Part 33

(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.