the wayside to the middle of the road, where, hovering in the air, a few feet from the ground, they seemed to be catching small dipterous insects. Their stomachs were filled with fragments of insects.

Wilson found them usually in open plains and thinly wooded tracts, searching most leisurely among the foliage, carefully examining every leaf or blade of grass for insects, uttering, at short intervals, a brief chirr. They did not appear to be easily alarmed, and he has known one of these birds to remain half an hour at a time on the lower branch of a tree, and allow him to approach the foot, without being in the least disturbed. He found their food consisted of winged insects and small caterpillars.

In 1858, Mr. John Cassin wrote me: “The Prairie Warbler certainly breeds in New Jersey, near Philadelphia. I have seen it all summer for the last twelve years, and have seen the young just able to fly, but never found the nest. It has a very peculiar note, which I know as well as I do the Catbird’s, having often followed and searched it out. It frequents cedar-trees, and I suspect breeds in and about them.”

Dr. Coues found the Prairie Warbler mostly a spring and autumn visitant in the vicinity of Washington, being quite abundant during those seasons. A few were observed to remain during the breeding-season. They arrive earlier than most of this family of birds, or about the 20th of April. He found them frequenting, almost exclusively, cedar-patches and pine-trees, and speaks of their having very peculiar manners and notes.

Both Wilson and Audubon were evidently at fault in their descriptions of the nest and eggs. These do not correspond with more recent and positive observations. Its nest is never pensile. Mr. Nuttall’s descriptions, on the other hand, are made from his own observations, and are evidently correct. He describes a nest that came under his observation as scarcely distinguishable from that of the D. æstiva. It was not pensile, but fixed in a forked branch, and formed of strips of the inner bark of the red cedar, fibres of asclepia, and caterpillars’ silk, and thickly lined with the down of the Gnaphalium plantagineum. He describes the eggs as having a white ground, sharp at one end, and marked with spots of lilac-purple and of two shades of brown, more numerous at the larger end, where they formed a ring. He speaks of their note as slender, and noticed their arrival about the second week of May, leaving the middle of September.

At another time Mr. Nuttall was attracted by the slender, filing notes of this bird, resembling the suppressed syllables ’tsh-’tsh-’tsh-’tshea, beginning low and gradually growing louder. With its mate it was busily engaged collecting flies and larvæ about a clump of locust-trees in Mount Auburn. Their nest was near, and the female, without any precautions, went directly to it. Mr. Nuttall removed two eggs, which he afterwards replaced. Each time, on his withdrawal, she returned to the nest, and resorted to no expedients to entice him away.

Several nests of this Warbler have been obtained by Mr. Welch in Lynn. One was built on a wild rose, only a few feet from the ground. It is a snug, compact, and elaborately woven structure, having a height and a diameter of about two and a half inches. The cavity is two inches wide and one and a half deep. The materials of which the outer parts are woven are chiefly the soft inner bark of small shrubs, mingled with dry rose-leaves, bits of vegetables, wood, woody fibres, decayed stems of plants, spiders’ webs, etc. The whole is bound together like a web by cotton-like fibres of a vegetable origin. The upper rim of this nest is a marked feature, being a strongly interlaced weaving of vegetable roots and strips of bark. The lining of the nest is composed of fine vegetable fibres and a few horse-hairs. This nest, in its general mode of construction, resembles all that I have seen; only in others the materials vary,—in some dead and decayed leaves, in others remains of old cocoons, and in others the pappus of composite plants, being more prominent than the fine strips of bark. The nests are usually within four feet of the ground. The eggs vary from three to five, and even six.

The late Dr. Gerhardt found this bird the most common Warbler in Northern Georgia. There its nests were similar in size, structure, and position, but differed more or less in the materials of which they were made. The nests were a trifle larger and the walls thinner, the cavities being correspondingly larger. The materials were more invariably fine strips of inner bark and flax-like vegetable fibres, and were lined with the finest stems of plants, in one case with the feathers of the Great Horned Owl. In that neighborhood the eggs were deposited by the 15th of May.

In Massachusetts the Prairie Warbler invariably selects wild pasture-land, often not far from villages, and always open or very thinly wooded. In Georgia their nests were built in almost every kind of bush or low tree, or on the lower limbs of post-oaks, at the height of from four to seven feet. Eggs were found once as early as the 2d of May, and once as late as the 10th of June. The birds arrived there by the 10th of April, and seemed to prefer hillsides, but were found in almost any open locality.

In Southern Illinois, Mr. Ridgway cites this species as a rather rare bird among the oak barrens where it breeds. He also met with it in orchards in the wooded portions, in April, during the northward migration of the Sylvicolidæ.

The eggs are of an oval shape, pointed at one end, and measure .68 by .48 of an inch. They have a white ground, marked with spots of lilac and purple and two shades of umber-brown.

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