Part 28

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Helminthophaga celata, var. lutescens, RIDGWAY.

PACIFIC ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER.

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

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

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

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

Helminthophaga peregrina, CABAN.

TENNESSEE WARBLER.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GENUS PARULA, BONAP.

_Chloris_, BOIE, Isis, 1826, 972 (not of Moehring, 1752). (Type, _Parus americanus_.) _Sylvicola_, SWAINSON, Zoöl. Journ. III, July, 1827, 169. (Not of Humphrey, Mus. Calonnianum, 1797, 60; genus of land mollusks.) (Same type.) _Parula_, BONAP. Geog. & Comp. List, 1838. (Same type.) _Compsothlypis_, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1850, 1851, 20. (Same type.)

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

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

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

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

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

_Two white bands on wing._

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

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

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

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

[Line drawing: _Parula americana_, Bonap.]

_Compsothlypis gutturalis_, CABANIS (_Parula gut._, BAIRD, Rev. Am. B.), and _Conirostrum superciliosum_, HARTLAUB (_Parula superciliosa_, BAIRD, Rev.), have been referred by later systematists to this genus; but they are much more closely related to _Conirostrum_,—a genus usually assigned to the _Cærebidæ_. The _“P.” gutturalis_ is confined to Costa Rica; but _“P.” superciliosa_ is a species of the table-lands of Mexico, and likely to be detected in Arizona or New Mexico. The characters of this species are as follows:—

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

Parula americana, BONAP.

BLUE YELLOW-BACKED WARBLER.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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