Part 26

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nuttall describes their notes and their habits as resembling the common _Parus atricapillus_, and remarks that they are constantly uttering a complaining call, sounding like _tshe-dē-dē_.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Helmitherus swainsoni, AUD.

SWAINSON’S SWAMP WARBLER.

_Sylvia swainsoni_, AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 563, pl. cxcviii. _Sylvicola sw._ RICH. _Vermivora sw._ BON. _Helinaia sw._ AUD. Birds Am. II, 1841, pl. civ (type of genus). _Helmitherus sw._ BON.; CAB.; BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 252; Rev. 180.

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

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

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

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

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

GENUS HELMINTHOPHAGA, CABAN.

_Helminthophaga_, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1850, 1851, 20. (Type, _Sylvia ruficapilla_, WILS.)

[Line drawing: _Helminthophaga ruficapilla._ 2238]

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

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

Species and Varieties.

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

A. Tail with a conspicuous patch of white.

_a._ A black patch covering throat and breast.

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

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

_b._ No black on throat or breast.

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

B. Tail without a conspicuous white patch.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

_d._ No rufous on crown.

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

Helminthophaga chrysoptera, CABAN.

GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Helminthophaga bachmani, CABAN.

BACHMAN’S WARBLER.

_Sylvia bachmani_, AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 483, pl. clxxxiii. _Sylvicola b._ RICH. _Vermivora b._ BON. _Helinaia b._ AUD. Syn. Birds Am. II, 1841, 93, pl. cviii.—LEMBEYE, Av. Cuba, 1850, 36, pl. vi. fig. 1. _Helmitherus b._ BON. _Helminthophaga b._ CAB. Jour. III, 1855, 475 (Cuba, in winter).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 255; Rev. 175.—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba, rare); Repert. 65, 232.

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

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

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

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

Helminthophaga pinus, BAIRD.

BLUE-WINGED YELLOW WARBLER.