FAMILY ALCEDINIDÆ.—THE KINGFISHERS
CHAR. Head large; bill long, strong, straight, and sub-pyramidal, usually longer than the head. Tongue very small. Wings short; legs small; the outer and middle toes united to their middle. Toes with the usual number of joints (2, 3, 4, 5).
The gape of the bill in the Kingfishers is large, reaching to beneath the eyes. The third primary is generally longest; the first decidedly shorter; the secondaries vary from twelve to fifteen in number, all nearly equal. The secondaries cover at least three quarters of the wing. The tail is short, the feathers twelve in number; they are rather narrow, the outer usually shorter. The lower part of the tibia is bare, leaving the joint and the tarsus uncovered. The tarsus is covered anteriorly with plates; behind, it is shagreen-like or granulated. The hind toe is connected with the inner, so as to form with it and the others a regular sole, which extends unbroken beneath the middle and outer as far as the latter are united. The inner toe is much shorter than the outer. The claws are sharp; the middle expanded on its inner edge, but not pectinated.
The North American species of Kingfisher belong to the subfamily Cerylinæ, characterized by the crested head, and the plumage varying with sex and age. The single genus Ceryle includes two types, Streptoceryle and Chloroceryle.
GENUS CERYLE, BOIE.
Ceryle, BOIE, Isis, 1828, 316, ch. (Type, Alcedo rudis of Africa.) Ispida, SW. Birds, II, 1837, 336. (Type, A. alcyon, in part.)
GEN. CHAR. Bill long, straight, and strong, the culmen slightly advancing on the forehead and sloping to the acute tip; the sides much compressed; the lateral margins rather dilated at the base, and straight to the tip; the gonys long and ascending. Tail rather long and broad. Tarsi short and stout.
This genus is distinguished from typical Alcedo (confined to the Old World) by the longer tail, an indented groove on each side the culmen, inner toe much longer than the hinder instead of equal, etc.
The two species of North American Kingfishers belong to two different subgenera of modern systematists, the one to Streptoceryle, Bonap., the other to Chloroceryle, Kaup. The characters of these subgenera are as follows:—
Streptoceryle, Bonap. (1854). Bill very stout and thick. Tarsus about equal to the hind toe; much shorter than the inner anterior. Plumage without metallic gloss; the occipital feathers much elongated, linear, and distinct. Type, C. alcyon.
Chloroceryle, Kaup (1849). Size smaller and shape more slender than in the preceding. Bill long, thin. Tarsi longer than hind toe; almost or quite as long as the inner anterior. Plumage with a green metallic gloss above; the occiput with a crest of rather short, indistinct feathers. Type, A. amazona.
[Line drawing: Ceryle alcyon. 1640]
The genus Ceryle was established by Boie on the Alcedo rudis, of Linnæus, an African species. Modern systematists separate the American Kingfishers from those of the Old World, and if correct in so doing, another generic name must be selected for the former. If the two American sections be combined into one, Chloroceryle of Kaup (type, Alcedo amazona) must be taken as being the older, unless, indeed, Ispida of Swainson (1837) be admissible. This appears to have been based on Alcedo alcyon, although including also some Old World species.
Ceryle alcyon, BOIE.
BELTED KINGFISHER.
Alcedo alcyon, LINNÆUS, Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 180.—WILSON, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 59.—AUDUBON, Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 384; pl. lxxvii.—IB. Birds America.—MAX. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 102. Ceryle alcyon, BOIE, Isis, 1828, 316.—BREWER, N. Am. Oology, I, 1857, 110, pl. iv, fig. 52 (egg).—WOOD, Am. Naturalist, 1868, 379 (nesting).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 158.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 167.—DALL & BANNISTER, Ch. Ac. I, i, 1869, 275 (Alaska).—FINSCH, Abh. Nat. III, 1872, 29 (Alaska).—SAMUELS, 125.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 337.—ALLEN, B. Fla. 300. Megaceryle alcyon, REICHENB. Handb. Sp. Orn. I, II, 1851, 25, pl. ccccxii, fig. 3108-9. Ispida ludoviciana, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 452. “Alcedo jaguacate, DUMONT, Dict. Sc. Nat. I, 1816, 455” (CASSIN). “Alcedo guacu, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. XIX, 1818, 406,” (CASSIN). Streptoceryle alcyon, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. II, 151.
SP. CHAR. Head with a long crest. Above ashy-blue, without metallic lustre. Beneath, with a concealed band across the occiput, and a spot anterior to the eye, pure white. A band across the breast, and the sides of the body under the wings, like the back. Primaries white on the basal half, the terminal unspotted. Tail with transverse bands and spots of white. Female and young with sides of body and a band across the belly below the pectoral one light chestnut; the pectoral band more or less tinged with the same. Length of adult about 12.75 inches; wing, 6.00.
HAB. The entire continent of North America to Panama, including West Indies. Localities: Honduras (MOORE, P. Z. S. 1859, 53; SCL. Ibis, II, 116); Sta. Cruz, winter (NEWTON, Ibis, I, 67); Belize (SCL. Ibis, I, 131); York Factory, H. B. T. (MURRAY, Edinb. Phil. J. Jan. 1860); Cuba (CAB. J. IV, 101; GUNDL. Rep. I, 1866, 292); Bahamas (BRYANT, Bost. Soc. VII, 1859); Jamaica (GOSSE, Birds Jam. 81); Orizaba (SCL. P. Z. S. 1860, 253); Panama (LAWR. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 318 n.); Costa Rica (CAB. J. 1862, 162; LAWR. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 118); Tobago (JARD. Ann. Mag. 19, 80); Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 471); Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 59); Sta. Bartholemy (SUND. Ofv. 1869, 585).
This species varies considerably in size with locality, as do so many others. Western specimens are appreciably larger, especially those from the northwest coast. According to Nuttall and Audubon, it is the female that has the transverse band of chestnut across the belly. In this they may be correct; but several specimens in the Smithsonian collection marked female (perhaps erroneously) show no indication of the chestnut.[101]
Two closely allied but much larger species belong to Middle and South America. They differ in having the whole body beneath of a reddish color.
HABITS. The common Belted Kingfisher of North America is a widely distributed species at all times, and in the summer is found in every portion of North America, to the Arctic Ocean on the north, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is more or less resident throughout the year, and in mild and open winters a few have been known to linger throughout New England, and even in higher latitudes. In 1857 Captain Blakiston found it remaining on the lower part of the Saskatchewan River until the 7th of October; and afterwards, in 1859, at Pembina, on the 1st of May, he observed them to be present, although the river was not yet open. Those that have migrated to the south make their reappearance in spring throughout the continent as soon as, and not unfrequently before, the ice has disappeared from the rivers and ponds.
It occurs in extreme northern latitudes. Mr. MacFarlane received skins from the Eskimos obtained on the Arctic coast, and Mr. Dall found them breeding at Fort Yukon, where it was quite common on all the small streams flowing into that river. It was also found by Dr. Richardson frequenting all the large streams of the fur countries, as far at least as the 67th parallel. In California a larger race than our Atlantic species is found abundantly along the coast, and about nearly every stream or lake in which the water is not turbid and muddy.
Mr. A. Newton reports this bird as a winter visitant at St. Croix, leaving the island late in April. It frequents mangrove swamps and the mouths of small streams, sometimes fishing half a mile out at sea. The stomach of one contained shells of crabs. The occurrence of two specimens of this species in Ireland is recorded by Mr. Thompson.
The Kingfisher is an eminently unsocial species. It is never found other than in solitary pairs, and these are very rarely seen together. They feed almost entirely upon fish, which they capture by plunging into the water, and which they always swallow whole on emerging from their bath. Undigested portions of their food, such as scales, bones, etc., they have the power of occasionally ejecting from their stomachs. They may usually be noticed by the side of streams, mill-ponds, and lakes, stationed on some convenient position that enables them to overlook a deep place suitable for their purpose, and they rarely make a plunge without accomplishing their object.
The cry of the Kingfisher, uttered when he is disturbed, or when moving from place to place, and occasionally just as he is about to make a plunge, is loud and harsh, and resembles the noise made by a watchman’s rattle. This noise he makes repeatedly at all hours, and most especially at night, during the breeding-season, whenever he returns to the nest with food for his mate or young.
They nest in deep holes excavated by themselves in the sides of streams, ponds, or cliffs, not always in the immediate vicinity of water. These excavations are often near their accustomed fishing-grounds, in some neighboring bank, usually not many feet from the ground, always in dry gravel, and sufficiently high to be in no danger of inundation. They make their burrow with great industry and rapidity, relieving one another from time to time, and working incessantly until the result is satisfactorily accomplished. When digging through a soft fine sand-bank their progress is surprising, sometimes making a deep excavation in a single night. The pages of “The American Naturalist” contain several animated controversies as to the depth, the shape, and the equipments of these passages. The result of the evidence thus given seems to be that the holes the Kingfishers make are not less than four nor more than fifteen feet in length; that some are perfectly straight, while some, just before their termination, turn to the right, and others to the left; and that all have, at or near the terminus, an enlarged space in which the eggs are deposited. Here the eggs are usually laid on the bare sand, there being very rarely, if ever, any attempt to construct a nest. The use of hay, dry grass, and feathers, spoken of by the older writers, does not appear to be confirmed by more recent testimony. Yet it is quite possible that in certain situations the use of dry materials may be resorted to to protect the eggs from a too damp soil.
The place chosen for the excavation is not always near water. In the spring of 1855 I found the nest of a Kingfisher in a bank by the side of the carriage path on Mount Washington, more than a mile from any water. It was a shallow excavation, made that season, and contained fresh eggs the latter part of May. The food of the pair was taken near the dam of a sawmill on Peabody River. In another instance a pair of Kingfishers made their abode in a sand-bank in the midst of the village of Hingham, within two rods of the main street, and within a few feet of a dwelling, and not in the near vicinity of water. Here the confidence they displayed was not misplaced. They were protected, and their singular habits carefully and curiously watched. During the day they were cautious, reticent, and rarely seen, but during the night they seemed to be passing back and forth continually, the return of each parent being announced by a loud rattling cry. Later in the season, when the young required constant attention, these nocturnal noises seemed nearly incessant, and became almost a nuisance to the family.
The Kingfisher, having once selected a situation for its nest, is very tenacious of it, and rarely forsakes it unless compelled to by too great annoyances. They will submit to be robbed time after time, and still return to the same spot and renew their attempts. They are devoted to their young, exhibit great solicitude if their safety is threatened, and will suffer themselves to be taken from their nest rather than leave it, and immediately return to it again.
Mr. Dall observed a male bird of this species digging other holes in the bank near his nest, apparently for amusement or occupation. They were never more than two feet in length and about eight inches in diameter. He seemed to abandon them as soon as made, though seen to retire into one to eat a fish he had captured.
The eggs are usually six, rarely seven, in number, and are of a beautifully clear crystal whiteness. They are very nearly spherical in shape, and measure 1.31 by 1.06 inches.
[101] This confounding of the two sexes has probably resulted from guess-work of the collector, who, noticing the marked difference between the male and female, and naturally supposing the former to be the more brightly colored, marked the rufous-breasted specimens accordingly; while the few marked correctly may have been thus labelled after careful dissection.
Ceryle americana, var. cabanisi, TSCHUDI.
TEXAS KINGFISHER; GREEN KINGFISHER.
Alcedo americana, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 451 (in part). Ceryle americana, LAWRENCE, Annals N. Y. Lyceum, V, 1851, 118 (first introduction into the fauna of United States).—CASSIN, Illustrations, I, 1855, 255.—BREWER, N. Am. Oology, I, 1857, 3, pl. iv, f. 53 (egg).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 159, pl. xlv.—IB. Mex. B. II; Birds 7, pl. vii.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 339. Alcedo viridis, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. XIX, 1818, 413 (CASSIN). Ceryle cabanisi, REICHENB. Handb. sp. Orn. I, 27.—CABAN. Mus. Hein. II, 147. Alcedo cabanisi, TSCHUDI.
SP. CHAR. Head slightly crested. Upper parts, together with a pectoral and abdominal band of blotches, glossy green, as also a line on each side the throat. Under parts generally, a collar on the back of the neck, and a double series of spots on the quills, white. Female with a broad band of chestnut across the breast. Young of both sexes similar to the adult, but white beneath tinged with buff, and marking on breast more obsolete. Length about 8.00; wing, 3.14.
HAB. Rio Grande region of Texas and southward. Localities: Honduras (SCL. P. Z. S. 1858, 358); Bogota (SCL. P. Z. S. 1853, 130); Cordova (SCL. P. Z. S. 1856, 286); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 131); Honduras (Ibis, II, 117); S. E. Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 472, breeds); Colorado River (COUES P. A. N. S. 1866, 59); Costa Rica (LAWR. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 118).
This species is much smaller than the Northern or Belted Kingfisher, and is easily distinguishable by the diagnostic marks already given. The sexes appear to differ, like those of C. alcyon, namely, the female being distinguished by a rufous pectoral band, which is wanting in the male.
Tschudi and Cabanis separate the northern from the more southern bird under the name of C. cabanisi; Tschudi retaining the name of C. americana for specimens resident in eastern South America. The differences are said to consist in the larger size, longer bill, greater extension of the white of the throat, and the decided spotting on the wing-coverts and quills of cabanisi. Though these differences are readily appreciable, they correspond so entirely with natural laws, distinguishing northern and southern individuals of most resident species, that it is only fair to consider them as merely modifications of a single species.
Several other species of Chloroceryle proper are found in Tropical America.
HABITS. So far as is certainly known, this species is only found within our fauna as a bird of Texas, where it is occasional, rather than common, and confined to its western limits. From information received, I am confident that it will yet become known as at least of rare occurrence in Southern Florida, and possibly along the whole gulf coast. It was first noticed as a bird of the United States by Captain McCown, and added to our list by Mr. Lawrence, in 1851. It has since then been occasionally taken near the Rio Grande and in all the northeastern portions of Mexico. It is said to be found nearly throughout Mexico, and to be abundant also in Central America.
Mr. Dresser noticed several of these birds at Matamoras, in August, and afterwards found them common on the Nueces and the Leona Rivers, in which places they were breeding. In December he saw others near Eagle Pass. They were nowhere so abundant as the common belted species.
Dr. Coues states that they have been observed on several points on the Colorado River between Fort Mohave and Fort Yuma,—the only instances of their occurrence in the United States other than on the Rio Grande. We have but little information in regard to their habits, but there is no reason to suppose that they differ in this respect.
Mr. Salvin states that this species occurs abundantly everywhere upon the small streams in the Atlantic coast region, and in the interior of Central America. It was frequently observed near Dueñas, both on the Guacalate and on the outlet of Lake Dueñas. And Mr. J. F. Hamilton, in his Notes on the birds from the province of Santo Paulo, in Brazil, states that he found this species several times in the vicinity of shallow pools, most especially those of which the banks were well wooded. Several times he saw them perched on logs projecting a few feet out of the water. Dr. Burmeister speaks of this bird (var. americana) as the most common species of Kingfisher in Brazil. It is there met with everywhere near the small brooks, on the overhanging branches, and plunging into the water after its prey, which consists especially of small fish. It is less shy than other species, coming quite near to the settlements and being easily shot. Its nest is found in holes in the banks.
Mr. E. C. Taylor also mentions finding this species pretty common in the island of Trinidad, especially among the mangroves in the swamps and lagoons.
Eggs marked as those of Kingfishers were found in the collection of the late Dr. Berlandier, of Matamoras, and are presumed to belong to this species, though no notes in relation to their parentage, and none referring to this bird, were found among his papers. Except in size, they closely resembled eggs of the C. alcyon, being of a pure bright crystal-white color, and measuring 1.06 inches in length by .61 in breadth.
FAMILY CAPRIMULGIDÆ.—THE GOATSUCKERS
CHAR. Bill very short; the gape enormously long and wide, opening to beneath or behind the eyes. Culmen variable. Toes connected by a movable skin; secondaries lengthened; plumage soft, sometimes very full and loose, as in the Owls.
The preceding diagnosis in connection with that of the order will suffice to separate the Caprimulgidæ from their allies. Their closest relatives are the Cypselidæ, next to which perhaps may be reckoned the Trochilidæ.
In defining the subdivisions of this family, we make use of an excellent monograph of the American species by Dr. Sclater, in Proceedings of the Zoölogical Society, London, 1866, 123. He establishes three subfamilies as follows:—
I. Podarginæ. Claw of middle toe not pectinated; outer toe with five phalanges. Sternum with two pairs of posterior fissures.
Outer pair of posterior sternal fissures much deeper than inner pair; tarsus long and naked. Eggs colorless. Podargus, Batrachostomus, Ægotheles, Old World.
Outer pair of posterior fissures much deeper than inner pair; tarsus extremely short and feathered. Nyctibius, New World.
II. Steatornithinæ. Claw of middle toe not pectinated; outer toe with five phalanges. Sternum with one pair of shallow posterior fissures. Eggs colorless. Steatornis, New World.
III. Caprimulginæ. Claw of middle toe pectinated; outer toe with four phalanges only. Sternum with one pair of shallow posterior fissures. Eggs colored (colorless in Antrostomus nuttalli, Baird).
a. Glabrirostres. Rictus smooth. Podager, Lurocalis, Chordeiles, New World. Lyncornis, Eurystopodus, Old World.
b. Setirostres. Rictus armed with strong bristles. Caprimulgus, Scotornis, Macrodipteryx, Old World; Antrostomus, Stenopsis, Hydropsalis, Heleothreptus, Nyctidromus, Siphonorhis, New World.
Dr. Sclater is of the opinion that Podargus may ultimately have to be placed in a different family from the Caprimulgidæ, with or without the other genera placed under Podarginæ; of these Nyctibius, the sole New World genus has species in Middle (including Jamaica) and South America. Steatornis caripensis, the single representative of the second subfamily, is found in Trinidad, Venezuela, and Colombia. It lives in caverns and deep chasms of the rocks, becoming excessively fat (whence the scientific name), and is said to feed on fruits. The bill is large and powerful, more like that of a Hawk than a Goatsucker.
SUBFAMILY CAPRIMULGINÆ
CHAR. Outer toes with four digits only; claw of middle toe pectinated. Sternum with one pair only of sternal fissures or notches. Toes scutellate above. Hind toe directed a little more than half forward, nostrils separated; rather nearer the commissure than the culmen.
The Caprimulginæ have been divided by Dr. Sclater as follows:—
A. Glabrirostres. Rictus smooth.
I. Tarsus stout, longer than middle toe, entirely naked Podager.
II. Tarsus moderate, shorter than middle toe, more or less clothed with feathers.
a. Tail short, almost square Lurocalis.
b. Tail elongated, a little forked Chordeiles.
B. Setirostres. Rictus bristled.
III. Aerial. Tarsi short, more or less clothed.
a. Wings normal, second and third quills longest.
1. Tail moderate, rounded at tip Antrostomus.
2. Tail elongated, even at tip Stenopsis.
3. Tail very long, forked or bifurcate Hydropsalis.
b. Wings abnormal in male; outer six quills nearly equal Heleothreptus.
IV. Terrestrial. Tarsi elongated, naked.
a. Bill moderately broad; nasal aperture scarcely prominent Nyctidromus.
b. Bill very broad; nasal aperture much projecting (Jamaica) Siphonorhis.
[Line drawing: Chordeiles popetue. 1605 ♂]
Of the genera enumerated above, only two certainly belong to the fauna of the United States (Chordeiles and Antrostomus), although there is some reason to suppose that Nyctidromus should be included, as among the manuscript drawings of Dr. Berlandier, of birds collected at Matamoras on the Lower Rio Grande, is one that can be readily referred to no other than N. albicollis. The briefest diagnoses of these three genera will be as follows:—
Chordeiles. Gape without bristles; tarsi moderate, partly feathered; tail narrow, slightly forked; plumage rather compact. Antrostomus. Gape with bristles; tarsi moderate, partly feathered; tail broad, considerably rounded; plumage soft.
Nyctidromus. Gape with bristles; tarsi lengthened, bare; tail broad, rounded; plumage soft.
[102] Nyctidromus albicollis. Caprimulgus albicollis and guianensis, GMELIN, S. N. I, 1788, 1030. Nyctidromus americanus, CASSIN, Pr. A. N. S. 1851, 179. Nyctidromus guianensis, derbyanus, grallarius,—affinis of authors. Nyctidromus albicollis, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1866, 145. Hab. From Northern Mexico southward to Ecuador and Brazil.
GENUS CHORDEILES, SWAINSON.
Chordeiles, SWAINSON, Fauna Bor. Amer. II, 1831, 496. (Type, Caprimulgus virginianus.)
GEN. CHAR. Bill small, the nostrils depressed; the gape with feeble, inconspicuous bristles. Wings long, narrow, and pointed; the first quill nearly or quite equal to the second. Tail rather narrow, slightly forked; plumage quite compact. Habits diurnal or crepuscular.
Many species of this genus belong to America, although but two that are well characterized enter into the fauna of the United States. These are easily distinguished as follows:—
Species and Varieties.
C. popetue. White patch on primaries extending over the five outer quills, anterior to their middle portion. No rufous spots on quills, anterior to the white patch.
a. Dark mottling predominating on upper parts; lower tail-coverts distinctly banded.
Wing, 8.00; tail, 4.40. Hab. Eastern Province of United States and Northwest coast var. popetue.
Wing, 6.90; tail, 4.00. More rufous mottling on scapulars and jugulum, and a decided ochraceous tinge below. Hab. West Indies var. minor.[103]
b. Light mottling predominating on upper parts; lower tail-coverts only very indistinctly and sparsely banded.
Size of var. popetue. Hab. Middle Province of United States var. henryi.
C. acutipennis. White patch on primaries extending over only four outer quills, and beyond their middle portion; distinct rufous spots on quills, anterior to the white patch.
Wing, 6.20 to 6.50; tail, 3.90 to 4.10. Hab. South America var. acutipennis.[104]
Wing, 7.00 to 7.30; tail, 4.40 to 4.75; Colors not appreciably different. Hab. Middle America, north into southern border of United States var. texensis.
[103] Chordeiles popetue, var. minor, CABANIS. Chordeiles minor, CAB. Journ. f. Orn. 1856, p. 5.—SCLATER, Catal. Am. B. 1862, 279. Ch. gundlachi, LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VI, 165.
[104] Chordeiles acutipennis, (BODD.) CASS. Caprimulgus acutipennis, BODDÆRT, Tab. Pl. Enl. p. 46 (1783). Chordeiles a. CASSIN, P. A. N. S. 1851 (Catalogue of Caprimulgidæ, in Mus. Philad. Acad.). Caprimulgus acutus, GMEL. C. pruinosus, TSCHUDI. C. exilis, LESSON. Chordeiles labeculatus, JARDINE. “Caprimulgus semitorquatus, L., GM., PR. MAX.” TSCHUDI. Chordeiles peruvianus, PEALE. Hab. South America.
Chordeiles popetue, var. popetue, BAIRD.
NIGHT-HAWK; BULL-BAT.
Caprimulgus popetue, VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 56, pl. xxiv ♀. Chordeiles popetue, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 151.—LORD, Pr. R. A. Inst. IV, 1864, 113 (Br. Col. nesting).—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 166.—SAMUELS, 122. Caprimulgus americanus, WILSON, V, 1812, 65, pl. cxl. f. 1, 2. Chordeiles americanus, DEKAY, N. Y. Zoöl. II, 1844, 34, pl. xxvii. Caprimulgus virginianus, BRISSON, II, 1760, 477 (in part only).—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 273, pl. cxlvii.—MAX. Cab. J. VI, 1858.—WARTHAUSEN, Cab. J. 1868, 373 (nesting). Caprimulgus (Chordeiles) virginianus, SW. F. Bor.-Am. II. 1831, 62. Chordeiles virginianus, BON. List, 1838.—AUD. Birds Am. I, 1840, 159, pl. xliii.—NEWBERRY, Zoöl. Cal. and Oregon Route, 79; Rep. P. R. R. Surv. VI, 1857. Long-winged Goatsucker, PENNANT, Arctic Zoöl. II, 1785, 337.
SP. CHAR. Male, above greenish-black, but with little mottling on the head and back. Wing-coverts varied with grayish; scapulars with yellowish-rufous. A nuchal band of fine gray mottling, behind which is another coarser one of rufous spots. A white V-shaped mark on the throat; behind this a collar of pale rufous blotches, and another on the breast of grayish mottling. Under parts banded transversely with dull yellowish or reddish-white and brown. Wing-quills quite uniformly brown. The five outer primaries with a white blotch (about half an inch long) midway between the tip and carpal joint, not extending on the outer web of the outer quill. Tail with a terminal white patch, which does not reach the outer edge of the feathers. Female without the caudal white patch, the white tail-bands more mottled, the white of the throat mixed with reddish. Length of male, 9.50; wing, 8.20.
HAB. United States and north to Hudson Bay; in winter visits Greater Antilles, and southward to Central America (Rio Janeiro, PELZELN); said to breed in Jamaica. In Rocky Mountains, replaced by the variety henryi. Localities: Trout Lake, H. B. T. (MURRAY, Edinb. Phil. Journ. 1860); Bahamas (BRYANT, Bost. Soc. VII, 1859); Guatemala. (SCL. Ibis, II, 275); Cuba (LAWR.); Jamaica (MARCH, P. A. N. S. 1863, 285, breeds); Matamoras (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 471, breeds); Rio Janeiro, January (PELZ., Orn. Bras. I, 14); Veragua (SALVIN, P. Z. S. 1870, 203).
HABITS. The common Night-Hawk of North America is a very common species throughout a widely extended area, and within the United States breeds wherever found. Its range extends from Florida and Texas to the extreme northern latitudes, and from the Atlantic at least to the great Central Plains. It has been found as far to the south as Panama.
At Matamoras Mr. Dresser found this species abundant during the summer season, and towards dusk thousands of these birds and of C. texensis and C. henryi might be seen flying in towards the river from the prairies, this one being the least common of the three. In Northern Florida it is also a common species, and I have rarely received any collection of eggs from that State without the eggs of this bird being found among them. They are known there as Bull-bats.
In many of its habits, as well as in its well-marked generic distinctions, this species exhibits so many and such well-marked differences from the Whippoorwill that there seem to be no good reasons for confounding two birds so very unlike. It is especially much less nocturnal, and has, strictly speaking, no claim to its common name, as indicating it to be a bird of the night, which it is not. It is crepuscular, rather than nocturnal, and even this habit is more due to the flight of the insects upon which it feeds at morning and at evening than to any organization of the bird rendering it necessary. It may not unfrequently be seen on the wing, even in bright sunny weather, at midday, in pursuit of its winged prey. This is especially noticeable with such birds as are wont to frequent our large cities, which may be seen throughout all hours of the day sailing high in the air. Generally, however, it is most lively early in the morning and just before nightfall, when its supply of insect food is most abundant. But it is never to be found on the wing after dark. As soon as the twilight deepens into the shades of night all retire to rest as regularly, if not at quite as early an hour, as other birds in regard to the diurnal habits of which there is no question.
This species appears to be equally abundant throughout the fur countries, where, Dr. Richardson states, few birds are better known. In the higher latitudes to which these birds resort the sun does not set during their stay, and all their pursuit of insects must be made by sunlight.
In the winter this species leaves the United States, retiring to Mexico, Central America, and the northern portions of South America. Specimens from Mexico were in the Rivoli collection. They were taken by Barruel in Nicaragua, by Salvin in Guatemala, in Jamaica by Gosse, and in Cuba by both Lembeye and Gundlach.
The movements, evolutions, and general habits of this species, in the pursuit of their prey, bear little resemblance to those of the Antrostomi, but are much more like those of the Falconidæ. They fly high in the air, often so high as to be hardly visible, and traverse the air, moving backward and forward in the manner of a Hawk. At times they remain perfectly stationary for several moments, and then suddenly and rapidly dart off, their wings causing a very peculiar vibratory sound. As they fly they utter a very loud and shrill cry which it is almost impossible to describe, but often appearing to come from close at hand when the bird is high in the air. Richardson compares this sound to the vibration of a tense cord in a violent gust of wind.
In some of the peculiarities of its breeding the Mosquito-Hawk displays several very marked variations of habit from the Whippoorwill. While the latter always deposits its eggs under the cover of shady trees and in thick woods, these birds select an open rock, a barren heath, or an exposed hillside for their breeding-place. This is not unfrequently in wild spots in the vicinity of a wood, but is always open to the sun. I have even known the eggs carelessly dropped on the bare ground in a corner of a potato-field, and have found the female sitting on her eggs in all the bright glare of a noonday sun in June, and to all appearance undisturbed by its brilliance. A more common situation for the eggs is a slight hollow of a bare rock, the dark weather-beaten shades of which, with its brown and slate-colored mosses and lichens, resembling both the parent and the egg in their coloring, are well adapted to screen them from observation or detection.
The great abundance of insect life of certain kinds in the vicinity of our large cities has of late years attracted these birds. Each summer their number in Boston has perceptibly increased, and through June and July, at almost all hours of the day, most especially in the afternoon, they may be seen or heard sailing high in the air over its crowded streets. The modern style of house-building, with flat Mansard roofs, has also added to the inducements, affording safe and convenient shelter to the birds at night, and serving also for the deposition of their eggs. In quite a number of instances in the summers of 1870 and 1871 they were known to lay their eggs and to rear their young on the flat roofs of houses in the southern and western sections of the city. I have also been informed by the late Mr. Turnbull, of Philadelphia, that the flat roofs of large warehouses near the river in that city are made similar use of.
If approached when sitting on her eggs, the female will suffer herself to be almost trodden on before she will leave them, and when she does it is only to tumble at the feet of the intruder and endeavor to draw him away from her treasures by well-feigned lameness and pretended disability. Her imitation of a wounded bird is so perfect as to deceive almost any one not aware of her cunning devices.
The eggs of this bird are always two in number, elliptical in shape, and equally obtuse at either end. They exhibit marked variations in size, in ground-color, and in the shades and number of their markings. In certain characteristics and in their general effect they are alike, and all resemble oblong-oval dark-colored pebble-stones. Their safety in the exposed positions in which they are laid is increased by this resemblance to the stones among which they lie. They vary in length from 1.30 to 1.13 inches, and in breadth from .84 to .94 of an inch. Their ground is of various shades of stone-color, in some of a dirty white, in others with a tinge of yellow or blue, and in yet others a clay-color. The markings are more or less diffused over the entire egg, and differ more or less with each specimen, the prevailing colors being varying shades of slate and of yellowish-brown. With all these variations the eggs are readily recognizable, and bear no resemblance to any others except those of texensis and henryi. From the former they are easily distinguished by the greater size, but from the latter they can only be separated by considerations of locality.
Chordeiles popetue, var. henryi, CASSIN.
WESTERN NIGHT-HAWK.
Chordeiles henryi, CASSIN, Illust. Birds of Cal. & Tex. I, 1855, 233.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 153, pl. xvii.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1866, 133.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 343.
SP. CHAR. Similar to var. popetue, but the male considerably lighter, with a greater predominance of the light mottlings, producing a more grayish aspect; the female more rufous. Wing-patch of the male larger (at least an inch long), and, like the tail-patch, crossing the whole breadth of the feather.
HAB. Western Province of North America, except Pacific Coast region. Matamoras to San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 471); Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 58).
In examining a large series of Night-Hawks, we find the differences indicated above, in specimens from the Black Hills, Rocky Mountains, and the adjacent regions, to be quite decided and constant. Skins, however, from Washington, Oregon, and California, seem darker even than the typical eastern. There is no prominent difference beyond the lighter colors of male, and greater distinctness, extent, and purity of the white or light markings, and in the white patches of wing and tail, crossing the outer webs of all the feathers; the general proportions and pattern of coloration being quite the same. It will therefore seem proper to consider C. henryi as a local race, characteristic of the region in which it occurs, and as such noteworthy, but not entitled to independent rank.
Another race, C. minor, Cab., similar to var. popetue, but considerably smaller (7.50, wing, 7.00), is resident in Cuba and Jamaica. C. popetue is also said to breed in the latter island, but minor is probably referred to.
HABITS. This form, whether we regard it as a good species, or only a western race of the common Night-Hawk, was first described as a new variety by Mr. Cassin, in 1855, from specimens procured at Fort Webster, New Mexico, by Dr. Henry, in honor of whom it was named. Its claim to be considered a distinct race or species rests chiefly upon its constantly different colorations.
Dr. Cooper, who regarded this form not specifically distinct from the Night-Hawk, states that it is not found near the coast border of California.
Dr. Kennerly encountered it in abundance in the vicinity of Los Nogales, in Sonora, in June. Late in the afternoon they came in great numbers around the camp. They kept circling round and round, and approached the earth nearer and nearer with the declining sun.
Mr. Dresser found them very abundant at Matamoras, and as far east as the Sal Colorado, beyond which he did not meet with any. About dusk, thousands of these birds might be seen flying in towards the river from the prairies. At San Antonio, where Mr. Dresser found both C. popetue and C. texensis, he never procured a single specimen of this bird, nor did Dr. Heermann ever meet with one there.
Dr. Coues says these birds are abundant throughout the Territory of Arizona. At Fort Whipple it is a summer resident, arriving in April and remaining until October, being particularly numerous in August and September. Mr. Drexler made a large collection of these birds at Fort Bridger, in Utah, all of which showed such constant differences from eastern specimens as to indicate in his opinion the propriety of a specific separation.
An egg of this bird taken at Fort Crook, California, by Lieutenant Fulner, measures 1.25 inches in length by .92 of an inch in breadth. While resembling in general effect an egg of C. popetue, it is lighter in colorings, and varies from any of that bird I have ever seen. Its ground-color is that of clay, over which are diffused curious aggregations of small spots and cloudings of yellowish-brown, mingled with lilac. These markings are quite small and separate, but are grouped in such close proximity into several collections as to give them the appearance of large blotches; and the blending of these two shades is so general as to produce the effect of a color quite different from either, except upon a close inspection, or an examination through a magnifying glass.
This variety was met with at the Forks of the Saskatchewan, in June, 1858, by Captain Blakiston, and specimens were obtained on the Saskatchewan Plains, by M. Bourgeau, in the summer of the same year. The latter also procured its eggs. These are said to have been three in number, described as light olive, blotched with black more thickly at one end than the other. No mention of shape is made. This description, incomplete as it is, indicates a great dissimilarity with eggs of this bird, fully identified in the Smithsonian collection.
The western variety was met with by Mr. Ridgway throughout the entire extent of his route across the Great Basin. It bred everywhere, laying its eggs on the bare ground, beneath a sage-bush, usually on the foot-hills of the mountains, or on the mesas. In August and September they congregate in immense flocks, appearing in the evening. Not the slightest difference in habits, manners, or notes, was observed between this and the eastern Night-Hawk.
Chordeiles acutipennis, var. texensis, LAWRENCE.
TEXAS NIGHT-HAWK.
Chordeiles brasilianus, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyceum, V, May, 1851, 114 (not of GMELIN).—CASSIN, Ill. I, 1855, 238. Chordeiles sapiti, BON. Conspectus Avium, I, 1849, 63. Chordeiles texensis, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VI, Dec. 1856, 167.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 154, pl. xliv.—IB. M. B. II, Birds, 7, pl. vi.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 345. Caprimulgus texensis, WARTHAUSEN, Cab. J. 1868, 376 (nesting).
SP. CHAR. Much smaller than C. virginianus, but somewhat similar. White on the wing extending over only four outer primaries, the bases of which, as well as the remaining ones, with other quills, have round rufous spots on both webs. Under tail-coverts and abdomen with a strong yellowish-rufous tinge. Female more rufous and without the white spot of the tail. Length, 8.75; wing, 7.00.
HAB. Basins of Rio Grande, Gila, and Colorado Rivers, and west to Gulf of California; South as far, at least, as Costa Rica. Localities: Matamoras to San Antonio (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 471, breeds); W. Arizona (COUES; P. A. N. S. 1866, 58); Costa Rica (LAWR. An. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 120); Yucatan (LAWR. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 204).
The markings of this species are quite different from those of Chordeiles popetue. In average specimens the prevailing color above may be described as a mixed gray, yellowish-rusty, black, and brown, in varied but very fine mottlings. The top of the head is rather uniformly brown, with a few mottlings of grayish-rusty, although the concealed portion of the feathers is much varied. On the nape is a finely mottled collar of grayish and black, not very conspicuously defined, and rather interrupted on the median line. A similar collar is seen on the forepart of the breast. The middle of the back and the rump exhibit a coarser mottling of the same without any rufous. The scapulars and wing-coverts are beautifully variegated, much as in some of the Waders, the pattern very irregular and scarcely capable of definition. There are, however, a good many large round spots of pale yellowish-rusty, very conspicuous among the other markings. There is quite a large blotch of white on the wing, situated considerably nearer the tip than the carpal joint. It only involves four primaries, and extends across both outer and inner webs. The four first primaries anterior to the white blotches, and the remaining ones nearly from their tips, exhibit a series of large round rufous spots not seen in the other North American species. The other wing-quills have also similar markings. There is a large V-shaped white mark on the throat, as in C. virginianus, though rather larger proportionally. Posterior to this there are some rather conspicuous blotches of rufous, behind which is the obscure finely mottled collar of gray and brown already referred to. The breast and remaining under parts are dull white transversely banded with brown, with a strong tinge of yellowish-rufous on the abdomen, about the vent, and on the under tail-coverts. The tail is dark brown with about eight transverse bars of lighter; the last are white, and extend across both vanes; the others less continuous, and yellowish-rufous beneath as well as above, especially on the inner vane.
The females are quite similar, but lack the white patch of the tail, have more numerous rufous spots on quills, and are perhaps more fulvous in general appearance. Young birds, however, would hardly be recognized as the same, except when taken with adults, owing to the predominance of a pale cinnamon shade above, and a decided tinge of the same on all the white and gray markings. Nearly all the primaries have a border of this color.
The variety acutipennis of South America (see synopsis) is very similar, differing merely in smaller dimensions.
HABITS. The Texan Night-Hawk occurs in the valley of the Rio Grande from Texas on the east, through New Mexico, Arizona, Southern California, and Cape San Lucas. It is found in the northern provinces of Mexico during the summer months, and thence southward to Central America. It was found at Dueñas, in Guatemala, by Mr. Salvin, and also at Coban. Mr. Xantus found it breeding at Cape San Lucas in May.
This species was first added to our fauna by Mr. Lawrence, in 1851, as a bird of Texas, supposed to be C. brasilianus, and in 1856 described by the same writer as a new species.
According to Dr. Cooper, it makes its first appearance at Fort Mohave by the 17th of April, and soon after becomes quite numerous, hunting in companies after sunset, and hiding during the day on the ground under low bushes. By the 25th of May they had all paired, but continued nearly silent, making only a low croaking when approached. They flew in the manner of the common species, but seemed to sail in rather smaller circles. Dr. Cooper found them as far west as the Coast Mountains.
Dr. Coues states that this species is common in the Colorado Valley, even farther north than the latitude of Fort Whipple. It was not, however, met with by him at that port, nor indeed for some fifty miles to the south of it, and then only in the summer. He adds that it extends from the Rio Grande Valley westward to the Pacific. It was found abundant at Cape St. Lucas by Dr. Xantus.
Mr. Dresser found it very common at Matamoras during the summer season, and thence to San Antonio and to the eastward of that place. At San Antonio, in the spring, he first noticed them on the 2d of May, when he saw seven or eight flying about at noonday. A few days later they had become very numerous. They remained about San Antonio until the end of September, and soon after disappeared. He noticed none later than the first week in October.
Mr. J. H. Clark met with this species at Ringgold Barracks, Texas, in June. They were to be seen sitting about in the heat of the day, at which time they could be easily approached. During the hottest days they did not sally forth in quest of food until late in the evening. On one occasion, near El Paso, Mr. Clark saw these birds congregated in such quantities over a mud-hole from which were issuing myriads of insects, that he felt that the discharge among them of mustard-seed shot would involve a wanton destruction. This species is not known, according to his account, to make a swoop in the manner of the common species. It does not utter the same hoarse sounds, nor does it ever fly so high.
Among the notes of the late Dr. Berlandier, of Matamoras, we find references to this species, to which he gives the common name of Pauraque, and in his collection of eggs are many that unquestionably are those of this bird, and which are, in all respects but size, in close affinity to the eggs of the common Night-Hawk. These eggs measure 1.18 inches in length by .87 of an inch in breadth. Their ground-color, seen through a magnifying glass, is of clear crystal whiteness, but is so closely covered by overlaying markings as not to be discernible to the eye. They are marked over the entire surface with small irregular confluent spots and blotches, which are a blending of black, umber, and purplish-gray markings. These combinations give to the egg the appearance of a piece of polished marble of a dark gray color. They are both smaller and of a lighter color than those of the common eastern bird.
GENUS ANTROSTOMUS, GOULD.
Antrostomus, GOULD, ICONES AVIUM, 1838. (Type, Caprimulgus carolinensis, GM.)
GEN. CHAR. Bill very small, with tubular nostrils, and the gape with long, stiff, sometimes pectinated bristles projecting beyond the end of the bill. Tarsi moderate, partly feathered above. Tail broad, rounded; wings broad and rounded; first quill shorter than third; plumage soft and lax. Habit nocturnal.
In what the genus Antrostomus really differs from Caprimulgus proper, we are quite unable to say, as in the many variations of form of both New and Old World species of these two divisions respectively, it is said to be not difficult to find species in each, almost identical in form. In the want of suitable material for comparison, we shall follow Sclater in using Antrostomus for the New World species.
Species and Varieties.[105]
A. Bristles of gape with lateral filaments. Light tail-spaces confined to inner web of feathers.
Dark markings on crown longitudinal. Ochraceous or white gular collar in form of a narrow band across jugulum.
A. carolinensis. Throat ochraceous, with sparse, narrow, transverse bars of black; jugular collar more whitish, with broader but more distant black bars. Crissum barred, and inner webs of primaries with black prevailing. Wing, 8.90; tail, 6.30. Hab. Louisianian region of the Eastern Province of United States (Florida and the Carolinas to Arkansas). Costa Rica.
B. Bristles of gape without lateral filaments; light tail-spaces covering both webs.
a. Throat black, with sparse, narrow, transverse bars of pale brown. Crissum barred, and inner webs of primaries with black greatly predominating.
A. macromystax. Crown pale brown and whitish very coarsely mottled with dusky; lower parts clouded with whitish, in conspicuous contrast with the ground color. Light tail patch restricted to less than terminal third, and decreasing in breadth toward the middle feathers. Bristles of gape enormously long and stout; bill compressed, nostrils large.
White patch on end of tail confined to three outer feathers, and decreasing very rapidly in extent to the inner. Wing, 6.60; tail, 5.30; rictal bristles, 1.40. Hab. Mexico (Mirador, La Parada) var. macromystax.[106]
White patch on end of tail, on four outer feathers, and just appreciably decreasing in extent toward the inner. Wing, 7.00; tail, 5.50; rictal bristles, 2.00. Hab. Cuba var. cubanensis.[107]
A. vociferus. Crown ash, finely mottled or minutely sprinkled with dusky; lower parts without whitish cloudings. White tail-patch covering more than terminal half, and decreasing in breadth toward the outer feather. Bristles of gape moderate, slender; bill weaker, less compressed, and nostrils smaller. Wing, 6.40; tail, 5.10; rictal bristles, 1.50 or less. Hab. Eastern Province of North America, south to Guatemala.
Dark markings of crown transverse. Gular collar pure white, covering nearly whole throat.
b. Throat pure white, without any markings. Crissum immaculate; inner webs of primaries with ochraceous very largely predominating.
A. nuttalli. White space of tail occupying about the terminal fourth, or less, on three feathers, and gradually decreasing inwardly. Wing, 5.75; tail, 3.90; rictal bristles less than 1.00. Hab. Western Province of United States, from the Plains to the Pacific.
[105] The females differ simply in having the light tail-space much reduced in size, and dull ochraceous, instead of whitish; in that of carolinensis it is wanting altogether.
[106] Antrostomus macromystax (WAGL.?) SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1866, 137 (La Parada, Mex.). ? Caprimulgus macromystax, WAGL. Isis, 1831, p. 533.
[107] Antrostomus macromystax, var. cubanensis (LAWR.) Antrostomus cubanensis, LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VII, May, 1860, p. 260.
Antrostomus carolinensis, GOULD.
CHUCK-WILL’S WIDOW.
Caprimulgus carolinensis, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 1028.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 273, pl. lii; V, 1839, 401.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 151, pl. xli.—WARTHAUSEN, Cab. J. 1868, 368 (nesting). Antrostomus carolinensis, GOULD, Icones Avium, 1838?—CASSIN, Illust. N. Am. Birds, I, 1855, 236.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 147.—ALLEN, B. Fla. 300. _Caprimulgus rufus_, VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 57, pl. xxv (♀). Caprimulgus brachypterus, STEPHENS, Shaw’s Zoöl. X, I, 1825? 150. Short-winged Goatsucker, PENNANT, Arctic Zoöl. II, 1785, 434.
[Line drawing: Antrostomus carolinensis. 6493 ♂]
SP. CHAR. Bristles of the bill with lateral filaments. Wing nearly nine inches long. Top of the head finely mottled reddish-brown, longitudinally streaked with black. The prevailing shade above and below pale rufous. Terminal two-thirds of the tail-feathers (except the four central) rufous white; outer webs of all mottled, however, nearly to the tips. Female without the white patch on the tail. Length, 12.00; wing, 8.50.
HAB. South Atlantic and Gulf States to Veragua; Cuba in winter. Cuba (CABAN. J. IV, 6, winter); San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 70, breeds); Costa Rica (LAWR. IX, 120); Veragua (SALVIN, P. Z. S. 1870, 303).
This, according to Sclater, is the largest of the Antrostomi and the only species with lateral filaments to the bristles of the mouth.
The extent of the white spaces on the inner webs of tail-feathers varies with the individual, but in none does it occupy less than the terminal half.
The A. rufus (Caprimulgus rufus, BODD. et GMEL. ex Pl. Enl. 735 (?); Antrostomus r. SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1866, 136; A. rutilus, BURM. Syst. Ueb. II, 385) and A. ornatus (SCL. P. Z. S. 1866, 586, pl. xlv), of South America, appear to be the nearest relatives of this species, agreeing very closely in coloration; but both have the rictal bristles simple, without lateral filaments, and would thus seem to be distinct species. In the latter, the white spaces of the tail are found only on the second and third feathers, instead of on the outer three, while the former is said to have no such markings at all.
HABITS. The exact extent of the geographical range of this species is not very clearly defined. Rarely anywhere a very abundant species, it is more common throughout Florida than in any other State. It is also found, more or less frequently, in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Dr. Woodhouse mentions finding it common in the Creek and Cherokee countries of the Indian Territory, and also extending into Texas and New Mexico. Mr. Dresser noticed several of this species on the Medina River, in Texas, April 28, and afterwards in May. On the 18th of the same month he again found it very numerous at New Braunfels, and also, on the 20th, at Bastrop. Dr. Heermann states that these birds visit the neighborhood of San Antonio in the spring, and remain there to raise their young.
James River, Virginia, has been assigned as the extreme northern limit of its migrations, but I can find no evidence of its occurring so far north, except as an accidental visitant. Wilson, indeed, claims to have met with it between Richmond and Petersburg, and also on the Cumberland River. Dr. Bachman states that it is not a common bird even in the neighborhood of Charleston. Mr. Audubon, who claimed to be a very close and careful observer of the habits of this species, states that it is seldom to be met with beyond the then southern limits of the Choctaw nation, in Mississippi, or the Carolinas on the Atlantic coast.
I have been informed by Dr. Kollock that these birds are rather common at Cheraw, in the northern part of South Carolina. Dr. Bryant found them quite abundant near Indian River, in Florida, though he makes no mention of them in his paper on the birds of that State. Mr. Cassin informed me that Colonel McCall met with this bird in New Mexico. Lembeye includes it among the birds of Cuba, but in reality refers to cubanensis.
These birds, according to Mr. Audubon, are not residents, but make their appearance within the United States about the middle of March. They are nocturnal in their habits, remaining silent and keeping within the shady recesses of the forests during the daytime. As soon as the sun has disappeared and the night insects are in motion, this species issues forth from its retreat, and begins to give utterance to the peculiar cries from which it receives its trivial name, and which are said to resemble the syllables chuck-wills-wi-dow. These sounds are said to be repeated with great rapidity, yet with clearness and power, six or seven times in as many seconds. They are only uttered for a brief period in the early evening.
Mr. Audubon states that deep ravines, shady swamps, and extensive pine groves, are resorted to by this species for safety during the day, and for food during the night. Their notes are seldom heard in cloudy weather, and never during rain. They roost in hollow trees, standing as well as prostrate, which they never leave by day except during incubation. He adds that whenever he has surprised them in such situations they never attempt to make their escape by flying out, but draw back to the farthest corner, ruffle their feathers, open their mouths to the fullest extent, and utter a hissing sound. When taken to the light, they open and close their eyes in rapid succession, snap their bills in the manner of a Flycatcher, and attempt to shuffle off. When given their liberty, they fly straight forward until quite out of sight, readily passing between the trees in their course.
The flight of this bird is light, like that of the Whippoorwill, and even more elevated and graceful. It is performed by easy flapping of the wings, with occasional sailings and curving sweeps. It sweeps, at night, over the open fields, ascending, descending, or sailing with graceful motions in pursuit of night beetles, moths, and other insects, repeatedly passing and repassing over the same area, and occasionally alighting on the ground to capture its prey. Occasionally it pauses to alight on a stake or a tall plant, and again utters its peculiar refrain, and then resumes its search for insects. And thus it passes pleasant summer nights.
Like all the birds of this family, the Chuck-will’s Widow makes no nest, but deposits her eggs on the ground, often among a collection of dry deciduous leaves, in the forest. These are two in number, and the spot chosen for them are thickets, and the darker and more solitary portions of woods. Dr. Bryant, who took several of their eggs in Florida, informed me that they were in each instance found deposited on beds of dry leaves, but with no attempt at any nest, and always in thick woods.
Sometimes, Mr. Audubon thinks, the parent bird scratches a small space on the ground, among the leaves, before she deposits her eggs. If either their eggs or their young are meddled with, these birds are sure to take the alarm and transport them to some distant part of the forest. In this both parents take part. After this removal Mr. Audubon found it impossible, even with the aid of a dog, to find them again. On one occasion he actually witnessed the act of removal of the eggs, and presumed that they also treat the young in the same manner when they are quite small. The eggs were carried off in the capacious mouths of these birds, each parent taking one and flying off, skimming closely to the ground until lost to sight among the branches and the trees. To what distance they were carried he was unable to ascertain.
During the period of incubation they are silent, and do not repeat their peculiar cries until just before they are preparing to depart on their southern migrations, in August.
The food of these birds consists chiefly, if not altogether, of the larger nocturnal insects, for swallowing which their mouths are admirably adapted, opening with a prodigious expansion, and assisted by numerous long bristles, which prevent the escape of an insect once within their enclosure. In a single instance the remains of a small bird are said to have been found within the stomach of one of this species.
The inner side of each middle claw of the Chuck-will’s Widow is deeply pectinated. The apparent use of this appendage, as in the other species in which it is found, appears to be as an aid in adjusting the plumage, and perhaps to assist in removing vermin.
The eggs of this bird are never more than two in number. They are oval in shape, large for the size of the bird, and alike at either end. Their ground-color is a clear crystal white. They are more or less spotted, and marked over their entire surface with blotches of varying size, of a dark purplish-brown, and cloudings of a grayish-lavender color, with smaller occasional markings of a light raw-umber brown. In shape and markings they very closely resemble those of the Whippoorwill, differing chiefly in their much larger size. They measure 1.44 inches in length by 1.06 in breadth.
Antrostomus vociferus, BONAP.
WHIPPOORWILL.
Caprimulgus vociferus, WILSON, Am. Orn. V, 1812, 71, pl. xli, f. 1, 2, 3.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 443; V, 405, pl. lxxxv.—IB. Birds Am. I, 1840, 155, pl. xlii.—MAX. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 98. Antrostomus vociferus, BONAP. List, 1838.—CASSIN, J. A. N. Sc. II, 1852, 122.—IB. Ill. I, 1855, 236.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 148.—SAMUELS, 119.—ALLEN, B. Fla. 300. _Caprimulgus virginianus_, VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, 55, pl. xxv. “Caprimulgus clamator, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. X, 1817, 234” (CASSIN). Caprimulgus vociferans, WARTHAUSEN, Cab. J. 1868, 369 (nesting).
SP. CHAR. Bristles without lateral filaments. Wing about 6.50 inches long. Top of the head ashy-brown, longitudinally streaked with black. Terminal half of the tail-feathers (except the four central) dirty white on both outer and inner webs. Length, 10.00; wing, 6.50. Female without white on the tail.
HAB. Eastern United States to the Plains; south to Guatemala (Tehuantepec, Orizaba, Guatemala). Coban (SALV. Ibis, II, 275).
In this species the bristles at the base of the bill, though stiff and long, are without the lateral filaments of the Chuck-will’s Widow. The wings are rather short; the second quill longest; the first intermediate between the third and fourth. The tail is rounded; the outer feathers about half an inch shorter than the middle ones.
The colors of this species are very difficult to describe, although there is quite a similarity to those of A. carolinensis, from which its greatly inferior size will at once distinguish it. The top of the head is an ashy gray, finely mottled, with a broad median stripe of black; all the feathers with a narrow stripe of the same along their centres. The back and rump are somewhat similar, though of a different shade. There is a collar of white on the under side of the neck, posterior to which the upper part of the breast is finely mottled, somewhat as on the top of the head. The belly is dirty white, with indistinct transverse bands and mottlings of brown. The wings are brown; each quill with a series of round rufous spots on both webs, quite conspicuous on the outer side of the primaries when the wings are folded. The terminal half of the outer three tail-feathers is of a dirty white.
The female is smaller; the collar on the throat is tinged with fulvous. The conspicuous white patch of the tail is wanting, the tips only of the outer three feathers being of a pale brownish-fulvous.
Mexican and Guatemalan specimens are identical with those from the United States.
HABITS. The well-known Whippoorwill has an extended range throughout the eastern portion of North America, from the Atlantic to the valley of the Missouri, and from Southern Florida to about the 50th parallel of north latitude. Dr. Richardson observed this bird on the northern shores of Lake Huron, but did not meet with it at any point farther north. It is found throughout New England and in portions of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but is rare in the latter places, and is not common in the vicinity of Calais. It breeds from Florida northward. It has not been found as far west as Texas. It was noticed by Mr. Say at Pembina. It is given by Dr. Hall, of Montreal, as common in that neighborhood, and by Mr. McIlwraith as an abundant summer resident around Hamilton, Canada. Dr. Lembeye names it as a resident Cuban species, and Dr. Gundlach informed me that he had taken its eggs within that island. I have also received its eggs from various portions of Florida.
The Whippoorwill is nowhere a resident species in any portion of the United States. They make their appearance in the Southern States early in March, and very gradually proceed northward, entering Pennsylvania early in April, but not being seen in New York or New England until the last of that month, and sometimes not until the 10th of May. Mr. Maynard mentions their first appearance in Massachusetts as from the 19th to the 24th of May, but I have repeatedly known them in full cry near Boston at least a fortnight earlier than this, and in the western part of the State Mr. Allen has noted their arrival by the 25th of April. They leave in the latter part of September. Mr. Allen also observed the abundant presence of these birds in Western Iowa, where he heard their notes as late as the 20th of September.
In its habits the Whippoorwill is very nearly the counterpart of the carolinensis. Like that bird, it is exclusively nocturnal, keeping, during the day, closely within the recesses of dark woods, and remaining perfectly silent, uttering no note even when disturbed in these retreats. In very cloudy weather, late in the day, these birds may be seen hunting for insects, but this is not usual, and they utter no sound until it is quite dark.
Like the preceding species, this bird receives its common name of Whippoorwill from its nocturnal cry, which has some slight resemblance to these three sounds; but the cry is so rapidly enunciated and so incessantly repeated that a fertile imagination may give various interpretations to the sounds. They are never uttered when the bird is in motion, but usually at short intervals, when resting on a fence, or bush, or any other object near the ground.
Their flight is noiseless to an incredible degree, and they rarely fly far at a time. They are usually very shy, and are easily startled if approached. At night, as soon as the twilight disappears, these birds issue from their retreats, and fly out into more open spaces in quest of their favorite food. As many of the nocturnal insects, moths, beetles, and others, are attracted about dwellings by lights, the Whippoorwill is frequently enticed, in pursuit, into the same vicinity. For several successive seasons these birds have appeared nearly every summer evening within my grounds, often within a few feet of the house. They never suffer a very near approach, but fly as soon as they notice any movement. Their pursuit of insects is somewhat different from that narrated of the preceding species, their flights being usually quite brief, without any perceptible sailing, and more in the manner of Flycatchers. Their song is given out at intervals throughout the night, until near the dawn.
The nocturnal habits of this bird have prevented a general or accurate knowledge of its true character. Strange as it may seem, in many parts of the country the Night-Hawk and the Whippoorwill are supposed to be one and the same bird, even by those not ill informed in other respects. This was found to be the case in Pennsylvania by Wilson, and is equally true of many portions of New England, though disputed by Mr. Audubon.
Like the Chuck-will’s Widow, this species removes its eggs, and also its young, to a distant and safer locality, if they are visited and handled. Wilson once, in passing through a piece of wood, came accidentally upon a young bird of this species. The parent attempted to draw him away by well-feigned stratagems. Wilson stopped and sketched the bird, and, returning again, after a short absence, to the same place, in search of a pencil he had left behind, found that the bird had been spirited away by its vigilant parent.
When disturbed by an intrusive approach, the Whippoorwill resorts to various expedients to divert attention to herself from her offspring. She flutters about as if wounded and unable to fly, beats the ground with her wings as if not able to rise from it, and enacts these feints in a manner to deceive even the most wary, risking her own life to save her offspring.
The Whippoorwills construct no nest, but deposit their eggs in the thickest and most shady portions of the woods, among fallen leaves, in hollows slightly excavated for that purpose, or upon the leaves themselves. For this purpose elevated and dry places are always selected, often near some fallen log. There they deposit two eggs, elliptical in shape. Their young, when first hatched, are perfectly helpless, and their safety largely depends upon their great similarity to small pieces of mouldy earth. They grow rapidly, and are soon able to follow their mother and to partially care for themselves.
The egg of the Whippoorwill has a strong family resemblance to those of both species of European Caprimulgi, and is a complete miniature of that of A. carolinensis. In shape it is oblong and oval, equally obtuse at either end. Resembling the egg of the Chuck-will’s Widow, it is yet more noticeable for the purity of its colors and the beauty of their contrast. The ground-color is a clear and pure shade of cream-white. The whole egg is irregularly spotted and marbled with lines and patches of purplish-lavender, mingled with reddish-brown. The former are fainter, and as if partially obscured, the brown usually much more distinct. The eggs measure 1.25 inches in length by .88 of an inch in breadth. Wilson’s account of its egg is wholly inaccurate.
In the extreme Southern States these eggs are deposited in April, in Virginia and Pennsylvania about the middle of May, and farther north not until early in June. The young are hatched and able to care for themselves during July, but, with the female, rarely leave the woods. The notes of the male are once more occasionally heard in August. Mr. Allen has heard them late in September, but I have never happened to notice their cries later than August.
Mr. Nuttall states that the young of these birds, at an early age, run about with remarkable celerity, and that they utter, at short intervals a pé-ūgh, in a low mournful tone. Their food appears to consist of various kinds of nocturnal insects, besides ants, grasshoppers, and other kinds not nocturnal, frequenting decaying wood and shady thickets.
[Line drawing: Left foot of Antrostomus vociferus.]
[Line drawing: Left foot of Nyctibius jamaicensis.]
Antrostomus nuttalli, CASSIN.
NUTTALL’S WHIPPOORWILL; POOR-WILL.
Caprimulgus nuttalli, AUD. Birds Am. VII, 1843, pl. ccccxcv, Appendix. Antrostomus nuttalli, CASSIN, J. A. N. Sc. Phila. 2d series, II, 1852, 123.—IB. Ill. I, 1855, 237.—NEWBERRY, Zoöl. Cal. and Oregon Route, 77; Rep. P. R. R. Surv. VI, IV.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 149.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 166.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 341.
SP. CHAR. Rictal bristles without any lateral filaments; wing, about 5.50; the top of the head hoary gray, with narrow and transverse, not longitudinal bands. Tail above, except the central feathers, nearly black on the terminal half, the extreme tip only (in the outer feather of each side) being white for nearly an inch, diminishing on the second and third. Length, 8.00; wing, 5.50. Female without the white tip of tail. Audubon describes the male as follows: “Bill, black; iris, dark hazel; feet, reddish-purple; scales and claws, darker; general color of upper parts dark brownish-gray, lighter on the head and medial tail-feathers, which extend half an inch beyond the others, all which are minutely streaked and sprinkled with brownish-black and ash-gray. Quills and coverts dull cinnamon color, spotted in bars with brownish-black; tips of former mottled with light and dark brown; three lateral tail-feathers barred with dark brown and cinnamon, and tipped with white. Throat brown, annulated with black; a band of white across foreneck; beneath the latter black, mixed with bars of light yellowish-gray and black lines. Under tail-coverts dull yellow. Length, 7.25; wing, 5.75; bill, edge, .19; second and third quills nearly equal. Tail to end of upper feathers, 3.50; tarsus, .63; middle toe, .63; claw, .25; strongly pectinated.”
HAB. High Central Plains to the Pacific coast. San Antonio, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 471, breeds); W. Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 58); Guanajuata, Mex. (SALVIN, p. 1014).
Nuttall’s Whippoorwill is readily distinguished from the other North American species by the transverse, not longitudinal, lines on the top of head, the narrow white tip of tail on both webs, and the inferior size, as well as by numerous other points of difference.
HABITS. This species was first described by Mr. Audubon from a specimen obtained near the Rocky Mountains, but with no information in regard to any peculiarities of habit. From Mr. Nuttall we learn that these birds were first observed by him on the 10th of June, amidst the naked granite hills of the sources of the Upper Platte River, called Sweet-Water. It was about twilight, and from the clefts of the rocks they were uttering at intervals a low wailing cry, in the manner of the Whippoorwill, and sounding like the cry of the young of that species, or pē-cū. Afterwards, on the 7th of August, when encamped on the high ravine of the insulated mountains so conspicuous from Lewis River, called the Three Buttes, this bird was again observed, as it flew from under a stone near the summit of the mountain. It flew about hawking for insects near their elevated camp, for two or three hours, but was now silent. On the 16th of June, near the banks of the Sandy River of the Colorado, Mr. Nuttall again heard its nocturnal cry, which he says sounded like pēvai.
Dr. Cooper did not meet with this bird in the Colorado Valley, but he heard their nocturnal call, which he says sounds like poor-will, on the barren mountains west of the valley, in May. He has never seen or heard any west of the Coast Range, nor in the Santa Clara Valley in the spring. They are, however, said to be common in the hot interior valleys, and remain near San Francisco as late as November, usually hiding on the ground, and flying at dusk in short, fitful courses in pursuit of insects. Dr. Cooper adds that they inhabit the almost bare and barren sage-plains east of the Sierra Nevada, where their rather sad whistle is heard all night during the spring, sounding like an echoing answer to the cry of the eastern species.
Dr. Suckley, in the Report on the Zoölogy of Washington Territory, speaks of this species as moderately abundant in the interior of that Territory, as well as of Oregon. East of the Cascade Mountains, at Fort Dalles, they can be heard on almost any fine night in spring or early summer. Their cries closely resemble those of the vociferus, but are more feeble, and not so incessantly kept up. Dr. Cooper, in the same report, also speaks of finding this bird common near the Yakima River, in 1853. Two specimens were killed in the daytime by a whip. Late in the evening he found them flying near the ground. Dr. Woodhouse, in passing down the Little Colorado River, in New Mexico, found this bird quite abundant, as also among the San Francisco Mountains.
Dr. Newberry met with this species in all the parts of California and Oregon visited by him. Near the shores of Rhett Lake he met with its nest containing two young nearly ready to fly. The old bird fluttered off as if disabled, and by her cries and strange movements induced one of the party to pursue her. The young resembled those of the eastern species, were of a gray-brown color, marbled with black, and had large, dark, and soft eyes. They were quite passive when caught.
This species was observed by Mr. J. H. Clark near Rio Mimbres, in New Mexico. From the manner in which it flew, it seemed so similar to the Woodcock that until a specimen was obtained it was supposed to belong to that family. He saw none east of the Rio Grande, but met with it as far west as Santa Cruz. It was nowhere abundant, and was generally solitary. It was found usually among the tall grass of the valleys, and occasionally on the plains. It was only once observed to alight upon a bush, but almost invariably, when started up, it flew down again among the grass at a short distance.
A single specimen of this bird was taken by Dr. Kennerly on the Great Colorado River. Dr. Heermann met with two specimens among the mountains bordering the Tejon Valley, and he was informed by Dr. Milhau that a small species of Whippoorwill was abundant round that fort in the spring and summer.
Dr. Heermann killed one of these birds on the Medina, in Texas; and during the summer, passing along Devil’s River, he heard their notes every evening, and judged that the birds were abundant. Mr. Dresser obtained a single specimen, shot near the town of San Antonio, where it was of uncommon occurrence. He received also another specimen from Fort Stockton. During his stay at Matamoras he did not notice this bird, but was informed that a kind resembling this species was very common at a rancho about twenty-five miles distant, on the Monterey road. Dr. Coues found this species particularly abundant throughout Arizona. At Fort Whipple it was a summer resident, arriving there late in April and remaining until October. So numerous was it in some localities, that around the campfires of the traveller a perfect chorus of their plaintive two-syllabled notes was continued incessantly through the night, some of the performers being so near that the sharp click of their mandibles was distinctly audible.
Mr. J. A. Allen found this species abundant on the lower parts of the mountains in Colorado, and heard the notes of scores of them near the mouth of Ogden Cañon on several occasions after nightfall. Though so numerous, all efforts to procure specimens were futile, as it did not usually manifest its presence till after it became too dark for it to be clearly distinguished. He saw it last, October 7, during a severe snow-storm on the mountains north of Ogden. It had been quite common during the greater part of September. He also met with this bird at an elevation of 7,000 feet. He had previously ascertained its presence throughout Kansas from Leavenworth to Fort Hays.
From these varied observations the range of this species may be given as from the valley of the Rio Grande and the more northern States of Mexico, throughout New Mexico, Arizona, and the Great Plains nearly to the Pacific, in California, Oregon, and Washington Territory.
The egg of this species (13,587) was obtained among the East Humboldt Mountains, by Mr. Robert Ridgway, July 20, 1868. Its measurement is 1.06 inches in length by .81 of an inch in breadth. It is of a regularly elliptical form, being equally rounded at either end. Its color is a clear dead-white, entirely unspotted. The egg was found deposited on the bare ground beneath a sage-bush, on a foot-slope of the mountains. The nest was nothing more than a bare spot, apparently worn by the body of the bird. When found, the male bird was sitting on the egg, and was shot as it flew from the spot.
Mr. Salvin (Ibis, III, p. 64) mentions taking, April 20, 1860, on the mountains of Santa Barbara, Central America, a species of Antrostomus, a female, with two eggs. This is spoken of as nearly allied to, perhaps identical with, A. vociferus. Its eggs are, however, spoken of as white, measuring 1.05 inches by .80 of an inch, almost exactly the size of the eggs of this species. Mr. Salvin adds: “I do not quite understand these eggs being white, except by supposing them to be accidentally so. In other respects, i. e. in form and texture, they agree with the eggs of other species of Caprimulgidæ. These eggs, two in number, were on the ground at the foot of a large pine-tree. There was no nest.”
In regard to the parentage of the eggs thus discovered, the coloration and size of which correspond so closely with those of the Poor-will, Mr. Salvin writes, in a letter dated March 10, 1872: “In respect to the Antrostomus which lays white eggs in Guatemala, I have carefully examined the skin of the female sent to me with the eggs in question, and represented as their parent. It certainly is not A. nuttalli, but appears to belong to the species described by Wagler as A. macromystax. This species is very closely allied to A. vociferus, but appears to be sufficiently distinct, inasmuch as the rictal bristles are very long, the throat is almost without white feathers, and the white on the tail is more limited in extent than in A. vociferus. The true A. vociferus is frequently found in winter in Guatemala, but is probably only a migrant. The other species would certainly appear to be a resident in South Mexico and Guatemala. With respect to A. nuttalli, I may add that I have recently acquired a skin from Guanajuata, in Mexico. This is the first instance of the occurrence of the species in Mexico at all, that I am aware of.”
Mr. Ridgway met with the Poor-will from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada to the Wahsatch and Uintah Mountains. He describes its notes as much like those of the eastern A. vociferus, except that the first syllable is left off, the call sounding like simply poor-will, the accent on the last syllable. It frequents chiefly the dry mesa and foot-hills of the mountains, and lives almost entirely on the ground, where its two white unspotted eggs are deposited beneath some small scraggy sage-bush, without any sign of a nest whatever. Both sexes incubate.
[Line drawing: Sternum of Chordeiles virginianus.]
[Line drawing: Sternum of Nyctibius jamaicensis.]
[Line drawing: Sternum of Caprimulgus stictomus.]
FAMILY CYPSELIDÆ.—THE SWIFTS
CHAR. Bill very small, without notch, triangular, much broader than high; the culmen not one sixth the gape. Anterior toes cleft to the base, each with three joints, (in the typical species,) and covered with skin or feathers; the middle claw without any serrations; the lateral toes nearly equal to the middle. Bill without bristles, but with minute feathers extending along the under margin of the nostrils. Tail-feathers ten. Nostrils elongated, superior, and very close together. Plumage compact. Primaries ten, elongated, falcate.
The Cypselidæ, or Swifts, are Swallow-like birds, generally of rather dull plumage and medium size. They were formerly associated with the true Swallows on account of their small, deeply cleft bill, wide gape, short feet, and long wings, but are very different in all the essentials of structure, belonging, indeed, to a different order or suborder. The bill is much smaller and shorter; the edges greatly inflected; the nostrils superior, instead of lateral, and without bristles. The wing is more falcate, with ten primaries instead of nine. The tail has ten feathers instead of twelve. The feet are weaker, without distinct scutellæ; the hind toe is more or less versatile, the anterior toes frequently lack the normal number of joints, and there are other features which clearly justify the wide separation here given, especially the difference in the vocal organs. Strange as the statement may be, their nearest relatives are the Trochilidæ, or Humming-Birds, notwithstanding the bills of the two are as opposite in shape as can readily be conceived. The sternum of the Cypselidæ is also very different from that of the Hirundinidæ, as will be shown by the accompanying figure. There are no emarginations or openings in the posterior edge, which is regularly curved. The keel rises high, for the attachment of the powerful pectoral muscles. The manubrium is almost entirely wanting.
[Line drawing: Chætura pelagica.]
[Line drawing: Progne subis.]
In this family, as in the Caprimulgidæ, we find deviations in certain forms from the normal number of phalanges to the toes, which serve to divide it into two sections. In one, the Chæturinæ, these are 2, 3, 4, and 5, as usual; but in the Cypselinæ they are 2, 3, 3, and 3, as shown in the accompanying cut borrowed from Dr. Sclater’s masterly memoir on the Cypselidæ, (Pr. Zoöl. Soc. London, 1865, 593), which also serves as the basis of the arrangement here presented.
[Line drawing: Left foot of Chætura zonaris.]
[Line drawing: Left foot of Panyptila melanoleuca.]
Cypselinæ. Tarsi feathered; phalanges of the middle and outer toes three each (instead of four and five). Hind toe directed either forward or to one side, not backward.
Tarsi feathered; toes bare; hind toe directed forward Cypselus.
Both tarsi and toes feathered; hind toe lateral Panyptila.
Chæturinæ. Tarsi bare; phalanges of toes normal (four in middle toe, five in outer). Hind toe directed backwards, though sometimes versatile.
Tarsi longer than middle toe.
Tail-feathers spinous.
Shafts of tail-feathers projecting beyond the plumage Chætura.
Shafts not projecting, (Nephæcetes) Cypseloides.
Tail-feathers not spinous Collocallia.
Tarsi shorter than middle toe Dendrochelidon.
The Swifts are cosmopolite, occurring throughout the globe. All the genera enumerated above are well represented in the New World, except the last two, which are exclusively East Indian and Polynesian. Species of Collocallia make the “edible bird’s-nests” which are so much sought after in China and Japan. These are constructed entirely out of the hardened saliva of the bird, although formerly supposed to be made of some kind of sea-weed. All the Cypselidæ have the salivary glands highly developed, and use the secretion to cement together the twigs or other substances of which the nest is constructed, as well as to attach this to its support. The eggs are always white.
There are many interesting peculiarities connected with the modification of the Cypselidæ, some of which may be briefly adverted to. Those of our common Chimney Swallow will be referred to in the proper place. Panyptila sancti-hieronymæ of Guatemala attaches a tube some feet in length to the under side of an overhanging rock, constructed of the pappus or seed-down of plants, caught flying in the air. Entrance to this is from below, and the eggs are laid on a kind of shelf near the top. Chætura poliura of Brazil again makes a very similar tube-nest (more contracted below) out of the seeds of Trixis divaricata, suspends it to a horizontal branch, and covers the outside with feathers of various colors. As there is no shelf to receive the eggs, it is believed that these are cemented against the sides of the tube, and brooded on by the bird while in an upright position. Dendrochelidon klecho, of Java, etc., builds a narrow flat platform on a horizontal branch, of feathers, moss, etc., cemented together, and lays in it a single egg. The nest is so small that the bird sits on the branch and covers the egg with the end of her belly.
Owing to the almost incredible rapidity in flight of the Swifts, and the great height in the air at which they usually keep themselves, the North American species are, of all our land birds, the most difficult to procure, only flying sufficiently near the surface of the ground to be reached by a gun in damp weather, and then requiring great skill to shoot them. Their nests, too, are generally situated in inaccessible places, usually high perpendicular or overhanging mountain-cliffs. Although our four species are sufficiently abundant, and are frequently seen in flocks of thousands, it is only the common Chimney Swift that is to be met with at all regularly in museums.
SUBFAMILY CYPSELINÆ
The essential character of this subfamily, as stated already, is to be found in the feathered tarsus; the reduction of the normal number of phalanges in the middle toe from 4 to 3, and of the outer toe from 5 to 3, as well as in the anterior or lateral position of the hind toe, not posterior. Of the two genera assigned to it by Dr. Sclater, one, Cypselus, is enlarged by him so as to include the small West Indian Palm Swifts, Tachornis of Gosse.
GENUS PANYPTILA, CABANIS.
Panyptila, CABANIS, Wiegm. Archiv, 1847, I, 345.—BURMEISTER, Thiere Bras. Vögel, I, 1856, 368. (Type, Hirundo cayanensis, GM.) Pseudoprocne, STREUBEL, Isis, 1848, 357. (Same type.)
[Line drawing: Panyptila melanoleuca. 6018 ♂]
GEN. CHAR. Tail half as long as the wings, moderately forked; the feathers rather lanceolate, rounded at tip, the shafts stiffened, but not projecting. First primary shorter than the second. Tarsi, toes, and claws very thick and stout; the former shorter than the middle toe and claw, which is rather longer than the lateral one; middle claw longer than its digit. Hind toe very short; half versatile, or inserted on the side of the tarsus. Tarsi and toes feathered to the claws, except on the under surfaces.
Three species of this genus are described by authors, all of them black, with white throat, and a patch of the same on each side of rump, and otherwise varied with this color. The type P. cayanensis is much the smallest (4.70), and has the tail more deeply forked than P. melanoleuca.
Synopsis of Species.
P. cayanensis. Glossy intense black; a supraloral spot of white; white of throat transversely defined posteriorly. Tail deeply forked, the lateral feathers excessively attenuated and acute.
Wing, 4.80; middle tail-feather, 1.20, external, 2.30. Hab. Cayenne and Brazil var. cayanensis.[108]
Wing, 7.30; middle tail-feather, 1.90, external, 3.60. Hab. Guatemala var. sancti-hieronymi.[109]
P. melanoleuca. Lustreless dull black; no supraloral white spot, but instead a hoary wash; white of throat extending back along middle of abdomen to the vent. Tail moderately forked, the lateral feathers obtuse. Wing, 5.75; middle tail-feather, 2.30, outer, 2.85. Hab. Middle Province of United States, south to Guatemala.
[108] Panyptila cayanensis (GMEL.), CAB. Hirundo cay. GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1024. Panyptila cay. CABAN. Wiegm. Archiv, XIII, 345 (1847).—SCL. P. Z. S. 1866, 606.
[109] Panyptila sancti-hieronymi, SALVIN (P. Z. S. 1863, 190, pl. xxii; SCL. P. Z. S. 1866, 607). May be the northern form of cayanensis, which, however, we have not seen.
Panyptila melanoleuca, BAIRD.
WHITE-THROATED SWIFT.
Cypselus melanoleucus, BAIRD, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phil. VII, June, 1854, 118 (San Francisco Mountains, N. M.).—CASSIN, Illust. I, 1855, 248. Panyptila melanoleuca, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 141, pl. xviii, f. 1.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 125 (Guatemala).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1865, 607.—KENNERLY, P. R. R. X, b, 36, pl. xviii, f. 1.—HEERMANN, IB. X, c, 10.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 347.
SP. CHAR. Wings very long; tail forked; tarsi and feet covered with feathers. Black all over, except the chin, throat, middle of the belly as far as the vent, a patch on each side of the rump, the edge of the outer primary, and blotches on the inner webs of the median tail-feathers, near the base, which are white, as is also a band across the ends of the secondaries. Length, 5.50; wing, 5.50; tail, 2.70.
HAB. Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and southern Rocky Mountains, to Guatemala. Localities: Cajon Pass (COOPER, Pr. Cal. Ac. 1861, 122); Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 57); San Diego (COOPER).
Although there is no difference in size between Rocky Mountain and Guatemalan specimens, the only two of the latter in the collection are darker colored, showing scarcely any indication of the frontal and supraloral whitish so conspicuous in most northern skins. In the Guatemalan female (30,837, Dueñas, February 13) the dusky of the lateral, and white of the medial, portions of the breast blend gradually together, there not being that sharp line of junction seen in all the others, including the male from Guatemala (30,836, Dueñas, Nov.).
HABITS. This new species was first discovered by Dr. Kennerly on Bill Williams Fork, New Mexico, February 16, 1854. He speaks of it as a very curious and interesting bird, found by him only among the cañons of that stream, and not observed elsewhere during their journey. Large flocks could be seen at any time in the vicinity of those cañons, flying and circling around very high, and far beyond the reach of shot. Towards the close of the day, when the sun had sunk behind the hills, they occasionally descended lower. He only met with them where the walls of the cañons were very high, and consisted of almost perpendicular masses of rock. At times they were seen to sweep low down, and then to ascend nearly perpendicularly very near the stones, as if examining them in order to select a place for their nests. The construction of these had obviously not then commenced. Dr. Kennerly saw none engaged in the work, nor did he observe any old nests, unless they build after the manner of the common Cliff Swallow, which were also abundant in that region. Mr. Möllhausen was of the opinion that these birds build in the holes and crevices of the cliffs. In their flight and habits they appeared to closely resemble the common Chætura pelagica.
Dr. Heermann met with this species several times, first in San Fernando Pass, near Los Angelos, and again near Palm Spring, between the Colorado desert and Vallicita, at another time near Tucson, and once also in Texas. He always found them flying at a great height, either far beyond or on the extreme limit of gunshot range. From the extent of their wings they seemed formed to live in the air, where they pass most of their time gliding about in extensive circles, with apparently very little motion of the wings. During pleasant weather they found their insect prey in the upper air, but, when cloudy or rainy, they flew nearer the ground in their pursuit. When on the ground, they were observed to rise with difficulty, owing to the shortness of their legs and the length of their wings. When they rest, they always alight on some elevated point whence they can throw themselves into the air, and take to wing. Numbers were observed flying about the rocks near Tucson, but none were heard to utter a note. They were sociable among themselves, gathering in large flocks, but never mingled with the Swallows. He states that they construct their nests in the crevices of rocks, and that their eggs are pure white, and of an elongated form.
Dr. Coues found this species rather sparingly distributed throughout Arizona, always in the neighborhood of cliffs and precipices, which it exclusively inhabits. From Inscription Rock, about one day’s march from Whipple’s Pass, to the San Francisco Mountains of Arizona, he found these birds in great numbers, except along the valley of the Colorado Chiquito, where there were no suitable cliffs for their habitation. He generally found them congregated in considerable, sometimes in immense, numbers in the vicinity of huge cliffs and piles of rocks. Their note, he adds, is an often and quickly repeated twitter, loud and shrill, and quite different from that of the C. pelagica. He states that they build their nest upon the vertical faces of precipitous rocks.
Dr. Woodhouse met with a Swift in the same region referred to by Dr. Coues, which he called Acanthylis saxatilis, which may possibly be the same species, but of which no specimen was procured. They were breeding in the crevices of the rocks. The description, however, does not at all correspond.
This species has lately been met with by Mr. Salvin, in Guatemala, where it is by no means common, and so very local that its presence might readily have been overlooked. He found it near Dueñas, in a gorge with precipitous rocks on the right hand, along the course of the river Guacalate. His attention was drawn to a noise coming from the rocks, which he at first took to be bats in some of the cracks. After watching for some time, he saw two Swifts dart into a crack in the rock twenty feet from the ground, and the noise became louder than before. Resorting to several expedients, in vain, to make them fly out, he climbed up part way, and there found one of them killed by a random shot of his gun. Another discharge of his gun brought out five or six more, which were immediately pursued by the Cotyle serripennis. He obtained three specimens in all. The spot was evidently their common roosting-place, and by the noise they made he judged they were there in large numbers. He found them about the middle of February.
Dr. Cooper met with this species near Fort Mohave, but saw none before May. On the 7th of June, near the head of Mohave River, he found a few about some lofty granite cliffs, and succeeded in obtaining one. Their flight was exceedingly swift and changeable, and they were very difficult to shoot. He also found them about some high rocky bluffs close to the sea-shore, twelve miles north of San Diego. They were seen the last of March, but may have been there for a month previously.
Mr. Allen encountered this little-known Swift near Colorado City, where it was quite numerous about the high cliffs in the “Garden of the Gods,” and of which, with great difficulty, he procured four specimens. It was nesting in inaccessible crevices and weather-beaten holes in the rocks, about midway up the high vertical cliffs, some of which were not less than three hundred feet high. It seemed to be very wary, and flew with great velocity, rarely descending within reach of the guns.
The White-throated Swift was met with in great abundance by Mr. Ridgway at the East Humboldt Mountains, and was seen by him more sparingly in the Toyabe and Wahsatch. In the former mountains it inhabited the high limestone cliffs which walled the cañons, congregating in thousands, and nesting in the chinks or crevices of the rocks, in company with the Violet-green Swallow (Tachycincta thalassina). It was a very noisy species, having a vigorous chatter, reminding one somewhat of the notes of young Baltimore Orioles when being fed by their parents. It was also very pugnacious, a couple now and then being seen to fasten upon one another high up in the air, and, clinging together, falling, whirling round and round in their descent, nearly to the ground, when they would let go each other, and separate. A couple would often rush by with almost inconceivable velocity, one in chase of the other. Their flight was usually very high, or, if they occasionally descended, it was so swiftly that Mr. Ridgway only succeeded in shooting three specimens, while he found it utterly impossible to reach their nests, which were in the horizontal fissures in the face of the overhanging cliff.
SUBFAMILY CHÆTURINÆ
This subfamily is characterized by having the normal number of phalanges to the middle and outer toes (4 and 5, instead of 3 and 3), the backward position of the hind toe, and the naked tarsi, which do not even appear to be scutellate, but covered with a soft skin. Of the two North American genera, Chætura has spinous projections at the end of the tail-feathers, while in Nephœcetes the shafts of the tail-feathers, though stiffened, do not project beyond the plume.
This subfamily appears to be composed of two definable sections, with subdivisions as follows:—
A. Tail forked; spinous points of the feathers not extending far beyond the webs, or entirely wanting. Feathering of the sides of the forehead extending forward outside the nostrils nearly to their anterior end.
a. No trace of spinous points to tail-feathers. Feathering of frontal points almost completely enclosing the nostrils between them. No light collar round the neck; sides of the forehead with a hoary suffusion Nephœcetes.
b. Spinous points of tail-feathers distinct. A light collar round the neck.
1. Nostril as in Nephœcetes. Sides of forehead with a hoary suffusion. Collar chestnut. Wing less than 5.50. (C. rutila.)
2. Feathered frontal points narrower, not reaching anterior end of nostril. Sides of forehead without hoary suffusion. Collar white. Wing more than 8.00 Hemiprocne.
B. Tail rounded; spinous points of the feathers much elongated and projecting. Feathering of sides of forehead scarcely reaching beyond posterior end of nostril. Wing less than 5.50 Chætura.
GENUS NEPHŒCETES, BAIRD.
Nephœcetes, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 142. (Type, Hirundo nigra, GMEL.)
[Line drawing: Nephœcetes niger. 11871 ♀]
GEN. CHAR. Tail rather less than half the wings; quite deeply forked (less so in the female); the feathers obtusely acuminate; the shafts scarcely stiffened. First quill longest. Tarsi and toes completely bare, and covered with naked skin, without distinct indications of scutellæ. Tarsus rather longer than middle toe; the three anterior toes about equal, with moderately stout claws. Claw of middle toe much shorter than its digit. Hind toe not versatile, but truly posterior and opposite, with its claw rather longer than the middle toe without it. Toes all slender; claws moderate. Nostrils widely ovate, the feathers margining its entire lower edge.
The comparative characters of this genus will be found in the diagnostic tables at the head of the family. According to Sclater, Cypseloides of Streubel (ISIS, 1848, 366) with C. fumigatus as type, may have to be taken for this genus, as it was named by Streubel as an alternative to Hemiprocne, which belongs to Chætura. Until this question of synonymy can be decided positively, we retain Nephœcetes.
The single North American species, N. niger, has a singular distribution, being abundant near Puget Sound in summer, and again found in Jamaica and Cuba, without having been met with in any intermediate locality, except in the Province of Huatasco, Mex. The West India specimens are rather smaller, but otherwise not distinguishable.
Nephœcetes niger, BAIRD.
BLACK SWIFT.
? Hirundo niger, GMEL. S. N. I, 1788, 1025. Cypselus niger, GOSSE, B. Jam. 1847, 63.—IB. Illust. B. Jam. pl. x.—GUNDL. & LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VI, 1858, 268.—SCL. P. Z. S. 1865, 615. Nephœcetes niger, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 142.—ELLIOT, Illust. Birds N. Am. I, xx.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 349. Cypselus borealis, KENNERLY, P. A. N. S. Philad. IX, Nov. 1857, 202.—SCL. P. Z. S. 1865, 615. Hirundo apus dominicensis, BRISSON, II, 1760, 514, pl. xlvi, f. 3.
SP. CHAR. Wing the length of the body. General color rather lustrous dark sooty-brown, with a greenish gloss, becoming a very little lighter on the breast anteriorly below, but rather more so on the neck and head above. The feathers on top of the head edged with light gray, which forms a continuous wash on each side of the forehead above, and anterior to the usual black crescent in front of the eye. Occasionally some feathers of the under parts behind are narrowly edged with gray. Bill and feet black. Length, 6.75; wing, 6.75; tail, 3.00, the depth of its fork about .45 in the male, and scarcely .15 in the female.
HAB. Washington Territory, Oregon, Nevada, and Orizaba (var. borealis); Cuba and Jamaica (var. niger), breeds. Vera Cruz; breeds (SUMICHRAST, Mem. Bost. Soc. I, 562).
The tail is considerably more forked in the male than in the female, in which it is sometimes nearly even, and in the males its depth varies considerably.
Jamaican specimens (var. niger) are rather smaller, considerably blacker, and seem to have narrower tail-feathers, even when the other dimensions are about equal.
Whether the Puget Sound bird visits the West Indies is not known; but the difference in size and colors between them and the West Indian birds would seem to indicate that they select a more directly southern region. The fact that the Orizaba specimen is most like the Northwest Coast birds favors this latter supposition.
HABITS. This Swift is of irregular and local occurrence in the West Indies and in Western North America. Specimens were obtained at Simiahmoo Bay, Washington Territory, by Dr. Kennerly, in July, 1857. Dr. Cooper saw a black Swift, which he thinks may have been this species, in Pah-Ute Cañon, west of Fort Mohave, May 29, 1861, and again at Santa Barbara, May, 1863.
Dr. Gundlach, in his ornithological explorations in Cuba, in 1858, met with this species among the mountains between Cienfuegos and Trinidad, on the southern coast of that island, and also in the eastern parts of the Sierra Maestra. He saw these birds for the first time in the month of May, near Bayamo, where they commonly arrived every morning about one hour after sunrise, and flew in a circular direction over the river at a considerable height, making their evolutions always in the same place, apparently employed in catching the insects attracted by the proximity of the river. In the month of June they came every day towards noon, whenever it threatened to rain, and sometimes returned again after sunset. When tired of their exercise they always flew together towards the mountains, where he had no doubt their breeding-places existed. He states that when one of these birds flies in chase of another, it emits a soft continued note, not unlike a song. Having taken many young birds in the month of June, he supposes that these Swifts breed in April and May.
It is stated by Sumichrast to have been occasionally met with in the table-lands of Mexico, and that it is resident and breeds within the State of Vera Cruz, Mexico.
A single specimen of this bird was known to Gosse to have been taken near Spanishtown in Jamaica, in 1843, in company with many others. Mr. March, in his paper on the birds of this island, gives a similar account of the habits of this species to that of Dr. Gundlach. He states that it was rarely seen except at early dawn, or in dull and cloudy weather, or after rain in an afternoon. He has sometimes procured specimens from Healthshire and the St. Catharine Hills. The only place known to him as their actual resort is a cave in the lower St. Catharine Hills, near the ferry, where they harbor in the narrow deep galleries and fissures of the limestone rocks.
Mr. J. K. Lord cites this species as among the earliest of the spring visitors seen by him in British Columbia. On a foggy morning early in June, the insects being low, these birds were hovering close to the ground, and he obtained four specimens. He saw no more until the fall of the year, when they again made their appearance in large numbers, among the many other birds of that season. He again saw this Swift at Fort Colville.
Captain Prevost, R. N., obtained a single specimen of this bird on Vancouver Island, which Mr. Sclater compared with Gosse’s Cypselus niger, from Jamaica. He, however, is not satisfied as to their identity, and is inclined to regard the two birds as distinct.
According to Captain Feilner, this species breeds in the middle of June, on high rocks on the Klamath River, about eight miles above Judah’s Cave.
The Black Swift was seen by Mr. Ridgway, during his western tour, only once, when, about the middle of June, an assembly of several hundreds was observed early one morning hovering over the Carson River, below Fort Churchill, in Nevada. In the immediate vicinity was an immense rocky cliff, where he supposed they nested. In their flight they much resembled Chimney-Swallows (Chætura), only they appeared much larger. They were perfectly silent. On the Truckee River, near Pyramid Lake, in May of the same year, he found the remains of one which had been killed by a hawk, but the species was not seen there alive.
GENUS CHÆTURA, STEPHENS.
Chætura, STEPHENS, Shaw’s Gen. Zoöl. Birds, XIII, II, 1825, 76. (Type, C. pelagica.) Acanthylis, BOIE, Isis, 1826, 971. (Cypselus spinicauda.)
[Line drawing: Chætura pelagica. 1010 ♀]
GEN. CHAR. Tail very short, scarcely more than two fifths the wings; slightly rounded; the shafts stiffened and extending some distance beyond the feathers in a rigid spine. First primary longest. Legs covered by a naked skin, without scutellæ or feathers. Tarsus longer than middle toe. Lateral toes equal, nearly as long as the middle. Hind toe scarcely versatile, or quite posterior; including claw, less than the middle anterior without it. Toes slender; claws moderate. Feathers of the base of the bill not extending beyond the beginning of the nostrils.
By the arrangement of the genera on page 1018, the C. rutila and large white-collared species are excluded from the present genus as restricted. Chætura, as here defined, is a genus of very extensive distribution, species occurring not only in North and South America, but also in Africa and Asia. Among the several American members, three styles are distinguishable, these probably representing only as many species; the several more closely allied forms being, in all probability, but geographical modifications of these three types. They may be arranged as follows:—
Plumage with no marked contrast of shades.
C. pelagica. Nearly uniformly dusky grayish-brown, the throat, however, very much lighter, and the rump just appreciably so.
Above glossy dusky-brown, hardly appreciably paler on the rump; abdomen scarcely paler than the back. Wing, 5.20. Hab. Eastern Province North America var. pelagica.
Above glossy blackish-dusky, very decidedly paler on the rump; abdomen very much paler than the back. Wing, 4.50. Hab. Pacific Province of North America, south to Guatemala (from whence specimens are much darker, almost black above, and slightly smaller) var. vauxi.
Above glossy black, fading into sooty dusky on the rump; abdomen like the rump. Wing, 4.80. Hab. Northern South America (Cayenne, Tobago) var. poliura.[110]
Plumage with marked contrast of shades.
C. cinereiventris.[111] Upper parts, except the rump, glossy, intense blue-black; rump and lower parts bluish-cinereous, conspicuously different.
C. spinicauda.[112] Upper parts glossy black, with a white band across the rump. Below sooty-whitish, with indistinct black marks on the breast, wing, 3.90. Hab. Cayenne and Brazil.
[110] Chætura poliura, (TEMM.) SCL. Cat. Am. B. 1862, 101; P. Z. S. 1866, 611. (Cypselus polivurus, TEMM. Tab. Méth. p. 78.)
[111] Chætura cinereiventris, SCL. Cat. Am. B. 1862, p. 283; P. Z. S. 1863, p. 101, pl. xiv, f. 1; P. Z. 1866, 612. C. sclateri, PELZ. Orn. Braz. I, 1868, pp. 16, 56, is also referrible to it as perhaps a race.
[112] Chætura spinicauda, SCL. Cypselus spinicaudus, TEM. Tabl. Méth. p. 78 (ex Buff. Pl. Enl. 726, f. 1). Acanthylis s. BOIE, Isis, 1826, p. 971; BONAP. Consp. p. 64. Chætura s. SCL. Catal. Am. Birds, 1862, 283. Hirundo pelasgia, var., LATH. Ind. Orn. II, 581. Hab. Cayenne and Brazil.
Chætura pelagica, BAIRD.
CHIMNEY SWALLOW.
Hirundo pelagica, LINN. Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 1758, 192. Hirundo pelasgia, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 345.—WILS. Am. Orn. V, 1812, 48, pl. xxxix, fig. 1. Cypselus pelasgia, AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 329; V, 419, pl. clviii. Chætura pelasgia, STEPHENS, in Shaw’s Gen. Zoöl. Birds, XIII, II, 1825, 76.—IB. Birds America, I, 1840, 164, pl. xliv.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 144.—SAMUELS, 116.—ALLEN, Birds Fla. 301. Acanthylis pelasgia, “TEMM.”—BON. Consp. 1850, 64.—CASSIN, Ill. I, 1855, 241. Hemiprocne pelasgia, STREUBEL, Isis, 1848, 363. Aculeated Swallow, PENN. Arc. Zoöl. II, 1785, 432. Cypselus pelasgius, MAX. Cab. Journ. 1858.
SP. CHAR. Tail slightly rounded. Sooty-brown all over, except on the throat, which becomes considerably lighter from the breast to the bill. Above with a greenish tinge; the rump a little paler. Length, 5.25; wing, 5.10; tail, 2.15.
HAB. Eastern United States to slopes of Rocky Mountains?
The etymology of the specific name of pelasgia, used by Linnæus, of this bird, in the twelfth edition of Systema Naturæ, has always been a question. We find that the word in the tenth edition is pelagica, referring probably to the supposed passage over the Caribbean Sea in its annual migrations.
Chætura vauxi, the western representative of this bird, is extremely similar, but distinguishable by considerably smaller size, much lighter, almost white, throat, paler rump, and under parts decidedly lighter than the back. C. poliura, which much resembles it, is blacker above, and much darker below. (See synopsis on page 1027.)
HABITS. The common Chimney Swallow of North America has an extended range throughout the eastern portions of the continent, from the Atlantic to the 50th parallel of northern latitude. It was not met with by Dr. Richardson in the fur regions, but was found by Say at Pembina, on the Red River, in what is now the northern part of Minnesota. Its western range is not well determined, but is presumed to be terminated by the great plains. It has been found as far west as Bijoux Hill, in Nebraska.
In its habits, especially during the breeding-season, this Swift presents many remarkable differences from the European species. While the latter are shy and retiring, shunning the places frequented by man, and breeding chiefly in caves or ruined and deserted habitations, their representatives in eastern North America, like all the Swallow family here, have, immediately upon the erection of the dwellings of civilized life, manifested their appreciation of the protection they afford, by an entire change in their habits in regard to the location of their nests. When the country was first settled, these birds were known to breed only in the hollow trunks of forest trees. The chimneys of the dwellings of civilized communities presented sufficient inducements, in their greater convenience, to tempt this bird to forsake their primitive breeding-places. The change in this respect has been nearly complete. And now, in the older portions of the country, they are not known to resort to hollow trees for any other purpose than as an occasional roosting-place.
In wild portions of the country, where natural facilities are still afforded to these Swifts, they are occasionally found breeding within the hollows of decaying trees. Mr. George A. Boardman, of St. Stephen, N. B., writes that in his neighborhood this bird continues to build in the hollows of trees. He adds, that in the summer of 1863 he found them building within a hollow birch. He also met with one of their nests built against a board in an old winter logging-camp, at a distance from any chimney. Mr. Ridgway has also met with the nest of this bird inside the trunk of a large sycamore-tree, and also mentions finding another attached to the planks of an outbuilding, in the Wabash valley of Southeastern Illinois.
Mr. J. A. Allen found this species quite numerous in Kansas, where it was breeding chiefly in the hollow trees of the forests, which it always seems naturally to prefer to chimneys, to which it is compelled to resort, in most of the longer settled districts, or else wholly to abandon the country.
The Chimney Swallow is known to breed throughout the Central and Northern States, from Virginia to Canada. Dr. Woodhouse states that he found this species very abundant throughout the Indian Territory, as also in Texas, and New Mexico, even to California. It was not, however, taken at San Antonio by Mr. Dresser, nor in any portion of Texas, and was not procured by any of the naturalists in the other Western expeditions.
The Chimney Swallow is crepuscular, rather than nocturnal, in its habits, preferring to hunt for its insect prey in dull and cloudy weather, or in the early morning and the latter part of the afternoon. In this it is probably influenced by the abundance or scarcity of insects, as it is not unfrequently to be seen hawking for insects in the bright glare of noon. When they have young, they often continue to feed them until quite late at night. They are not, however, to be regarded as nocturnal, as they are only known to do this during a brief period.
The nest of this species is a very peculiar and remarkable structure. It is composed of small twigs of nearly uniform size, wrought and interwoven into a neat semicircular basket. In selecting the twigs with which they are to construct their nests, the Swifts break from the tree the ends of living branches, which they gather with great skill and adroitness while on the wing. Sweeping upon the coveted twig somewhat as a Hawk rushes on its prey, it divides it at the desired place, and bears it off to its nest. This is a well-attested fact, familiar to all who have ever watched these birds in the early morning as they are at work constructing their nests.
Each one of these twigs is strongly fastened to its fellows by an adhesive saliva secreted by the bird, and by the same cement the whole structure is made to adhere to the side of the chimney in which it is built. This saliva, as it dries, hardens into a tough glue-like substance, as firm even as the twigs it unites. In separating nests from the sides of chimneys, I have known portions of the brick to which it was fastened part sooner than the cement. When moistened, however, by long-continued rains, the weight of their contents will sometimes cause these nests to part, and the whole is precipitated to the bottom. The young birds cling very tenaciously to the sides of the chimneys with their bills and claws. They not only are often able, in these accidents, to save themselves from falling, but even at a very early age can cling to the sides of the chimney and work their way to the top. They always leave their nest and climb to the upper part of the chimney several days before they can fly, and are there fed by their parents.
Occasionally the young birds fall to the bottom of the chimney, out of the reach or notice of their parents. I have never been able to induce them to take any food, although they keep uttering pitiful cries of hunger. In such cases the young birds placed on the roof near their native chimney soon manage to climb to its base, and there receive the aid of the old birds.
Their eggs are four in number, somewhat elliptical in form, though somewhat less obtuse at one end than the other. They are of a pure white color, and are never spotted. They vary but little in size or shape, and measure from .75 to .81 of an inch in length, and from .50 to .55 in breadth.
In New England the Chimney Swallow raises but one brood in a season. In Pennsylvania it is said to have two.
Chætura (pelagica var. ?) vauxi, (TOWNS.) DEKAY.
OREGON CHIMNEY SWIFT.
Cypselus vauxi, TOWNSEND, J. A. N. Sc. VIII, 1839, 148 (Columbia River).—IB. Narrative, 1839. Chætura vauxi, DEKAY, N. Y. Zoöl. II, 1844, 36.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 145, pl. xviii.—SCLATER, Cat. 282.—IB. P. Z. S. 1863, 100 (Guatemala).—KENNERLY, P. R. R. x, b, pl. xviii, f. 2.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 165.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 351. Acanthylis vauxi, BONAP. Comptes Rendus, XXVIII, 1854; notes Delattre, 90.—CASSIN, Ill. I, 1855, 250.—NEWBERRY, Zoöl. Cal. and Or. Route, 78; P. R. R. Surv. VI, 1857.
SP. CHAR. Light sooty-brown; rump and under parts paler; lightest on the chin and throat. Length, 4.50; wing, 4.75; tail, 1.90.
HAB. Pacific coast, from Puget’s Sound to California. West coast to Guatemala (SCL. P. Z. S. 1863, 100); Yucatan (LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 204).
This species bears a very close resemblance to the common Chimney Swallow of the Eastern States, being only readily distinguishable by its much smaller size, 4.50 inches instead of 5.25. The wing, too, is nearly an inch shorter. The tarsus and the middle toe, however, seem absolutely longer. The rump is a little paler than in C. pelagica, as well as the under parts, where the chin and throat are lighter, almost dirty white, and gradually becoming a little darker behind, although even the hinder part of the belly is much lighter than the back, even in strong contrast, instead of being of the same color with it. Guatemalan specimens are much darker.
HABITS. This western Swift was first discovered by Mr. Townsend on the Columbia River, where he found it having the primitive habits of the eastern species, and breeding in hollow trees, forming a nest in a similar manner, and laying four pure-white eggs. It differs from the common bird in its smaller size and lighter color. It is said to occur from Puget Sound to California.
Dr. Cooper met with these birds May 4, 1864, in the Coast Range, twelve miles south of Santa Clara. He was of the opinion that they had nests in hollow trees at the summit of the mountains, but he was not able to find any. He did not observe any at Fort Vancouver in the summer of 1853, nor did he learn whether these birds are found in the central valleys of California. In 1866 they were observed to make their first appearance at Santa Cruz on the 4th of May, though as they rarely descended to the town they might have been on the hills earlier than this. On the 5th of October he observed five of them, in company with a large flock of Hirundo bicolor, spending the morning in hunting insects near the town. They were apparently delayed in their migration southward by a thick fog and cold south-wind. They may have been a late brood from the north.
Dr. Kennerly obtained a single specimen of this species at the Straits of Fuca, showing that these birds sometimes extend their migrations up to the 49th parallel. Neither Dr. Suckley nor Dr. Cooper was able to find this Swift anywhere in Washington Territory.
Dr. Newberry observed this species quite common in California, but could obtain no specimens, owing to the height at which they flew. He saw nothing of it in Oregon.
Two specimens of this species obtained in Mexico by M. de Saussure are in the collection of Dr. Sclater.
Mr. Ridgway saw on the Truckee River, near Pyramid Lake, in May, 1868, what he supposes to have been this species. It was not common, only a few individuals being observed every evening just before dusk, flying overhead exactly in the manner of Chimney Swallows (C. pelagica), which they also exactly resembled in appearance. They flew so high that specimens could not be obtained. They were entirely silent, and appeared at no other time than in the evening, in these respects differing strikingly from the eastern species.
FAMILY TROCHILIDÆ.—THE HUMMING-BIRDS
CHAR. Least of all birds; sternum very deep; bill subulate, and generally longer than the head, straight, arched, or upcurved. Tongue composed of two lengthened cylindrical united tubes, capable of great protrusion, and bifid at tip; nostrils basal, linear, and covered by an operculum; wings lengthened, pointed; first quill usually longest except in Aithurus, where it is the second; primaries, 10; secondaries, 6; tail of ten feathers. Tarsi and feet very diminutive, claws very sharp. (GOULD.)
There is no group of birds so interesting to the ornithologist or to the casual observer as the Humming-Birds, at once the smallest in size, the most gorgeously beautiful in color, and almost the most abundant in species, of any single family of birds. They are strictly confined to the continent and islands of America, and are most abundant in the Central American and Andean States, though single species range almost to the Arctic regions on the north and to Patagonia on the south, as well as from the sea-coast to the frozen summits of the Andes. Many are very limited in their range; some confined to particular islands, even though of small dimensions, or to the summits of certain mountain-peaks.
The bill of the Humming-Bird is awl-shaped or subulate; thin, and sharp-pointed; straight or curved; sometimes as long as the head, sometimes much longer. The mandibles are excavated to the tip for the lodgement of the tongue, and form a tube by the close apposition of their cutting edges. There is no indication of stiff bristly feathers at the base of the mouth. The tongue has some resemblance to that of the Woodpecker in the elongation of the cornua backwards, so as to pass round the back of the skull, and then anteriorly to the base of the bill. The tongue itself is of very peculiar structure, consisting anteriorly of two hollow threads closed at the ends and united behind. The food of the Humming-Bird consists almost entirely of insects, which are captured by protruding the tongue in flowers of various shapes without opening the bill very wide.
The genera of Humming-Birds are very difficult to define. This is partly owing to the great number of the species, of which nearly four hundred and fifty have been recognized by authors, all of them with but few exceptions diminutive in size and almost requiring a lens for their critical examination, so that characters for generic separation, distinct enough in other families, are here overlooked or not fully appreciated. A still greater difficulty, perhaps, is the great difference in form, especially of the tail, between the male and female, the young male occupying an intermediate position. The coloration, too, is almost always very different with sex and age, and usually any generic characters derived from features other than those of bill, feet, and wing do not apply to the females at all.
In the large number of species of Humming-Birds arranged in about one hundred and thirty genera, only two subfamilies have been recognized, as follows:—
Phæthornithinæ. Anterior toes connected at the base. No metallic lustre to the dull plumage.
Trochilinæ. Anterior toes not connected at the base. Plumage brilliant, with more or less of metallic lustre, at least in the males.
The first-mentioned subfamily embraces five genera, and about fifty species, none of which are found in the United States. The Trochilinæ count nearly four hundred species and one hundred and twenty-five genera, and in the absence of any successful attempt to arrange them in subordinate groups, the difficulties of determination on the part of the tyro may readily be imagined.
Of the seven genera accredited to North America, with their ten species, we cannot pretend to do more than present an artificial analysis, which may serve to define them as compared with each other, but bear little reference to the family as a whole. The characters are selected partly from the shape of tail and partly from color.
COMMON CHARACTERS. All the North American Trochilidæ have metallic green backs, excepting Selasphorus rufus, this color extending over the top of head, except in Calypte (metallic red and violet), and Heliopædica (bluish-black). The latter alone has a white stripe through the eye. Atthis heloisæ alone has the tail tipped with white in the male. Females of all the species except Heliopædica have tail tipped with white; all have it rounded. All females lack the metallic throat. The males of the several genera belonging to North America may be distinguished as follows:—
I. Bill covered with feathers between nostrils.
A. Top of head green.
Feathers of throat not elongated.
Tail rounded or slightly emarginated, the feathers broad, rounded, and metallic rufous-purple, or greenish-blue. Wing more than 2.50 Lampornis.
Tail more or less forked; feathers pointed, narrow, and without rufous or blue. Wing much less than 2.00 Trochilus.
Throat-feathers elongated laterally into a kind of ruff. Tail-feathers edged or banded with cinnamon at base.
Tail cuneate, the outer primary attenuated at end. Innermost tail-feather green above.
Tail dusky at end Selasphorus.
Tail tipped with white Atthis.
Tail nearly even, and emarginated. Outer primary not attenuated at end. Innermost tail-feather brown above Stellula.
B. Top of head metallic red or violet.
Metallic feathers of side of throat much elongated Calypte.
II. Bill bare of feathers between the nostrils.
C. Top of head bluish-black; a white line through eye.
Metallic feathers of side of throat not elongated.
Tail nearly even, and slightly emarginated. Lateral feathers very broad and obtuse at end Heliopædica.
We have included Lampornis in the list of United States genera on exceedingly doubtful evidence of the occurrence of L. mango, which was said to have been taken at Key West, and sent to Mr. Audubon, who figured it. The species, however, proves to be one belonging to Brazil, and not the Jamaican form (L. porphyrura, Gould), which might possibly have straggled there.
In reference to the large number of species of Trochilidæ, it may be well to remark that many differ by very slight, sometimes quite inappreciable characters, and are to be looked on as only climatic or geographical varieties. All those given for the United States are, however, well marked.
Additional species of Trochilidæ will doubtless yet be detected within our limits, especially in Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern Texas, where almost any of the Mexican table-land species may be looked for, such as Calypte floresi, Calothorax cyanopogon, etc. South Florida will probably yet furnish to us the Bahaman Doricha evelynæ.
The following synopsis expresses, perhaps, a more natural arrangement of the genera:—
A. Nasal operculum entirely covered by the frontal feathers; base of the bill narrow.
a. Tail forked, and unvariegated in the male. Outer primary strongly bowed, or curved inward at the end.
Stellula. Tail deeply emarginated in ♂, somewhat doubly rounded in ♀, but outer feather not longest; the feathers spatulate; outer primary very strongly bowed, and very broad at end. ♂. Gorget feathers linear, much elongated; only their terminal half colored; crown green like the back. ♀. Similar in form, but the intermediate feathers of tail longer than the external, instead of shorter.
Trochilus. Tail deeply emarginated in the male, the feathers attenuated toward tips; doubly rounded in ♀, and broader; outer primary strongly bowed, but narrow at end. ♂. Gorget feathers broad, short, squamate; colored blue or crimson to their bases. Crown green like the back.
Calypte. Tail as in Trochilus, but the external feather abruptly narrower than the next, with its edges nearly parallel. Outer primary as in Trochilus. Crown metallic (violet or crimson) like the throat. Female like that of Trochilus.
b. Tail rounded or graduated, and variegated in the male. Outer primary only slightly bowed, and narrow at end, except in ♀ of Atthis.
Selasphorus. Tail graduated in the ♂, the feathers attenuated at ends. Outer primary abruptly attenuated, the end turned outwards. Gorget feathers broad, elongated laterally, rose-purple or fire-color; crown green like the back; tail-feathers edged with rufous. ♀ with tail less graduated, and the feathers broader at ends. Outer primary broader, and not attenuated and turned outward at end.
Atthis. Sexes alike in form. Tail rounded; outer primary bowed at end, rather narrow in the ♂. Gorget feathers much elongated, posteriorly and laterally; tail-feathers tipped with white.
c. Tail rounded, or slightly emarginated, and usually unvariegated in either sex; the feathers very broad, and rounded at the ends; primaries normal, the outer broad to the end, and moderately bowed.
Lampornis.[113] Bill cylindrical, considerably curved. Wing very long, reaching to, or beyond, the tip of the very broad tail. Size large (wing, 2.50, or more). The male dark-colored (green or black) beneath. Sexes sometimes alike (in West Indies).
B. Nasal operculum entirely uncovered; base of bill very broad. Female with tail-feathers not tipped with white.
Heliopædica. Sexes alike in form. First primary longest, much bowed toward end. Tail more than two thirds the wing, nearly square (a little emarginated in the ♂, slightly rounded in the ♀), the feathers very broad, rounded at ends. Color, metallic green above, white or rufous glossed with green below; a conspicuous white post-ocular stripe, and an auricular one of black beneath it. ♂. Forehead and chin black or metallic blue; throat rich metallic green. ♀. Forehead dull brownish-green; chin and throat white, glossed with green, or plain ochraceous; tail plain bluish-black or purplish-rufous, the middle feathers more or less green.
Thaumatias. Sexes alike in form and color. General form of Heliopædica, but tail emarginated, instead of rounded. Color nearly uniform green, with or without white throat and abdomen. Tail grayish-dusky, with an obscure subterminal band of black (with basal three fourths white in T. chionurus).
HABITS. The habits and manners of the whole family of Trochilidæ are, in many striking respects, entirely peculiar to themselves, and without any known correspondence or close resemblance to those of any other kinds of birds, either in America or elsewhere. This family is found exclusively in America, either in the islands or on the continent, and number in all not far from four hundred species, distributed into various subdivisions and genera, but all possessing, to a very large degree, the same common peculiarities, of which the well-known Ruby-throat of eastern North America may be taken as eminently typical. The habits and peculiarities of this numerous family have been closely studied, and many valuable facts in relation to them have been contributed by various naturalists; by none, perhaps, with more intelligent attention than by the eminent Swiss naturalist, M. H. de Saussure, in his visit to the West India Islands and Mexico, to whose observations we are largely indebted.
On the first visit of this naturalist to a savanna in the island of Jamaica, he at once noticed what he at first took to be a brilliant green insect, of rapid flight, approaching him by successive alternations of movements and pauses, and rapidly gliding among and over the network of interlacing shrubs. He was surprised by the extraordinary dexterity with which it avoided the movements of his net, and yet more astonished to find, when he had captured it, that he had taken a bird, and not an insect.
He soon satisfied himself that this entire family not only have the form and aspect of insects, but that they have also the same movements, the same habits, and the same manner of living, with certain insects. Their flight is exactly like that of an insect, and in this respect they form a remarkably exceptional group among birds. When we notice their long wings in our cabinet specimens, we naturally suppose that they use these instruments of flight in the same manner with the Swallow or the Swift. Yet investigation shows that, so very far from this, these wings, comparatively so very long, vibrate even more rapidly than do those of birds with proportionately the smallest wings, such as the Grebe, the Loon, and the Penguin, and that, more than this, they vibrate with an intensity so vastly superior, that they become wholly invisible in the wonderful rapidity of their movements.
The altogether exceptional character of their flight is a subject for never-ceasing astonishment. Until we actually witness it, we should never conceive it to be possible for a bird to vibrate its wings with so great a rapidity, and by them to support itself in the air in the same manner with the Anthraces and other aerial insects. This feat is rendered all the more surprising by the extreme narrowness of the wing and the comparative weight of the body, which is quite considerable, on account of the compactness of the flesh and bones, and the small size of the birds themselves, whose wings displace but a small quantity of air. The resistance of the air to the stroke of the wing of a bird should be, not in proportion to the surface of that wing, but to its square, or even to its cube, if the movement is very rapid. Hence it follows that a due proportion being required as between the weight of the body and the surface of this organ, a small bird cannot keep itself poised in the air except by means of vibrations more rapid than those of a larger kind. This is, without doubt, one explanation of the fact that Humming-Birds, in their flight, are so insect-like. They pass from bush to bush as if suspended in the air, and pause over each flower, vibrating their wings, in precisely the same manner with the Sphinxes, and with the same humming sounds.
The flight of the Humming-Bird is of two kinds. One of these is used for a horizontal movement, and is so rapid that one can hardly follow it with the eye. This is accompanied by a kind of hissing sound. The other seems to keep the body in the air immovable, in one spot. For the latter purpose the bird assumes a position nearly vertical, and beats its wings with great intensity. These organs must vibrate all the more rapidly, because the immobility of the body requires a shorter stroke, and therefore the more frequently repeated. The equilibrium of the body is preserved by the alternate up and down strokes of the wings, no inconsiderable force being required to keep its immobility, besides that requisite for neutralizing the weight of the body.
The Humming-Bird is entirely aerial. They pass with the rapidity of an arrow, stop, rest for a few seconds on some small branch, and then suddenly depart with so much rapidity that we cannot trace its flight. They disappear as if by enchantment. Their life is one of feverish excitement. They seem to live more intensely than any other being on our globe. From morning to night they traverse the air in quest of honeyed flowers. They come like a flash of light, assume a vertical position without any support, throw their tail forward, expanding it like a fan, vibrating their wings with such rapidity that they become absolutely invisible, plunging, at the same time, their thread-like tongues to the bottom of some long corolla, and then they have gone as suddenly as they came. They are never known to rest on a branch in order more at their leisure to plunge their tongue into the flower. Their life is too short for this delay; they are in too great haste; they can only stop long enough to beat their wings before each flower for a few seconds, but long enough to reach its bottom and to devour its inhabitants. When we take into consideration how entirely aerial is their life, and the prodigious relative force requisite to enable them to keep suspended in the air during the entire day, almost incessantly, either in rapid motion or accomplishing the most violent vibrations, we can but be amazed at the extraordinary powers of flight and endurance they manifest.
The Humming-Bird enjoys even the most tropical heat, avoids shade, and is easily overcome by cold. Though some travellers speak of having met with these birds in the depths of forests, Saussure discredits their statements, having never found any in such situations. They prefer open flowery fields, meadows, gardens, and shrubbery, delighting to glitter in the sun’s rays, and to mingle with the swarm of resplendent insects with which tropical regions abound, and with the habits of which their own so well accord. Nearly all live in the open sun, only a very few are more or less crepuscular and never to be seen except very early in the morning or in the evening twilight.
Mr. Salvin is of the opinion that Humming-Birds do not remain long on the wing at once, but rest frequently, choosing for that purpose a small dead or leafless twig at the top, or just within the branches of the tree. While in this position they trim their feathers and clean their bill, all the time keeping up an incessant jerking of their wings and tail.
In Mexico, where these birds are very abundant, they are attracted by the blossoms of the Agave americana, and swarm around them like so many beetles. As they fly, they skim over the fields, rifle the flowers, mingling with the bees and the butterflies, and during the seasons of bloom, at certain hours of the day, the fields appear perfectly alive with them. The ear receives unceasingly the whistling sounds of their flight, and their shrill cries, resembling in their sharp accent the clash of weapons. Although the Humming-Bird always migrates at the approach of cold weather, yet it is often to be found at very considerable elevations. The traveller Bourcier met with them on the crater of Pichincha, and M. Saussure obtained specimens of Calothorax lucifer in the Sierra de Cuernavaca, at the height of more than 9,500 feet.
While we must accept as a well-established fact that the Humming-Birds feed on insects, demonstrated long since by naturalists, it is equally true that they are very fond of the nectar of flowers, and that this, to a certain extent, constitutes their nourishment. This is shown by the sustenance which captive Humming-Birds receive from honey and other sweet substances, food to which a purely insectivorous bird could hardly adapt itself.
Notwithstanding their diminutive size the Humming-Birds are notorious for their aggressive disposition. They attack with great fury anything that excites their animosity, and maintain constant warfare with whatever is obnoxious to them, expressly the Sphinxes or Hawk-Moths. Whenever one of these inoffensive moths, two or three times the size of a Humming-Bird, chances to come too early into the garden and encounters one of these birds, he must give way or meet with certain injury. At sight of the insect the bird attacks it with his pointed beak with great fury. The Sphinx, overcome in this unlooked-for attack, beats a retreat, but, soon returning to the attractive flowers, is again and again assaulted by its infuriated enemy. Certain destruction awaits these insects if they do not retire from the field before their delicate wings, lacerated in these attacks, can no longer support them, and they fall to the ground to perish from other enemies.
In other things the Humming-Bird also shows itself all the more impertinent and aggressive that it is small and weak. It takes offence at everything that moves near it. It attacks birds much larger than itself, and is rarely disturbed or molested by those it thus assails. All other birds must make way. It is possible that in some of these attacks it may be influenced by an instinctive prompting of advantages to be gained, as in the case of the spider, in whose nets they are liable to be entangled, and whose webs often seriously incommode them. When a Humming-Bird perceives a spider in the midst of its net, it rarely fails to make an attack, and with such rapidity that one cannot follow the movement, but in the twinkling of an eye the spider has disappeared. This is not only done to small spiders, which doubtless they devour, but also to others too large to be thus eaten.
Not content with thus chastising small enemies, the Humming-Bird also contends with others far more powerful, and which give them a good deal of trouble. They have been known to engage in an unequal contest with the Sparrow-Hawk, yet rarely without coming off the conquerors. In this strife they have the advantage of numbers, their diminutive size, and the rapidity and the irregularity of their own movements. Several unite in these attacks, and, in rushing upon their powerful enemy, they always aim at his eyes. The Hawk soon appreciates his inability to contend with these tormenting little furies, and beats an ignominious retreat.
Advantage is taken of this aggressive disposition of these birds, by the hunter, to capture them. In their combats with one another, or in their rash attacks upon various offensive objects, even upon the person of the snarer himself, they are made prisoners through their own rashness and reckless impetuosity.
In enumerating the prominent characteristics of this remarkable family, we should not omit to refer to the lavish profusion of colors of every tint and shade, excelling in lustre and brilliancy even the costliest gems, with which Nature has adorned their plumage. And not only are nearly all the birds of this group thus decked out with hues of the most dazzling brightness and splendor, when alive and resplendent in the tropical sun, but many also display the most wonderfully varying shades and colors, according to the position in which they are presented to the eye. The sides of the fibres of each feather are of a different color from the surface, and change as seen in a front or an oblique direction, and while living, these birds, by their movements, can cause these feathers to change very suddenly to very different hues. Thus the Selasphorus rufus can change in a twinkling the vivid fire-color of its expanded throat to a light green, and the species known as the Mexican Star (Cynanthus lucifer) changes from a bright crimson to an equally brilliant blue.
The nests and the eggs of the Humming-Birds, though in a few exceptional cases differing as to the form and position of the former, are similar, so far as known, in the whole family. The eggs are always two in number, white and unspotted, oblong in shape, and equally obtuse at either end. The only differences to be noticed are in the relative variations in size. The nests are generally saddled upon the upper side of a horizontal branch, are cup-like in shape, and are largely made up of various kinds of soft vegetable down, covered by an outward coating of lichens and mosses fastened upon them by the glue-like saliva of the bird. In T. colubris the soft inner portion of the nest is composed of the delicate downy covering of the leaf-buds of several kinds of oaks. In Georgia the color of this down is of a deep nankeen hue, but in New England it is nearly always white. At first the nest is made of this substance alone, and the entire complement of eggs, never more than two, is sometimes laid before the covering of lichens is put on by the male bird, who seems to amuse himself with this while his mate is sitting upon her eggs.
[113] Genus Lampornis, SWAINS. CHAR. Size large (wing, 2.50); tail large, more than half the wing, the feathers very broad; usually a little rounded, sometimes slightly emarginated (as in L. mango, L. virginalis, and L. aurulentus). Bill cylindrical, considerably curved, its vertical thickness least at about the middle. Nasal opercula nearly covered by the frontal feathers; tarsi naked. Wing very long, reaching to or beyond the tip of the tail; first primary longest, only slightly bowed, and not attenuated at tip; inner primaries normal.
The species of this genus belong chiefly to the West India Islands and to Tropical America,—principally on the Atlantic coast. They are all of more than the average size, and distinguished by broad tail-feathers, and rather dull, though handsome colors. In L. porphyrurus the sexes are alike in color. The following species has been accredited to North America, but probably upon erroneous data, since it belongs to northern South America, not even being an inhabitant of any of the West India Islands, except Trinidad. Still it is possible that, as alleged for Thaumatias linnæi (see page 1064), it may have wandered far from its usual habitat, and have reached Florida, as stated by Mr. Audubon.
Lampornis mango, (L.) SWAINS.—The Mango Hummer. Trochilus mango, L. S. N. I, 191.—GMEL. S. N. I. 491.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 486; pl. 184.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 186, pl. ccli. Lampornis mango, SW. Zoöl. Journ. III, 358.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 130. SP. CHAR.—Male: Above deep golden green; beneath opaque velvety-black medially, from the bill to the anal region, separated from the lateral and superior green by a tint of metallic greenish-blue. Tail richly metallic rufous-purple, the feathers bordered terminally with blue-black; intermediæ plain dark bronzy-green. Primaries plain dull dusky. Female. Similar, but white beneath, except laterally, and with a medial stripe of black, from the bill to the anus. Wing, 2.60-2.70; tail, 1.50-1.70; bill, .90. Hab. Northern South America (Brazil, Guiana, Venezuela, New Granada, Panama, and Trinidad); accidental in Florida???
GENUS STELLULA, GOULD.
Stellula, GOULD, Introd. Trochil. 1861, 90. (Type, Trochilus calliope, GOULD.)
[Line drawing: Stellula calliope. 17992 ♂]
GEN. CHAR. Bill rather longer than the head; straight. Wings much developed, reaching beyond the tail, which is short, nearly even, or slightly rounded, and with the inner-most feathers abruptly short; the outer feather rather narrower and more linear than the others, which have a rather spatulate form. Metallic throat-feathers elongated and rather linear and loose, not forming a continuous metallic surface. Central tail-feather without green.
This genus, established by Gould, has a slight resemblance to Atthis, but differs in absence of the attenuated tip of outer primary. The outer three tail-feathers are longest and nearly even (the second rather longest), the fourth and fifth equal and abruptly a little shorter, the latter without any green. The feathers are rather broad and wider terminally (the outermost least so), and are obtusely rounded at end. The tail of the female is quite similar. The absence of green on the tail in the male seems a good character. But one species is known of the genus.
Calothorax is a closely allied genus, in which the tail is considerably longer. One species, C. cyanopogon, will probably be yet detected in New Mexico.
Stellula calliope, GOULD.
THE CALLIOPE HUMMING-BIRD.
Trochilus calliope, GOULD, Pr. Z. S. 1847, 11 (Mexico). Calothorax calliope, GRAY, Genera, I, 100.—BON. Rev. Mag. Zoöl. 1854, 257.—GOULD, Mon. Troch. III, pl. cxlii.—XANTUS, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1859, 190.—ELLIOT, Illust. Birds N. A. I, xxiii. Stellula calliope, GOULD, Introd. Troch. 1861, 90.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 363.
SP. CHAR. Male above, except on tail, golden-green, beneath white, the sides glossed with green, the flanks somewhat with rusty; crissum pure white. Throat-feathers pure white at base, terminal half violet-red, more reddish than in Atthis heloisæ; the sides of neck pure white. Tail-feathers brown, edged at base, especially on inner webs, but inconspicuously, with rufous; the ends paler, as if faded; central feathers like the rest; under mandible yellow. Length, 2.75; wing, 1.60; tail, 1.00; bill above to base of feathers, .55. Female without the metallic gorget (replaced by a few dusky specks), and the throat-feathers not elongated; no green on sides, and more tinged with rufous beneath. A white crescent under the eye. Tail more rounded and less emarginate than in the male. The outer three feathers green at base, then black, and tipped with white; the fourth green and black; the fifth green, with a dusky shade at end; all, except central, edged internally at base with rufous. The under mandible is paler at base than elsewhere, but not yellowish-white as in the male.
HAB. Mountains of Washington Territory, Oregon, and California, to Northern Mexico. East to East Humboldt Mountains (RIDGWAY); Fort Tejon (XANTUS); Fort Crook (FEILNER).
The male bird is easily distinguished from other North American species by its very small size, the snowy-white bases of the elongated loose throat-feathers, and by the shape of the tail, as also the absence, at least in the several males before us, of decided metallic green on the central tail-feathers. The females resemble those of A. heloisæ most closely, but have longer bills and wings, broader tail-feathers, and their rufous confined to the edges, instead of crossing the entire basal portion. Selasphorus platycercus and rufus are much larger, and have tails marked more as in A. heloisæ.
HABITS. This interesting species was first met with as a Mexican Humming-Bird, on the high table-lands of that republic, by Signor Floresi. His specimens were obtained in the neighborhood of the Real del Monte mines. As it was a comparatively rare bird, and only met with in the winter months, it was rightly conjectured to be only a migrant in that locality.
This species is new to the fauna of North America, and was first brought to the attention of naturalists by Mr. J. K. Lord, one of the British commissioners on the Northwest Boundary Survey. It is presumed to be a mountain species, found in the highlands of British Columbia, Washington Territory, Oregon, California, and Northern Mexico.
Early in May Mr. Lord was stationed on the Little Spokan River, superintending the building of a bridge. The snow was still remaining in patches, and no flowers were in bloom except the brilliant pink Ribes, or flowering currant. Around the blossoms of this shrub he found congregated quite a number of Humming-Birds. The bushes seemed to him to literally gleam with their flashing colors. They were all male birds, and of two species; and upon obtaining several of both they proved to be, one the Selasphorus rufus, the other the present species, one of the smallest of Humming-Birds, and in life conspicuous for a frill of minute pinnated feathers, encircling the throat, of a delicate magenta tint, which can be raised or depressed at will. A few days after the females arrived, and the species then dispersed in pairs.
He afterwards ascertained that they prefer rocky hillsides at great altitudes, where only pine-trees, rock plants, and an alpine flora are found. He frequently shot these birds above the line of perpetual snow. Their favorite resting-place was on the extreme point of a dead pine-tree, where, if undisturbed, they would sit for hours. The site chosen for the nest was usually the branch of a young pine, where it was artfully concealed amidst the fronds at the very end, and rocked like a cradle by every passing breeze.
Dr. Cooper thinks that he met with this species in August, 1853, on the summit of the Cascade Mountains, but mistook the specimens for the young of Selasphorus rufus.
Early in June, 1859, Mr. John Feilner found these birds breeding near Pitt River, California, and obtained their nests.
This species was obtained by Mr. Ridgway only on the East Humboldt Mountains, in Eastern Nevada. The two or three specimens shot were females, obtained in August and September, and at the time mistaken for the young of Selasphorus platycercus, which was abundant at that locality.
Dr. W. J. Hoffman writes, in relation to this species, that on the 20th of July, 1871, being in camp at Big Pines, a place about twenty-seven miles north of Camp Independence, California, on a mountain stream, the banks of which are covered with an undergrowth of cottonwood and small bushes, he frequently saw and heard Humming-Birds flying around him. He at length discovered a nest, which was perched on a limb directly over the swift current, where it was sometimes subjected to the spray. The limb was but half an inch in thickness, and the nest was attached to it by means of thin fibres of vegetable material and hairs. It contained two eggs. The parents were taken, and proved to be this species. There were many birds of the same kind at this point, constantly on the tops of the small pines in search of insects.
GENUS TROCHILUS, LINNÆUS.
Trochilus, LINNÆUS, Systema Naturæ, 1748 (AGASSIZ).
[Line drawing: Trochilus colubris. 1101 ♀]
[Line drawing: Trochilus colubris. 1100 ♂]
GEN. CHAR. Metallic gorget of throat nearly even all round. Tail forked; the feathers lanceolate, acute, becoming gradually narrower from the central to the exterior. Inner six primaries abruptly and considerably smaller than the outer four, with the inner web notched at the end.
The female has the outer tail-feathers lanceolate, as in the male, though much broader. The outer feathers are broad to the terminal third, where they become rapidly pointed, the tip only somewhat rounded; the sides of this attenuated portion (one or other, or both) broadly and concavely emarginated, which distinguishes them from the females of Selasphorus and Calypte, in which the tail is broadly linear to near the end, which is much rounded without any distinct concavity.
A peculiarity is observable in the wing of the two species of Trochilus as restricted, especially in T. colubris, which we have not noticed in other North American genera. The outer four primaries are of the usual shape, and diminish gradually in size; the remaining six, however, are abruptly much smaller, more linear, and nearly equal in width (about that of inner web of the fourth), so that the interval between the fifth and fourth is from two to five times as great as that between the fifth and sixth. The inner web of these reduced primaries is also emarginated at the end. This character is even sometimes seen in the females, but to a less extent, and may serve to distinguish both colubris and alexandri from other allied species where other marks are obscured.
The following diagnosis will serve to distinguish the species found in the United States:—
COMMON CHARACTERS. Above and on the sides metallic green. A ruff of metallic feathers from the bill to the breast, behind which is a whitish collar, confluent with a narrow abdominal stripe; a white spot behind the eye. Tail-feathers without light margins.
Tail deeply forked (.30 of an inch). Throat bright coppery-red from the chin. Tail of female rounded, emarginated T. colubris.
Larger. Tail slightly forked (.10 of an inch). Throat gorget with violet, steel, green, or blue reflections behind; anteriorly opaque velvety-black. Tail of female graduated; scarcely emarginated T. alexandri.
Trochilus colubris, LINNÆUS.
RUBY-THROATED HUMMING-BIRD.
Trochilus colubris, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 191.—WILSON, Am. Orn. II, 1810, 26, pl. x.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 248, pl. xlvii.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 190, pl. ccliii.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 131.—MAX. Cab. J. VI, 154.—SAMUELS, 111.—ALLEN, B. Fla. 301. Ornisyma colubris, DEVILLE, Rev. et Mag. Zool. May, 1852 (habits). _Trochilus aureigaster_, LAWRENCE (alcoholic specimens).
SP. CHAR. Tail in the male deeply forked; the feathers all narrow lanceolate-acute. In the female slightly rounded and emarginate; the feathers broader, though pointed. Male, uniform metallic green above; a ruby-red gorget (blackish near the bill), with no conspicuous ruff; a white collar on the jugulum; sides of body greenish; tail-feathers uniformly brownish-violet. Female, without the red on the throat; the tail rounded and emarginate, the inner feathers shorter than the outer; the tail-feathers banded with black, and the outer tipped with white; no rufous or cinnamon on the tail in either sex. Length, 3.25; wing, 1.60; tail, 1.25; bill, .65. Young males are like the females; the throat usually spotted, sometimes with red; the tail is, in shape, more like that of the old male.
HAB. Eastern North America to the high Central Plains; south to Brazil. Localities: Cordova (SCL. P. Z. S. 1856, 288); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 129); Cuba (CAB. J. IV, 98; Gundl. Rep. I, 1866, 291); S. E. Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 470, breeds); Veragua (SALV. P. Z. S. 1870, 208).
The Trochilus aureigaster (aureigula?) of Lawrence, described from an alcoholic specimen in the Smithsonian collection, differs in having a green throat, becoming golden towards the chin. It is quite probable, however, that the difference is the result of immersion in spirits.
The red of the throat appears paler in some Mexican and Guatemalan skins; others, however, are not distinguishable from the northern specimens.
HABITS. This species is found throughout eastern North America, as far west as the Missouri Valley, and breeds from Florida and the valley of the Rio Grande to high northern latitudes. Richardson states that it ranges at least to the 57th parallel, and probably even farther north. He obtained specimens on the plains of the Saskatchewan, and Mr. Drummond found one of its nests near the source of the Elk River. Mr. Dresser found this bird breeding in Southwestern Texas, and also resident there during the winter months, and I have received their nests and eggs from Florida and Georgia. It was found by Mr. Skinner to be abundant in Guatemala during the winter months, on the southern slope of the great Cordillera, showing that it chooses for its winter retreat the moderate climate afforded by a region lying between the elevations of three and four thousand feet, where it winters in large numbers. Mr. Salvin noted their first arrival in Guatemala as early as the 24th of August. From that date the number rapidly increased until the first week in October, when it had become by far the most common species about Dueñas. It seemed also to be universally distributed, being equally common at Coban, at San Geronimo, and the plains of Salamá.
The birds of this species make their appearance on our southern border late in March, and slowly move northward in their migrations, reaching Upper Georgia about the 10th of April, Pennsylvania from the last of April to about the middle of May, and farther north the last of May or the first of June. They nest in Massachusetts about the 10th of June, and are about thirteen days between the full number of eggs and the appearance of the young. They resent any approach to their nest, and will even make angry movements around the head of the intruder, uttering a sharp outcry. Other than this I have never heard them utter any note.
Attempts to keep in confinement the Humming-Bird have been only partially successful. They have been known to live, at the best, only a few months, and soon perish, partly from imperfect nourishment and unsuitable food, and probably also from insufficient warmth.
Numerous examinations of stomachs of these birds, taken in a natural state, demonstrate that minute insects constitute a very large proportion of their necessary food. These are swallowed whole. The young birds feed by putting their own bills down the throats of their parents, sucking probably a prepared sustenance of nectar and fragments of insects. They raise, I think, but one brood in a season. The young soon learn to take care of themselves, and appear to remain some time after their parents have left. They leave New England in September, and have all passed southward beyond our limits by November.
A nest of this bird, from Dr. Gerhardt, of Georgia, measures 1.75 inches in its external diameter and 1.50 in height. Its cavity measures 1.00 in depth and 1.25 inches in breadth. It is of very homogeneous construction, the material of which it is made being almost exclusively a substance of vegetable origin, resembling wool, coarse in fibre, but soft, warm, and yielding, of a deep buff color. This is strengthened, on the outside, by various small woody fibres; the whole, on the outer surface, entirely and compactly covered by a thatching of small lichens, a species of Parmelia.
A nest obtained in Lynn, Mass., by Mr. George O. Welch, in June, 1860, was built on a horizontal branch of an apple-tree. It measures 1.50 inches in height, and 2.25 in its external diameter. The cavity is more shallow, measuring .70 of an inch in depth and 1.00 in diameter. It is equally homogeneous in its composition, being made of very similar materials. In this case, however, the soft woolly material of which it is woven is finer in fibre, softer and more silky, and of the purest white color. It is strengthened on the base with pieces of bark, and on the sides with fine vegetable fibres. The whole nest is beautifully covered with a compact coating of lichens, a species of Parmelia, but different from those of the Georgian nest.
The fine silk-like substance of which the nest from Lynn is chiefly composed is supposed to be the soft down which appears on the young and unexpanded leaves of the red-oak, immediately before their full development. The buds of several of the oaks are fitted for a climate liable to severe winters, by being protected by separate downy scales surrounding each leaf. In Massachusetts the red-oak is an abundant tree, expands its leaves at a convenient season for the Humming-Bird, and these soft silky scales which have fulfilled their mission of protection to the embryo leaves are turned to a good account by our tiny and watchful architect. The species in Georgia evidently make use of similar materials from one of the southern oaks.
The eggs measure .50 by .35 of an inch, and are of a pure dull white.
Trochilus alexandri, BOURC. & MULSANT.
BLACK-CHINNED HUMMING-BIRD.
Trochilus alexandri, BOURCIER & MULSANT, Ann. de la Soc. d’Agric. de Lyons, IX, 1846, 330.—HEERMANN, Jour. A. N. Sc. Phila. 2d ser. II, 1853, 269.—CASSIN, Ill. N. Am. Birds, I, V, 1854, 141, pl. xxii.—GOULD, Mon. Trochilidæ, XIV, Sept. 1857, plate.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 133, pl. xliv, f. 3.—IB. M. B. II, Birds, 6, pl. v, f. 3.—HEERM. X, S, 56.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 353.
SP. CHAR. Very similar to Trochilus colubris. Tail slightly forked; the chin and upper part of the throat opaque velvety-black, without metallic reflections, which are confined to the posterior border of the gorget, and are violet, sometimes changing to steel blue or green, instead of coppery-red. Female without the metallic scales; the tail-feathers tipped with white; the tail graduated, not emarginated; the innermost feather among the longest. Length of male, 3.30; wing, 1.70; tail, 126; bill, .75.
Hab. Coast of California, southward, and east to the Wahsatch and Uintah Mountains, Utah.
[Line drawing: ♂ juv. Trochilus alexandri. 4963 ♀ ]
The chief characters of this species are to be found in the violet, steel-blue, or steel-green reflections of the hinder part of the gorget, varying with the situation of the feathers and the specimen, as distinguished from the bright fiery or coppery red of the other. The chin and upper part of the throat extending beneath the eyes are opaque velvety or greenish black, without metallic lustre, while in T. colubris it is only the extreme chin which is thus dull in appearance. The bill is about .10 of an inch longer, the tail less deeply forked, and tinged with green at the end.
It is exceedingly difficult to distinguish the female of this species from that of T. colubris. The size is rather larger, and the tail rounded, without any distinct emargination; the middle feathers being .15 of an inch longer than the lateral ones, instead of actually shorter. The color is much the same. The primaries are also much broader in the present species.
In both species the outer tail-feathers, though broader than in the male, are quite acutely pointed on the terminal third, one side or the other of which is slightly concave, instead of being linear to near the end, and rounded without any concavity, as in Selasphorus and Calypte.
HABITS. This Humming-Bird, originally described as a Mexican species, is found from the highlands of that republic northward, not only to the southern borders of the western United States, but as far north as the 58th parallel. It was first discovered on the table-lands of Mexico, east of the city, by Signor Floresi, a distinguished naturalist, who devoted himself to the study of the Trochilidæ of Mexico, but was first added to the fauna of North America by Dr. Heermann, who detected it, and obtained several specimens, within the burying-ground of Sacramento City, Cal. There several pairs remained during the period of incubation, and reared their young, finding both food and shelter among the flowering plants of that cemetery. He found several of their nests which were essentially similar to the T. colubris.
Dr. Cooper met with this species along the Mohave River. He saw the first on the 3d of June. He also found one of their nests built in a dark willow-thicket in the fork of a tree, eight feet from the ground. Those afterwards found near Santa Barbara were all built near the end of hanging branches of the sycamore, constructed of white down from willow catkins, agglutinated by the bird’s saliva, and thus fastened to the branch on which it rested. These were built in the latter part of April, and early in May contained two eggs, exactly resembling those of the T. colubris, and measuring .51 by .32 of an inch.
Afterwards Mr. W. W. Holden obtained a specimen in the Colorado Valley, March 20.
Mr. J. K. Lord, one of the English commissioners of the Northwestern Boundary Survey, met with this species near his camping-place on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. This was near a lake, by the margin of which, with other trees, grew a number of the black birch. On these trees he found a sweet gummy sap exuding plentifully from splits in the bark, and on this sap hosts of insects, large and small, were regaling themselves. As the sap was very sticky, numbers of the smaller winged insects were trapped in it. Busily employed in picking off and devouring these captive insects were several very sombre-looking Humming-Birds, poising themselves over the flowers, and nipping off, as with delicate forceps, the imprisoned insects. Upon securing one of these birds, he ascertained that it belonged to this species. This was pretty satisfactory proof that they are insect-eaters. Not only on this occasion, but many times afterwards, Mr. Lord saw this bird pick the insects from the tree; and the stomachs of those he killed, on being opened, were filled with various kinds of winged insects. He found this bird lingering around lakes, pools, and swamps, where these birches grow. They generally build in the birch or alder, selecting the fork of a branch high up.
This species bears a very close resemblance in size, appearance, and markings, to the common eastern species, but is readily distinguishable by the difference in the color of the chin and the shape of the tail.
In the spring of 1851, on a trip to Sonora, Mexico, Dr. Heermann found these birds abundant in the arid country around Guaymas, where amid the scanty vegetation they had constructed their nests in the month of April. He also afterwards found them on Dry Creek and the Cosumnes River.
According to the observations of Mr. Ridgway, this species has quite an extended distribution in the West. He found it in varying abundance from the Sacramento Valley, in California, to the Wahsatch and Uintah Mountains in Utah.
At Sacramento it was more abundant than the C. anna, nesting in the door-yards and in gardens, but particularly in the thick copses of small oaks in the outskirts of the city. In the Great Basin it associated with the Selasphorus rufus in the western portion, and with S. platycercus to the eastward, nesting everywhere, from the lowest valleys to a height of eight or nine thousand feet in the mountains.
GENUS CALYPTE, GOULD.
Calypte, GOULD, Introd. Trochilidæ, 1861, 87. (Type, Ornysmya costæ.)
[Line drawing: Calypte costæ. 39399 ♂ 39400 ♀]
GEN. CHAR. Bill longer than the head, straight or slightly curved; tail rather short. Outer primary not attenuated at end. Top of head, as well as throat, with metallic scale-like feathers, a decided and elongated ruff on each side the neck.
The metallic feathers on top of head, the attenuated outer tail-feathers (except in C. helenæ), and the elongated ruff, distinguish the males of this genus very readily from any other in North America.
Species.
A. No rufous on tail-feathers; tail forked or emarginated.
a. Lateral tail-feather as broad as the others; tail emarginated. Rump and middle tail-feathers blue.
C. helenæ.[114] Very small (wing, 1.15); metallic hood and ruff of the male purplish-red. Hab. Cuba.
b. Lateral tail-feather abruptly narrower than the others, tail forked. Rump and middle tail-feathers green.
C. anna. Large (wing, 2.00); outer tail-feather with a double curve, the end inclining outward. Metallic hood and ruff of the male purplish-red. Hab. California.
C. costæ. Small (wing, 1.75); outer tail-feather with a simple curve, the end inclining inward. Metallic hood and ruff of the male violet-blue. Hab. Southern California, Arizona, and Mexico.
B. Inner webs of tail-feathers mostly rufous, and outer webs edged with the same. Tail rounded. Lateral tail-feather abruptly narrower than the others.
C. floresi.[115] Size of C. anna. Hood and ruff of the male crimson. Hab. Table-lands of Mexico (Bolanos).
[114] Calypte helenæ, (LEMB.) GOULD, Monog. Troch. III, pl. cxxxvi. Orthorhynchus helenæ, LEMB. Aves de l’Isle de Cuba, p. 70, pl. x, fig. 2. O. boothi, GUNDL. MSS. (GOULD, Monog.).
[115] Calypte floresi, (LODD.) Trochilus floresi, LODD. MSS. Selasphorus floresi, GOULD, Monog. Troch. III, pl. cxxxix. There are certainly few reasons for considering this bird as a Selasphorus, while there are many for referring it to Calypte. The only feature that it shares with the former is the peculiar coloration, and to some extent the shape, of the tail. However, in Selasphorus the outer primary is always (in the male) attenuated and acute at the tip, and the crown is never metallic, while in Calypte the outer primary is never attenuated nor acute, and the crown of the male is always metallic. The form and coloration of the tail are nothing more than a specific character, since no two species, of either genus, agree in this respect. In view, then, of these considerations, we find floresi to be strictly congeneric with the other species of Calypte.
Calypte anna, GOULD.
ANNA HUMMING-BIRD.
Ornismya anna, LESSON, Oiseaux Mouches, 1830, (?) pl. cxxiv. Trochilus anna, JARDINE, Nat. Lib. Humming-Birds, I, 93, pl. vi.—AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 428, pl. ccccxxviii.—IB. Birds America, IV, 1842, 188, pl. cclii.—HEERM. X, S, 56 (nest). Calliphlox anna, GAMBEL, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phil. III, 1846, 3.—IB. Journ. 2d ser. I, 1847, 32. Trochilus (Atthis) anna, REICHENBACH, Cab. Jour. Extraheft for 1853, 1854, App. 12. _Trochilus icterocephalus_, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 712 (male with forehead covered with yellow pollen). _Atthis anna_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 137. Calypte annæ, GOULD, Introd. Trochilidæ.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 358.
[Line drawing: Calypte anna. 5501 ♂ 44953 ♀]
SP. CHAR. Largest of North American species of Humming-Bird. Tail deeply forked; external feather narrow, linear. Top of the head, throat, and a moderate ruff, metallic crimson-red, with purple reflections. Rest of upper parts and a band across the breast green. Tail-feathers purplish-brown, darkest centrally. In the female the tail is slightly rounded, not emarginate; the scales of the head and throat are wanting. Tail barred with black, and tipped with white. Length, about 3.60; wing, 2.00; tail, 1.45.
HAB. Mexico and coast region of California.
The C. floresi of the table-lands of Mexico resembles this species in every respect except the tail, which is somewhat like that of Selasphorus rufus. The only North American species to which the male of this bird bears any resemblance is the A. costæ, which has the same metallic crown and other generic features. The latter, however, is much smaller; has the metallic reflections varied, chiefly violet, instead of nearly uniform purplish-red. The tail is much less deeply forked, the depth being only about .10 of an inch, instead of .32; the outer feather is much narrower. The females of the two, however, appear to be distinguishable only by their relative size. The absence of rufous, and the rounded, not graduated, tail always separates the female of anna from that of Selasphorus rufus. The larger size is the chief distinction from the female Calypte costæ, while the size and less acutely pointed outer tail-feathers distinguish it from the female Trochilus colubris.
We have never seen any specimens of this bird taken out of California, nor quoted of late years as occurring in Mexico, although stated by Gould to belong to the table-lands.
HABITS. This beautiful Humming-Bird is found from the high table-lands of Mexico throughout the western portions of that region, and through all the coast country of California, from the slopes of the Sierra to the ocean. It was first taken in Mexico, and named in honor of Anna, Duchess of Rivoli. Mr. Nuttall was the first of our own naturalists to take it within our territory. He captured a female on its nest near Santa Barbara. This was described and figured by Audubon. The nest was attached to a small burnt twig of Photinia, and was small for the bird, being only 1.25 inches in breadth. It was somewhat conic in shape, made of the down of willow catkins, intermixed with their scales, and a few feathers, the latter forming the lining. It had none of the neatness of the nests of our common species, and was so rough on the outside that Mr. Nuttall waited several days in expectation of its being completed, and found the female sitting on two eggs when he caught her. Dr. Cooper, however, thinks this description applies much better to the nest of T. alexandri, as all that he has seen of this species are twice as large, and covered externally with lichens, even when on branches not covered with these parasites.
Dr. Gambel, in his paper published in 1846 on the birds of California, describes this as a very abundant species, numbers of which pass the entire winter in California. At such times he found them inhabiting sheltered hillsides and plains, where, at all seasons, a few bushy plants were in flower and furnished them with a scanty subsistence. In the latter part of February and during March they appeared in greater numbers. About the Pueblo the vineyards and the gardens were their favorite resort, where they build a delicate downy nest in small flowering bushes, or in a concealed spot about a fence. In April and May they may be seen in almost every garden.
In the wilder portions of the country Dr. Gambel found them attaching their nest almost exclusively to low horizontal branches of the Quercus agrifolia, or evergreen oak, so common in that region. The nest he describes as small, only about an inch in depth, and 1.25 inches in diameter, formed in the most delicate manner of pappus and down of various plants matted into a soft felt, with spider’s-webs, which he frequently observed them collecting for the purpose, in the spring, along hedges and fence-rows. The base of the nest is formed of a few dried male aments of the oak, which, with the adjoining felt-like matting of pappus, are agglutinated and bound around the twig with a thick layer of spider’s-webs. The note of this bird, he states, is a slender chep, frequently repeated. During the breeding-season they are very pugnacious, darting like meteors among the trees, uttering a loud and repeated twittering scold. They also have the habit of ascending to a considerable height, and then of descending with great rapidity, uttering at the same time a peculiar cry. The glutinous pollen of a tubular flower upon which these birds feed often adheres to the rigid feathers of the crown, and causes the bird to seem to have a bright yellow head. Nuttall, who never obtained the male of this species, but saw them in this condition, supposed this to be a yellow spot in the crown, and hence his supposed species of icterocephalus.
In California, south of San Francisco, this species was also observed, by Dr. Cooper, to be a constant resident in mild winters, remaining among the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, at least fifteen hundred feet above the sea. There he has found them quite common in February. At that season flowers, and consequently insects, are more abundant than in the dry summers. The males are in fine plumage early in January.
Dr. Cooper states that the nests of this species are built at various heights and positions, often in gardens, and sometimes on dead branches, without any attempt at concealment except the outside covering of lichens. He has found them made almost wholly of mosses, with only a lining of feathers and down of plants. In the neighborhood of San Francisco the young are sometimes hatched as early as the middle of March. This species appears to be more hardy than the others, being common along the coast border, though Dr. Cooper saw none near the summits of the Sierra Nevada.
The notes of the male bird, he states, are like the sound produced by the filing of a saw or the whetting of a scythe. They enter familiarly into the city of San Francisco, and even venture into rooms, attracted by the flowers. They are bold and confident, approach to within a few feet of man, but at the least motion disappear like a flash.
Dr. Heermann found this species quite common at San Diego in March, and in its full spring plumage. In September he procured a number of specimens on a small island in the Cosumnes River. While on the wing in pursuit of insects, or after alighting on a small branch, he heard them utter a very weak twitter, continued for a minute or more.
A nest of this species from Petaluma is about 1.50 inches in diameter, and 1.00 in height, and bears no resemblance to the one described by Nuttall. It is made of a commingling of mosses and vegetable down, covered externally with a fine yellow lichen. The eggs measure .60 by .40 of an inch, and are about ten per cent larger than those of any other North American Humming-Bird.
Another nest of this Humming-Bird, obtained in Petaluma, Cal., by Mr. Emanuel Samuels, measures 1.75 inches in diameter, and about 1.00 in height. Its cavity is one inch in diameter at the rim, and half an inch in depth. Its lining is composed of such soft materials that its limits are not well defined. The base of the nest is made of feathers, mosses, and lichens of several varieties of the smaller kinds. The periphery and rim of the nest are of nearly the same materials. The inner fabric consists of a mass of a dirty-white vegetable wool, with a lining of the very finest and softest of feathers, intermingled with down from the seeds of some species of silkweed. The predominant lichen in the base and sides of the nest is the Ramalina menziesii, which is peculiar to California. The nest contained a single egg.
Calypte costæ, GOULD.
COSTA’S HUMMING-BIRD; RUFFED HUMMER.
Ornismya costæ, BOURCIER, Rev. Zoöl. Oct. 1839, 294 (Lower California).—IB. Ann. Sc. Phys. et d’Hist. Nat. de Lyon, 1840, 225, tab. ii.—PREVOST & DES MURS, Voyage de la Venus, Zool. I, 1855, 194, Atlas, tab. ii, f. 1, 2. Selasphorus costæ, BON. Conspectus Avium, I, 1850, 82. Atthis costæ, REICHENBACH, Cab. Jour. für Orn. Extraheft, 1853, 1854.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 138, pl. xix.—KENNERLY, P. R. R. x, b, 36, pl. xix. Calypte costæ, GOULD, Mon. Humming-Birds.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 360.
SP. CHAR. Tail very slightly emarginated and rounded; exterior feather very narrow, and linear. A very long ruff on each side of the throat. Head above and below, with the ruff, covered with metallic red, purple and violet (sometimes steel green). Remaining upper parts and sides of the body green. Throat under and between the ruffs, side of head behind the eye, anal region, and under tail-coverts whitish. Female with the tail rounded, scarcely emarginate; barred with black, and tipped with white. The metallic colors of the head wanting. Length, 3.20; wing, 1.75; tail, 1.10; bill, .68.
HAB. Mexico, Southern California, and the Colorado Basin, Monterey (NEBOUX). Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 57).
Specimens vary considerably in the color of the ruff, which, however, is only occasionally green; violet being the prevailing shade. The length of this appendage varies considerably.
The female of this species differs much from the male in the absence of the metallic scales on the head and throat. It has a close resemblance to the female T. colubris, although the bill is smaller and narrower. The tail-feathers are narrower, more linear, and less acutely pointed at the tip. The black on the outer tail-feathers, instead of extending very nearly to the base, is confined to the terminal half, the basal portion being green. All the tail-feathers are terminated by white, although that on the fourth and fifth is very narrow. In T. colubris this color is confined to the three outer ones. The much smaller size will alone distinguish it from the female of C. anna.
HABITS. This species is a Mexican bird, first discovered by Signor Floresi among the valleys of the Sierra Madre, in that country, throughout the western portions of which it is said to be an abundant species, as well as along our southern borders, whence it extends into New Mexico, the Colorado Valley, Southern California, and Arizona. It was first described by Bourcier in 1839, and named in honor of the Marquis de Costa, of Chambery.
Mr. Xantus found this species exceedingly abundant at Cape St. Lucas. It has also been found on the eastern coast of the Gulf of California, at Guaymas, and Mazatlan, and also on the table-lands of Mexico.
It was first added to our fauna by Dr. Kennerly, who obtained specimens near Bill Williams Fork, in New Mexico, February 9, 1854. At that early season a few flowers had already expanded beneath the genial rays of the sun, and around them the party rarely failed to find these beautiful birds. They had already paired, and were constantly to be seen hovering over the flowers. Their notes consisted of a rapid chirping sound. As Dr. Kennerly’s party approached the coast of California, where the valleys abounded with flowers of every hue, these birds continued flitting before them in great numbers. Dr. Coues states that this species was not taken at Fort Whipple, though abundantly distributed throughout the Territory, particularly in its southern and southwestern portions, and found about fifty miles south of Prescott. It is presumed to winter within the Territory, and also within the valley of the Colorado. Dr. Cooper did not observe any at Fort Mohave until March 5, and they were not numerous afterwards. At San Diego, in 1862, when the spring was unusually backward, he saw none before April 22, and he has since met with them as far north as San Francisco, where, however, they are rare. The notes uttered by the male he compares to the highest and sharpest note that can be drawn from a violin. Nothing more is known as to their distinctive specific peculiarities.
GENUS SELASPHORUS, SWAINSON.
Selasphorus, SWAINSON, F. B. A. II, 1831, 324. (Type, Trochilus rufus.)
[Line drawing: Selasphorus rufus. 2896 ♂]
As already stated, the characters of Selasphorus, as distinguished from Calypte (to which it is most nearly related, through the C. floresi), consist in the lack of metallic feathers on the crown, and in the attenuation of the outer primary, and the pointed and acuminate cuneate (instead of forked) tail.
As distinguished from Trochilus, the quills diminish gradually, instead of showing an abrupt transition between the fourth and fifth, so characteristic of the two species of Trochilus, as restricted. The very attenuated tip of the outer primary is a character entirely peculiar to Selasphorus.
The two North American species, though strictly congeneric, differ from each other considerably in details of form, as well as in color. They may be distinguished from each other and from their two Central American allies as follows:—
Species and Varieties.
A. Feathers of the metallic gorget not elongated laterally.
S. platycercus. Above continuous metallic green; tail-feathers merely edged with rufous. Gorget purplish-red.
Wing, 1.90; tail, 1.40; bill (from forehead), .66. Gorget rich solferino-purple, the feathers grayish-white beneath the surface. Outer primary with its attenuated tip turned outward. Hab. Rocky Mountains and Middle Province of United States, south to Guatemala var. platycercus.
Wing, 1.65; tail, 1.20; bill, .41. Gorget dull velvety-crimson, the feathers ochraceous beneath the surface. Outer primary apparently with its attenuated tip curved inward. Hab. Costa Rica var. flammula.[116]
B. Feathers of the metallic gorget much elongated laterally.
S. rufus. Above chiefly rufous, overlaid by green (except in S. scintilla, which is almost wholly green above); tail-feathers rufous with a shaft-streak of dusky. Gorget fiery red. Attenuated tip of outer primary curved inwards.
Wing, 1.60; tail, 1.30; bill, .65. Rufous prevailing above; gorget very brilliant. Hab. Western Province of North America, from East Humboldt Mountains to the Pacific. North to Sitka, south to Mirador var. rufus.
Wing, 1.35; tail, 1.00 to 1.10; bill, .42. Continuous green above; gorget not brilliant, but with a dusty appearance. Tail less graduated. Hab. Costa Rica and Chiriqui var. scintilla.[117]
[116] Selasphorus (platycercus, var. ?) flammula (SALV.). Selasphorus flammula, SALVIN, P. Z. S. 1864 (Costa Rica). (Described above from specimen in Mr. Lawrence’s collection.)
[117] Selasphorus (rufus var. ?) scintilla (GOULD). Selasphorus scintilla, GOULD, P. Z. S. 1850, 162, Monog. Troch. III, pl. cxxxviii. The foregoing species are so similar in all essential respects to the northern S. platycercus and S. rufus, that it is exceedingly probable that they are merely the southern forms of those species. Both differ in exactly the same respects from their northern representatives, namely, in smaller size and less burnished throat, and to a very slight degree only in form. The only specimen of the S. flammula that we have examined is a badly shot male in Mr. Lawrence’s collection; what appears to be the outer primary in this specimen is not attenuated at the tip, which is curved inward, instead of acutely attenuated and turned outward as in platycercus; the wings are badly cut with shot, however, and the first primary may be wanting.
Selasphorus rufus, SWAINSON.
RUFOUS-BACKED HUMMING-BIRD.
Trochilus rufus, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 497.—AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 555, pl. ccclxxii. Selasphorus rufus, SWAINSON, F.-Bor. Am. II, 1831, 324.—AUD. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 200, pl. ccliv.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 134.—Cooper & Suckley, 164.—Dall & Bannister, Tr. Chic. Ac. I, 1869, 275 (Alaska).—Finsch, Abh. Nat. III, 1872, 29 (Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 355. Trochilus collaris, LATH. (Bonaparte). Trochilus sitkensis, RATHKE (Bonaparte). Ornysmia sasin, LESSON (Bonaparte).
SP. CHAR. Tail strongly cuneate and wedge-shaped. Upper parts, lower tail-coverts, and breast cinnamon. A trace of metallic green on the crown, which sometimes extends over the back, never on the belly. Throat coppery red, with a well-developed ruff of the same; below this a white collar. Tail-feathers cinnamon, edged or streaked at the end with purplish-brown. Female with the rufous of the back covered or replaced with green; less cinnamon on the breast. Traces only of metallic feathers on the throat. Tail rufous, banded with black and tipped with white; middle feathers glossed with green at the end. Tail still cuneate. Length of male, 3.50; wing, 1.55; tail, 1.30.
HAB. West coast of North America, and across from Gulf of California to the Upper Rio Grande Valley, and along the table-lands of Mexico, south; in Middle Province east to East Humboldt Mountains.
Specimens from the table-lands of Mexico are smaller than those from Oregon, and have yellower, less ruby throats.
HABITS. This brilliant species has an extended distribution throughout the western part of North America, being found from the valley of the Rio Grande to the Pacific, and from Mexico to Sitka. It was first discovered near Nootka Sound, by that distinguished navigator, Captain Cook, and described by Latham, and has been met with as far to the south as Real del Monte, on the table-lands of Mexico, by Mr. Taylor, whose specimens were described by Mr. Swainson.
Dr. Coues found it very abundant at Arizona, near Fort Whipple, as it is also along the whole slope of the Rocky Mountains. It is a summer resident in that Territory, and breeds there abundantly, arriving at Fort Whipple April 10, and remaining until the middle of September, being found in all situations, particularly meadows, open copses, ravines, etc., where flowers are most abundant.
Mr. Dall gives them as common summer residents at Sitka. Bischoff obtained sixteen specimens. Dr. Suckley says they are very abundant in the western provinces of both Oregon and Washington Territory, and in Vancouver Island. They appear to be very hardy, and are one of the earliest of the migratory birds to arrive in spring. At Fort Steilacoom, latitude 47°, they appeared April 10. They are supposed to commence their southern migrations from that region in September,—a move induced by the scarcity of flowers and lack of means of captivating insects, rather than by cold. In Washington Territory their incubation commences about the 10th of May, and is made evident by the fierce and angry battles continually occurring between the male birds, in which they tilt at each other at full speed, at the same time keeping up a loud and vociferous squeaking and buzzing.
A nest with eggs, of this species, obtained by Dr. Cooper near Fort Slaughter, May 23, was found in the forked branch of a snowberry-bush. It was composed principally of fine green moss, lined internally with the delicate floss of the cottonwood, and externally bordered most artistically with rock lichens. The female was on the nest, and allowed so near an approach as almost to admit of being grasped by the hand. The nest was 2.00 inches in diameter and 1.50 in height. The eggs measured .45 by .33 of an inch, and were white, as in all the species.
Dr. Cooper states that the appearance of this species at the Straits of Fuca is coincident with the blossoming of the red-flowering currant, which begins to bloom on the Columbia March 10. The male of this species has a remarkable habit, when a stranger or a wild animal approaches its nest, of rising to a great height in the air, and of then darting down perpendicularly upon the intruder, producing a hollow rushing sound, like that of the Night-Hawk, but of a much sharper tone. These sounds are produced by the wings. In July, when flowers are more abundant among the mountain summits, they leave the lower country. Dr. Cooper found them abundant in August at an elevation of nearly six thousand feet, and where ice was formed at night in their camp.
In California, Dr. Cooper has not found any of this species remaining in winter, even at San Diego, where, however, he has known them to arrive as early as the 5th of February. He also saw several on the 22d of the same month feeding among the flowers of the evergreen gooseberry. By the first of April they were swarming about San Diego. Their young are hatched before the middle of June. When perching, this species is said to utter a shrill wiry call, like the highest note of a violin. They also produce a curious kind of bleating sound. They are among the most noisy and lively of their race, are very quarrelsome, chase each other away from favorite flowers, rising into the air until out of sight, chirping as they go in the most excited manner.
Mr. Lord noticed the arrival of this species at Little Spokan River, in latitude 49°, early in May. He found their nests usually in low shrubs and close to rippling streams. The females of this and other species are said to arrive about a week later than the males.
Dr. Heermann for several successive seasons found many pairs of these birds breeding in the vicinity of San Francisco.
Mr. Nuttall compares the appearance of the male birds of this species, when he approached too near their nests, to an angry coal of brilliant fire, as they darted upon him, passing within a few inches of his face as they returned again and again to the attack, making a sound as of a breaking twig.
Dr. Woodhouse, who found this bird abundant in New Mexico, particularly in the vicinity of Santa Fé, speaks of the great noise they make for so small a bird, and of their quarrelsome and pugnacious disposition.
Mr. R. Brown, in his synopsis of the birds of Vancouver Island, notes the appearance of this species, from the end of March to the beginning of May, according to the state of the season. Its nest was built on the tips of low bushes, or the under branches of trees. This was the only species of Humming-Bird seen west of the Cascade Mountains.
The Rufous Hummer was first noticed by Mr. Ridgway in the valley of the Truckee River, in August, where it was the only species shot, and was extremely abundant among the sunflowers which ornament the meadows. In May of the succeeding year, when the same locality was again visited, not one of this species was to be found, its place being apparently supplied by the T. alexandri, which was quite common, and breeding. Eastward it was met with as far as the East Humboldt Mountains, where, however, only a single pair was seen, and one of them shot, in September.
Selasphorus platycercus, GOULD.
BROAD-TAILED HUMMING-BIRD.
Trochilus platycercus, SW. Philos. Mag. I, 1827, 441 (Mexico). Selasphorus platycercus, GOULD, Mon. Trochilid. or Humming-Birds, III, May, 1852.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 135, pl. xliii, figs. 1 and 2.—COOPER, Pr. Cal. Ac. 1868 (Lake Tahoe).—IB. Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 357. Ornismia tricolor, LESSON, Colibris, 125 (no date), pl. xiv (Brazil).—IB. Trochilide. 1831, 156, pl. lx (Mexico).—JARDINE, Nat. Lib. II, 77, pl. xiii. Ornismya montana, LESSON, Trochilid. 1831, 161, pl. lxiii, adult, and 163; pl. lxiv, young (Mexico).
[Line drawing: ♂ 10847 Selasphorus platycercus. 10750 ♀]
SP. CHAR. Outer primaries greatly attenuated at the end and turned outward. Outer tail-feathers nearly linear, but widening a little from the base; its width .20 of an inch. Tail slightly graduated and emarginate. Male above and on the sides metallic green; chin and throat light reddish-purple, behind which, and along the belly to the tail, is a good deal of white. Wings and tail dusky purplish; the tail-feathers, excepting the internal and external ones, edged towards the base with light cinnamon. Female without the metallic gorget; the throat-feathers with dusky centres. The tail somewhat cuneate, as in the male, the feathers less pointed; the outer three cinnamon-rufous at base (this extending somewhat along the outer edges), then black, and broadly tipped with white (much as in the male Atthis heloisa), the inner two feathers green, the fourth with black spot at end, and only edged at base with rufous. The sides and crissum also tinged with cinnamon. Length, 3.50; wing, 1.92; tail, 1.40. Bill, gape, .80.
HAB. Table-lands of Mexico and Rocky Mountains, and Middle Province of United States, north to Wyoming Territory. Uintah, Wahsatch, and East Humboldt Mountains (RIDGWAY); Sierra Nevada (COOPER); Cordova (SCL. P. Z. S. 1856, 288); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis, I, 129); Arizona (COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 57).
A decided character of this species among its North American relatives is the rufous outer border of the exterior tail-feathers. This rufous in S. rufus pervades most of the feathers, instead of being restricted as above. Females of the two species are not dissimilar: those of S. platycercus are larger, less rufous beneath; the tail-feathers broader and less pointed, and with the inner two (on each side) entirely green to base (the fourth edged with rufous), instead of being principally rufous, except at tip.
Specimens from Mirador, Mexico, are undistinguishable from those of Fort Bridger; those from Guatemala are smaller than the Mexican.
HABITS. Until recently this Humming-Bird has been presumed to be an exclusively Mexican and Central American species. Until taken within our limits, it had been supposed to be confined on the north to the Mexican plateau, westward to the city, and thence southward to Guatemala, while throughout this region it is said to be very generally and very plentifully distributed. It was first taken, in 1851, by Mr. J. H. Clark, near El Paso, Texas. Subsequently numerous specimens were seen by Dr. Coues on the summit of Whipple’s Pass of the Rocky Mountains, in July, feeding among clumps of wild roses. It was not noticed near Fort Whipple, though the range of this species is now well known to include New Mexico and Arizona, as far north, at least, as Fort Bridger in Wyoming. It was found breeding abundantly in the vicinity of Fort Grant, Arizona, by Dr. Palmer.
This Humming-Bird was found by Mr. Allen more or less common among the foot-hills, as well as among the mountains, of Colorado, and extending several miles out on the plains. On Mount Lincoln, in Colorado, he found it exceedingly numerous, and though larger and otherwise different from the eastern Ruby-throat, it might easily be mistaken for it. The shrill whistling of its wings, he adds, is a peculiarity one is sure to notice. This Humming-Bird continued to be common on the sides of Mount Lincoln to far above the timber line, being apparently as much at home among the bright flowers growing on the highest parts of the mountain as in the valleys.
At Lake Tahoe, at an elevation of six thousand feet, Dr. Cooper found the young of this species quite common near the middle of September. Supposing them to be the more common S. rufus, he only obtained a single specimen. He thinks that these birds extend their northern migrations as far as the Blue Mountains, near Snake River, Oregon, and that they are the ones referred to by Nuttall as seen by him in autumn, and supposed to be the rufus.
The nests of this species procured by Dr. Palmer were large for the size of the bird, unusually broad and shallow, composed of soft downy pappus from seeds of plants, and vegetable down, with the outer walls covered with mosses and lichens. The eggs are not distinguishable from those of the other species.
The Rocky Mountain or Broad-tailed Hummer, according to Mr. Ridgway’s observations, is the most abundant species in the Great Basin, though he did not see it to recognize it west of the East Humboldt Mountains. It is essentially a bird of the mountains, since in that region there are few flowers elsewhere; yet in the gardens of Salt Lake City, an altitude far below its usual habitat, it was abundant. Its favorite resorts are the flowery slopes of the higher and well-watered mountain-ranges of the Great Basin and Rocky Mountain system, at an average elevation of about eight or nine thousand feet, yet it will be found wherever flowers are abundant. Mr. Ridgway saw one at an altitude of about twelve thousand feet, in July, on the East Humboldt Mountains, but it merely passed rapidly by him. In the Wahsatch Mountains, particularly in the neighborhood of Salt Lake City, this species was most plentiful. It there nested abundantly in the scrub-oaks on the hills or slopes of the cañons.
The male bird is very pugnacious, and was observed to attack and drive away an Accipiter fuscus, the Hawk retreating as rapidly as possible. When the nest is approached, the male often rises high into the air and then sweeps down almost to the head of the intruder, its swift descent being accompanied by a very peculiar shrill, screeching buzz, of an extraordinary degree of loudness to be produced by so small a creature. The same sound Mr. Ridgway noticed when the bird was passing overhead, in a manner not observed in any other species, its horizontal flight being by a peculiar undulating course. The shrill noise made by the male of this species he suggests may be caused by the curious attenuated and stiffened outer primary. He noticed a curious piece of ingenuity in nest-making on the part of this species. The nest in question was fastened upon a dead twig of a small cottonwood-tree; the loosening bark, which probably had separated after the nest was finished, had allowed the nest to turn around so as to hang beneath the branch, thus spilling the eggs upon the ground. The owners, however, built another nest upon the top of the branch, fastening its sides to that of the old one, and making the new nest lighter and less bulky, so that the weight of the older nest kept the other in a permanently upright position.
GENUS ATTHIS, REICHENBACH.
Atthis, REICH. Cab. Jour. f. Orn. extraheft für 1853, 1854. Appendix B. (Type, Ornysmya heloisa, LESSON, DEL.)
GEN. CHAR. Size very diminutive; bill short, scarcely longer than the head. Outer primary attenuated nearly as in Selasphorus; the tail graduated, the feathers, however, not lanceolate-acute, but rounded at end, and tipped with white in the male.
[Line drawing: Atthis heloisa. ♂ 25874 24618 ♀]
This genus seems closely related to Selasphorus, agreeing in character of throat, the curious attenuation of outer primary, and the general shape of the tail, with its rufous base and edging. The feathers, however, are not lanceolate and pointed, either sharply as in S. rufus, or obtusely as in platycercus, but are more equal to near the end, where they round off. The white tip of the tail in the male seems to be the principal reason why Mr. Gould removes the single species from Selasphorus, where it was previously placed by him, and where perhaps it might have not inappropriately remained.
Atthis heloisa, LESS. & DEL.
HELOISA’S HUMMING-BIRD.
Ornysmya heloisa, LESSON & DELATTRE, Rev. Zoöl. 1838, 15 (Xalapa). Mellisuga heloisa, GRAY & MITCHELL, Gen. Birds, I, 113. Tryphæna heloisa, BONAP. Consp. Troch. Rev. Mag. Zoöl. 1854, 257. Selasphorus heloisæ, GOULD, Mon. Trochil. III, pl. cxli. Atthis heloisæ, REICH. Cab. Jour. extraheft, 1853, App. 12.—GOULD, Introd. Trochil. 1861, 89.—ELLIOT, Illust. Birds N. Am. I, xxi, XII, plate.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 361.
SP. CHAR. Male. Above metallic green with golden reflections; beneath white; the sides of breast glossed with green; the flanks with rufous, which tinges the crissum very faintly; gorget brilliant violet or light purplish-red, bordered behind by clear white. All the tail-feathers rufous-cinnamon for basal half; the three outer black centrally and tipped with white (mixed with reddish on the third); the fourth green, centrally tipped with black; the central entirely green for the exposed portion, perhaps glossed with blackish at the end. Length, 2.70; wing, 1.35; tail, 1.00; exposed part of bill above, .45. Female. Outer primary not attenuated. Colors similar to male, wanting the metallic gorget; the feathers spotted with dusky; crissum and flanks more rufous; innermost tail-feathers entirely green; other feathers as in male, but with the central black encroaching on the basal rufous; third and fourth feathers tipped with reddish-white.
HAB. Southern New Mexico and Texas, to Guatemala.
The introduction of this species into the fauna of the United States is based on a female specimen collected by Mr. J. H. Clark at El Paso, Texas, and for a time supposed to be Selasphorus rufus, but after a careful examination by Mr. Lawrence, pronounced to belong to this species. Its range is southward along the highlands to Guatemala.
The species is very much like Selasphorus in shape, and hardly differs more than S. rufus and platycercus do from each other. The male is easily distinguished from its allies; the females are closely related to those of rufus, differing in much shorter bill (.55 to .65), much less rufous on the more nearly even tail, with broader feathers, etc.
HABITS. This species claims a place within the fauna of North America, probably only as an accidental visitor, on the ground of a single specimen,—a female, taken by Mr. J. H. Clark at El Paso, Texas. It was at first mistaken for Selasphorus rufus. It is a Mexican and Central American species, ranging throughout the highlands at least as far to the south as Guatemala, where it was taken by Mr. Salvin.
It was first discovered on the highlands of Mexico by Mr. Delattre, who procured his specimens between Jalapa and Quatepu. It is crepuscular in its habits, collecting its food only in the morning or in the evening. Mr. Delattre states that the male bird is known to rise very early in the morning, and is never seen in quest of food later than nine in the forenoon. It very seldom goes to any distance from its mate or young, seeming to prefer to frequent the flowers in the edge of forests, but does not disdain those of the open fields. Mr. Salvin received specimens of this species taken in a place called Chimachoyo near Calderas, in the Volcan de Fuego, and other specimens taken in the tierra caliente, near Coban, showing that, like many other species, it is found in very different climates.
GENUS HELIOPÆDICA, GOULD.
Heliopædica, GOULD, Mon. Trochilidæ, II, Introd. Trochil. 1861, 60. (Type, Trochilus melanotus, SWAINSON.)
[Line drawing: Heliopædica xantusi. ♂ 17767 16935 ♀]
GEN. CHAR. Bill longer than head, depressed, broad at its exposed base; the frontal feathers not advancing forward beyond the beginning of the nostrils, nor so far as those of the chin. Hind toe shorter than the lateral, tarsi feathered; outer primary not attenuated. Tail nearly even, slightly rounded and emarginate, the feathers broad, the webs nearly even. Metallic feathers of throat not elongated. Female quite similar in form.
This genus is quite peculiar among those of North America in the exposure of the base of bill, which is entirely bare between the lengthened nostrils, instead of covered by the frontal feathers. This makes the bill appear very broad, although it really is more so than in the other genera. The feathers on the chin extend considerably beyond those of the forehead, instead of to about the same line. The tail and its feathers are much broader than in the other genera.
The two known species of this genus may be distinguished by the following characters:—
COMMON CHARACTERS. Above metallic green; tail plain black or chestnut, glossed with green, and without white in either sex. A conspicuous white post-ocular stripe, and a blackish auricular one beneath it; beneath with more or less green. ♂. Forehead, chin, and side of head deep black or metallic dark blue; throat and jugulum brilliant green. ♀. Front dull brownish-green; chin, throat, and jugulum white or ochraceous, with or without a green gloss.
H. melanotis.[118] Male. Belly white, glossed with green; tail black beneath; base of bill, all round, brilliant blue; white cheek-stripe beginning back of the eye. Female. Beneath white glossed with green; tail bluish-black. Hab. Guatemala and table-lands of Mexico.
H. xantusi. Male. Belly cinnamon; tail beneath purplish-cinnamon; chin black; white cheek-stripe beginning at the bill. Female. Beneath plain pale rufous; tail deep rufous. Hab. Cape St. Lucas.
[118] Heliopædica melanotis, (SWAINS.) GOULD, Monog. Troch. II, pl. lxiv. Trochilus melanotus, SWAINS. Phil. Mag. 1827, 441. Trochilus leucotis, VIEILL. Ornismyia arsenni, LESS. Hab. Mexico and Guatemala.
Heliopædica xantusi, LAWRENCE.
XANTUS’S HUMMING-BIRD.
Amazilia xantusi, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VII, April, 1860, 109. Heliopædica xantusi, GOULD, Mon. Troch. II, pl. lxv.—IB. Introd. Troch. 61.—ELLIOT, Ill. Birds N. Am. XI, plate.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 365. Heliopædica castaneocauda, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1860, 145 (female).—ELLIOT, Illust. Birds N. Am. I, xxii.
SP. CHAR. Male. Above metallic green; the forehead, cheeks, and chin velvety black (the former with a deep blue gloss). A distinct white stripe from bill, through and behind the eye. Throat and forepart of breast brilliant metallic green; rest of under parts cinnamon-rufous; all the tail-feathers purplish-rufous,—the central glossed with green above, near the edges, the others obscurely edged with blackish along ends. Bill red at base, black at end. Length, 3.50; wing, 2.10; tail, 1.40; exposed portion of bill above, .65. Female. Forehead and all under parts light cinnamon beneath, without any green, or any dusky specks on throat; white cheek-stripe appreciable, but tinged with rufous. Tail as in male, but the central feathers entirely green above, the other, except the outer, with a dusky greenish or purplish spot on each web near the end. Whole upper mandible apparently dusky; base of lower, red.
HAB. Cape St. Lucas.
This well-marked and interesting species we owe to Mr. Xantus, together with many other birds of the west coast. It is sufficiently distinct to require no comparison other than that given under the general head; it can be separated from H. melanotis in all stages of plumage by the rufous tail.
Specimens vary sometimes in the intensity of the rufous shade, and, as stated, it is probable that the forehead, instead of being black, in full plumage is deep blue, as in melanotis.
HABITS. This is a new and well-marked species, and although belonging to the North American fauna cannot be claimed for the United States, having thus far been only taken at Cape St. Lucas by Mr. Xantus, and described by Mr. Lawrence in 1860. Nothing is known as to its specific habits.
GENUS THAUMATIAS, BONAP.
GEN. CHAR. Very similar in general form to Heliopædica, but the tail emarginated, instead of rounded, the feathers narrower and less rounded at the ends. The coloration quite different. Sexes alike, in all the species. Color nearly uniform green, with the anal region white, the wings and tail dusky. Many species with the whole lower parts, except laterally, pure white. One species (T. chionurus) with the tail white, except the ends of the feathers and the intermediæ.
The species are all of rather small size and rather plain appearance, from the uniformity of their green, or green and white, coloring. They belong to northern South America, and to Central America north to Guatemala.
The genus is included in the North American fauna solely upon the accidental occurrence of one species (T. linnæi) in Eastern Massachusetts.
Thaumatias linnæi, BONAP.
LINNÆUS’S EMERALD.
Thaumatias linnæi, BONAP. Rev. et Mag. de Zoöl. 1854, 255. Thaumatias l. GOULD, Monog. Trochilid. pl. ? Trochilus tobaci, GMEL. Syst. Nat. I, 498. ? Trochilus tobagensis, LATH. Ind. Orn. I, 316. ? Trochilus tobago, SHAW, Gen. Zoöl. viii, 350. Ornismya viridissima, LESS. Hist. Nat. 257, pl. lxxv. ? L’Oiseau-mouche à poitrine verte (Trochilus maculatus), AUD. et VIEILL. Ois. Dor. tom. I, 87, pl. xliv. Argyrtria maculata, MAYNARD, Birds E. Mass. 1870, 128 (Cambridge, Mass.!).
SP. CHAR. Continuous green, darker above, more brilliant, and of an emerald tint on the throat and jugulum; crissum, anal region, and middle of the abdomen, white. Primaries plain dusky. Tail blackish, with a faint reflection of dark blue subterminally, and of dull green basally, the lateral feathers obscurely tipped with dull dark ashy. Sexes alike. Wing, about 2.00; bill, .70.
HAB. Northern Brazil, Guiana, Tobago, and Bogota (GOULD)?? Accidental in the eastern United States (Cambridge, Mass., MAYNARD).
This race much resembles the T. albiventris, (REICHENB.) BONAP. (GOULD, Monog. Troch., Vol. V, p. ccci), of Brazil, but is said to be smaller and with less white on the abdomen and the under tail-coverts tinged with gray.
HABITS. The single specimen of this Humming-Bird, referred to by both Mr. Maynard and Mr. Allen[119] as having been taken in Massachusetts, is said to have been shot by Mr. William Brewster in the summer of 1868, in Cambridge, near Mount Auburn. It was secured by accident, and was presumed to be, when taken, a female specimen of Trochilus colubris. It was sent to Mr. Vickary, of Lynn, to be mounted, and the question has been raised if by chance a South American bird may not have been substituted for the original. This, however, Mr. Vickary is positive could not have happened. Nothing distinctive was observed as to its habits. In view, however, of the possibility of an error, the propriety of including it in our fauna is very questionable.
[119] Am. Naturalist, 1869-70.
* * * * *
The three families next in order are those generally known as the Zygodactyli, in their more restricted sense, that is, having the toes arranged in pairs, two before and two behind. In the present case the anterior toes are the inner and the middle (the second and third), the posterior being the hinder and outer (the first and fourth); where, as is sometimes the case, a hind toe is wanting, it is the first, or the hind toe proper.
By this definition we exclude the Trogonidæ, the Bucconidæ, and the Galbuilidæ, which likewise have the toes in pairs, but in which they are differently combined.
The North American families, the Cuculidæ, the Picidæ, and the Psittacidæ, are defined as follows:—
A. Upper mandible not movable nor hinged. Tarsus with transverse scutellæ. Bill without a naked skin, or cere, at the base; lower mandible much longer than deep, the end not truncated.
a. Tongue short, and not extensible; not barbed at the point.
Bill hooked or curved at tip; not constructed for hammering. No nasal tufts Cuculidæ.
b. Tongue long and cylindrical, and generally capable of great extension; barbed at the point.
Bill not hooked, but nearly straight; strong, and constructed for hammering. Thick nasal tufts at base of the bill (except in the Nudinares). Picidæ.
B. Upper mandible movable or hinged. Tarsus without transverse scutellæ. Bill with a naked skin, or cere, at the base; lower mandible not longer than deep, its end truncated.
c. Tongue short and thick, fleshy.
Bill enormously large, much curved, the upper mandible hooked, both much arched Psittacidæ.
FAMILY CUCULIDÆ.—THE CUCKOOS
CHAR. Bill compressed, usually more or less lengthened and with decurved culmen. Rictal bristles few or none. Nostrils exposed, no nasal tufts. Tail long and soft, of eight to twelve feathers. Toes in pairs, deeply cleft or not united, the outer anterior toe usually versatile, but directed rather laterally than backward.
The Cuculidæ form a strongly marked group of birds, easily distinguished among the Zygodactyli by the characters given above. The outer toe is versatile, but in the American form is more lateral than posterior in the skin, standing sideways, or even anterior, more frequently than behind.
Modern systematists divide the family into six or more subfamilies, of which two only are American, none of these having more than ten tail-feathers. These may be characterized as follows:—
Coccyginæ. Face covered with feathers; bill elongated, more or less cylindrical, straight or curved. Tail of ten feathers.
Bill about the length of the head, or not longer; curved. Loral feathers soft. Legs weak, tarsus shorter than the toes. Arboreal Coccygus.
Bill longer than the head; straight. Loral feathers stiff, bristly. Tarsi much longer than the toes. Terrestrial Geococcyx.
Crotophaginæ. Face naked. Bill much compressed, with a sharp crest. Tail of eight feathers. Bill shorter than and nearly as high as the head. Crotophaga.