Chapter C: S. Paine, of East Bethel, Vt., found a nest of this species about (7)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dendroica cærulea, BAIRD.

CÆRULEAN WARBLER; WHITE-THROATED BLUE WARBLER.

_Sylvia cærulea_, WILS. Am. Orn. II, 1810, 141, pl. xvii, fig. 5.
_Sylvicola c._ SWAINS.; JARD.; RICH.; BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl.
xlix; NUTT. _Dendroica c._ BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 280; Rev.
191.—GUNDL. Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very rare).—SAMUELS, 579.
_Sylvia rara_, WILSON, II, pl. xxvii, fig. 2.—BON.; AUD. Orn.
Biog. I, pl. xlix. _Sylvia azurea_, STEPH. Shaw, Zoöl. X,
1817.—BON. Am. Orn. II, 1828, pl. xxvii (♀).—AUD. Orn. Biog. I,
pl. xlviii, xlix; NUTT. _Sylvia bifasciata_, SAY, Long’s Exped. I,
1823, 170. _Sylvia populorum_, VIEILL. Encyc. Méth. II, 1823, 449
(from Wilson).
Other localities: _Bogota_, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1857, 18. _Panama R.
R._, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322. _Yucatan_, LAWR.
_Veragua_, SALV.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dendroica blackburniæ, BAIRD.

BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER; ORANGE-THROATED WARBLER.

_Motacilla blackburniæ_, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 977. _Sylvia
bl._ LATH.; WILSON, III, pl. xxiii.—NUTT.; AUD. Orn. Biog. II, V,
pl. cxxxv, cccxcix. _Sylvicola bl._ JARD.; RICH.; AUD. Birds Am.
II, pl. lxxxvii. _Rhimanphus bl._ CAB. Mus. Hein. 1850, 19.
_Dendroica bl._ BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 274; Rev. 189.—SCLATER &
SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 363
(Xalapa); IB. 1860, 64 (Ecuador).—IB. Catal. 1861, 30, no. 187
(Pallatanga and Nanegal, Ecuador).—SAMUELS, 227.—SUNDEVALL, Ofv.
1869, 611.—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 478. _? Motacilla chrysocephala_,
GMELIN, I, 1788, 971 (_Figuier orangé et F. étranger_, BUFF. V,
313, pl. lviii, fig. 3, Guiana). _Sylvia parus_, WILS. V, pl.
xliv, fig. 3.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxxxiv. _Sylvicola parus_,
AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxiii. _Sylvia lateralis_, STEPH. _?
Motacilla incana_, GMEL. I, 1788, 976. _Sylvia incana_, LATH.;
VIEILL. _? Sylvia melanorhoa_, VIEILL. Nouv. Dict. XI, 1817, 180
(Martinique).—IB. Encycl. Méth. II, 444.
Localities quoted: _Bogota_, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1855, 143. _Panama_,
LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VII, 62. _Costa Rica_, CAB. Jour. 1860, 328.
_Bahamas_, BRYANT, Bost. Pr. VII, 1859. _Veragua_, SALVIN.
_Orizaba_ (winter; rare), SUMICHRAST.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dendroica dominica, BAIRD.

YELLOW-THROATED GRAY WARBLER.

_Motacilla dominica_, L. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. 1766, 334 (_Ficedula
dominica cinerea_, BRISS. III, 520, pl. xxvii, fig. 3). _Dendroica
dominica_, BAIRD, Rev. Am. Birds, 209. _Motacilla superciliosa_,
BODDÆRT, Tableau Pl. enl. 686, fig. 1, 1783. _Dendroica
superciliosa_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 289.—SCLATER (Xalapa,
Oaxaca, Jamaica, Mexico).—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1860, 274
(Duenas, Guat.; Sept.).—MARCH, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1863, 293
(Jamaica).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common).
_Motacilla flavicollis_, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 959. _Sylvia
fl._ LATH.; WILS. II, pl. xii, fig. 6. _Motacilla pensilis_,
GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 960. _Sylvia p._ LATH.; VIEILL. (St.
Domingo).—BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lxxxv; NUTT. _Sylvicola
pens._ RICH; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxix.—GOSSE, Birds Jam.
1847, 156 (Jamaica). _Rhimanphus pens._ CAB. Jour. III, 474 (Cuba).
Other localities: _Cordova_, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1856, 291. _St.
Domingo_, SALLÉ, P. Z. S. 1857, 231. _Jamaica_, GOSSE, Birds Jam.
156.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Dendroica æstiva, _Gm._ ♂ Pa., 940.
2. “ maculosa, _Gm._ ♂ D. C., 20634.
3. “ montana. (From Audubon.)
4. “ olivacea, _Giraud_. ♂ Mex., 30692.
5. Dendroica kirtlandi, _Baird_. ♂ Ohio, 4363.
6. “ dominica, _Linn._ ♂ Ga., 3322.
7. “ “ , _var._ albilora, _Ridgw._ ♂ Ohio, 7701.
8. Dendroica palmarum, _Gm._ ♂ N. S., 26929.
9. “ discolor, _Vieill._ ♂ Pa., 1091.
10. “ graciæ, _Coues_. ♂ Ariz., 40680.
11. Seiurus aurocapillus, _Linn._ ♂ Pa., 1433.
12. “ noveboracensis, _Gm._ ♂ Pa., 2434.
13. “ ludovicianus, _Aud._ ♂ Pa., 964.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dendroica graciæ, COUES.

ARIZONA WARBLER.

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

SP. CHAR. _Adult male_ (No. 40,680, May 1, 1865, Dr. E. Coues). Whole upper parts, including ear-coverts and sides of neck, ash-gray; small cuneate streaks over the crown, coalesced laterally into a broad stripe on each side, with larger cuneate streaks on the interscapular region, and inconspicuous linear streaks on upper tail-coverts, black. Two conspicuous white bands across the wing, formed by the tips of middle and secondary coverts; secondaries passing externally into light ash. Lateral tail-feather entirely white, except about the basal third of the inner web (the dusky running some distance toward the end along the edge), and a broad streak covering most of the terminal fourth of the outer web, which are clear dusky; the next feather has the outer web exactly the same, but almost the basal half of the inner is dusky; on the next the white is confined to an oblong spot (not touching the inner edge) on about the terminal third, while the outer web is only edged with white; the rest have no white at all. A superciliary stripe extending about .20 of an inch behind the eye (that portion behind the eye white), the lower eyelid, maxillæ, chin, throat, and jugulum pure gamboge-yellow. Rest of lower parts, including lining of wing, pure white; the sides conspicuously streaked with black; lores, and a few obsolete streaks along the junction of the ash and yellow, dusky. Wing, 2.60; tail, 2.20; bill (from nostril), .30; tarsus, .60. _Adult female_ (40,685, May 24). Similar to the male, but colors duller, and markings less sharply defined. Wing, 2.45; tail, 2.00. _Young_ (36,992, August 11). Above brownish-gray _without streaks_. Beneath ochraceous-white, obsoletely streaked along the sides. Yellow superciliary stripe not well defined, and only a tinge of yellow on the jugulum, the throat being grayish-white. Wings and tail nearly as in the adult. The young in autumnal plumage is similar, but the yellow occupies its usual area; it is, however, much duller, as well as lighter, than in the adult.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dendroica pennsylvanica, BAIRD.

CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dendroica striata, BAIRD.

BLACK-POLL WARBLER.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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