Part 34

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.

Around Eastport and at Grand Menan they confine themselves to the thick swampy groves of evergreens, where they breed on the edges of the woods. All of the several nests I met with in these localities were built in thick spruce-trees, about eight feet from the ground, and in the midst of foliage so dense as hardly to be noticeable. Yet the nests were large and bulky for so small a bird, being nearly five inches in diameter and three in height. The cavity is, however, small, being only two inches in diameter, and one and a fourth to one and a half in depth. They were constructed chiefly of a collection of slender young ends of branches of pines, firs, and spruce, interwoven with and tied together by long branches of the _Cladonia_ lichens, slender herbaceous roots, and finer sedges. The nests were strongly built, compact and homogeneous, and were elaborately lined with fine panicles of grasses and fine straw. In all the nests found, the number of eggs was five.

It is a somewhat noticeable fact, that though this species is seen in New England only by the middle of May, others of its kind have long before reached high Arctic localities. Richardson records its presence at the Cumberland House in May, and Engineer Cantonment by the 26th of April. Mr. Lockhart procured a nest and five eggs at Fort Yukon, June 9. All the nests taken in these localities were of smaller size, were built within two feet of the ground, and all were much more warmly lined than were those from Grand Menan. In a few instances Mr. McFarlane found the nests of this species actually built upon the ground. This, however, is an abnormal position, and only occasioned by the want of suitable situations in protected localities. In one instance a nest was taken on the first of June, containing well-developed embryos. Yet this same species has frequently been observed lingering in Massachusetts a week or more after others of its species have already built their nests and begun hatching.

The eggs of this species measure .72 by .50 of an inch. Their shape is an oblong-oval. Their ground-color is a beautiful white, with a slight tinge of pink, when fresh. They are blotched and dotted over the entire surface with profuse markings of a subdued lavender, and deeper markings of a dark purple intermixed with lighter spots of reddish-brown. The usual number is five, though six are occasionally found in a nest.

Dendroica castanea, BAIRD.

BAY-BREASTED WARBLER.

_Sylvia castanea_, WILS. Am. Orn. II, 1810, 97, pl. xiv, fig. 4.—BON.; NUTT.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lxix. _Sylvicola castanea_, SWAINS.; JARD.; RICH.; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxx. _Rhimanphus castaneus_, CAB. _Dendroica castanea_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 276; Rev. 189.—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—CASSIN, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1860, 193 (Isthmus Darien; winter).—LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322 (Isthmus Panama; winter).—SAMUELS, 228. _Sylvia autumnalis_, WILS. III, pl. xxiii, fig. 2.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lxxxviii.

SP. CHAR. _Male._ Crown dark reddish-chestnut; forehead and cheeks, including a space above the eye, black; a patch of buff-yellow behind the cheeks. Rest of upper parts bluish-gray streaked with black, the edges of the interscapulars tinged with yellowish, of the scapulars with olivaceous. Primaries and tail-feathers edged externally with bluish-gray, the extreme outer ones with white; the secondaries edged with olivaceous. Two bands on the wing and the edges of the tertials white. The under parts are whitish with a tinge of buff; the chin, throat, forepart of breast, and the sides, chestnut-brown, lighter than the crown. Two outer tail-feathers with a patch of white on the inner web near the end; the others edged internally with the same. _Female_ with the upper parts olive, streaked throughout with black, and an occasional tinge of chestnut on the crown. Lower parts with traces of chestnut, but no stripes. Length of male, 5.00; wing, 3.05; tail, 2.40.

HAB. Eastern Province of North America to Hudson’s Bay; Guatemala, south to Isthmus of Darien. Not recorded from Mexico or West Indies.

The female and immature males of this species differ much from the spring males, and are often confounded with other species, especially with _D. striata_. A careful comparison of an extensive series of immature specimens of the two species shows that in _castanea_ the under parts are seldom washed uniformly on the throat and breast with yellowish-green, but while this may be seen on the sides of the neck and breast, or even across the latter, the chin and throat are nearly white, the sides tinged with dirty brown, even if the (generally present) trace of chestnut be wanting on the sides. There is a buff tinge to the under tail-coverts; the quills are abruptly margined with white, and there are no traces (however obsolete) of streaks on the breast. In _D. striata_ the under parts are quite uniformly washed with greenish-yellow nearly as far back as the vent, the sides of the breast and sometimes of the belly with obsolete streaks; no trace of the uniform dirty reddish-brown on the sides; the under tail-coverts are pure white. The quills are only gradually paler towards the inner edge, instead of being rather abruptly white.

HABITS. The Bay-breasted Warbler is one of the many species belonging to this genus whose history is yet very imperfectly known. Everywhere quite rare, it is yet distributed from the Atlantic to the Great Plains, and from the Gulf of Mexico far into the Hudson Bay Territory. In the winter it is known to extend its migrations as far to the south as the northern portions of South America. It has not been traced to Mexico nor to the West India Islands, but has been procured by Mr. Salvin in Guatemala. Nearly all the specimens obtained in the United States have either been taken before the 12th of May or in the autumn, indicative of a more northern breeding-place. In Eastern Massachusetts it is exceedingly rare, passing through after the middle of May and returning in September. Mr. Maynard has obtained a specimen as late as June 19, which, though not necessarily proving that any breed there, indicates that the line of their area of reproduction cannot be distant. In the western part of the same State, Mr. Allen has found it from May 20 to the 25th, and has obtained one specimen in July. In Western Maine, Mr. Verrill has noted its occurrence from the middle of May to June, but it is very rare; and Mr. Boardman reports the same for Eastern Maine, where it is a summer resident. He writes that he has several times shot specimens in the early summer, but that he could never find the nest. It is also given by Lieutenant Bland as one of the birds found in the vicinity of Halifax. It was not observed by any of the governmental exploring expeditions, nor found in Arizona by Dr. Coues. Mr. Lawrence has received specimens from Panama, obtained in winter, Mr. Cassin from Darien, and Mr. Sclater from Guatemala.

This species so far eluded the notice of Mr. Audubon as to prevent him from giving any account of its habits. He only mentions its occasional arrival in Pennsylvania and New Jersey early in April, and its almost immediate and sudden disappearance. He several times obtained them at that period, and yet has also shot them in Louisiana as late as June, while busily searching for food among the blossoms of the cotton-plant.

Wilson also regarded this species as very rare. He reports it as passing through Pennsylvania about the middle of May, but soon disappearing. He describes these birds as having many of the habits of Titmice, and displaying all their activity. It hangs about the extremity of the twigs, and darts about from place to place with restless diligence in search of various kinds of larvæ. Wilson never met with it in the summer, and very rarely in the fall.

Mr. Nuttall noticed this species passing through Massachusetts about the 15th of April. He regarded it as an active insect-hunter, keeping in the tops of the highest trees, darting about with great activity, and hanging from the twigs with fluttering wings. One of these birds that had been wounded soon became reconciled to its confinement, and greedily caught at and devoured the flies that were offered. In its habits and manners it seemed to him to greatly resemble the Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Mr. T. M. Trippe speaks of this Warbler as one of the last to arrive near Orange, N. Y. Owing to the fact that at that time the foliage is pretty dense, and that it makes but a short stay, it is not often seen. He speaks of it as not quite so active as the other Warblers, keeping more on the lower boughs, and seldom ascending to the tops of the trees.

Mr. C. W. Wyatt met with this species at Naranjo, in Colombia, South America.

Eggs of this bird obtained by Mr. George Bush at Coldwater, near Lake Superior, are of an oblong-oval shape, measuring .75 by .52 of an inch, and except in their superior size and fewer markings might be mistaken for eggs of _D. æstiva_. Their ground-color is a bluish or greenish white. The markings are very few and fine, except those in the crown around the larger end, and there the blotches are deeper and more numerous. Their colors are dark reddish-brown and purple.

Mr. Maynard found this species the most abundant of the _Sylvicolidæ_ at Lake Umbagog, where it breeds. Two nests were taken in June. One was found June 3, in a tree by the side of a cart-path in the woods, just completed. It was built in the horizontal branch of a hemlock, twenty feet from the ground, and five or six from the trunk of the tree. By the 8th of June it contained three fresh eggs. The other was built in a similar situation, fifteen feet from the ground, and contained two fresh eggs.

These nests were large for the bird, and resembled those of the Purple Finch. They were composed outwardly of fine twigs of the hackmatack, with which was mingled some of the long hanging _Usnea_ mosses. They were very smoothly and neatly lined with black fibrous roots, the seed-stalks of _Cladonia_ mosses, and a few hairs. They had a diameter of about six inches, and a height of about two and a half inches. The cavity was three inches wide and an inch and a quarter deep. The eggs varied in length from .71 to .65 of an inch, and in breadth from .53 to .50. Their ground-color was a bluish-green, thickly spotted with brown, and generally with a ring of confluent blotches of brown and lilac around the larger end. Occasionally the spots proved to be more or less of an umber-brown, and in some specimens the spots were less numerous than in others.

These birds were found in all the wooded sections of that region, where they frequented the tops of tall trees. Their song, he states, in its opening, is like that of the Black-Poll, with a terminal warble similar to that of the Redstart, but given with less energy.

Dendroica cærulescens, BAIRD.

BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER.

_Motacilla canadensis_, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 336 (not p. 334, which is _D. coronata_). _Sylvia canadensis_, LATH.; WILSON.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxlviii, clv.—SALLÉ, P. Z. S. 1857, 231 (St. Domingo). _Sylvicola canadensis_, SWAINS.; JARD.; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. xcv. _Rhimanphus can._ CAB. _Dendroica canadensis_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 271.—IB. P. Z. S. 1861, 70 (Jamaica).—GUNDL. Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common).—SAMUELS, 224. _Motacilla cærulescens_, GM. S. Nat. I, 1788, 960. _Sylvia cær._ LATH.; VIEILL. II, pl. lxxx.—D’ORB. Sagra’s Cuba, Ois. 1840, 63, pl. ix, figs. 1, 2. _Dendroica cær._ BAIRD, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 186. _Sylvia pusilla_, WILS. V, pl. xliii, fig. 3 (Juv.). _Sylvia leucoptera_, WILS. _Sylvia palustris_, STEPH. _Sylvia macropus_, VIEILLOT. _Sylvia sphagnosa_, BON.; NUTTALL; AUD. _Sylvicola pannosa_, GOSSE, Birds Jam. 1847, 162 (female).—IB. Illust. no. 37.

SP. CHAR. Above uniform continuous grayish-blue, including the outer edges of the quill and tail-feathers. A narrow frontal line, the entire sides of head and neck, chin and throat, lustrous black; this color extending in a broad lateral stripe to the tail. Rest of under parts, including the axillary region, white. Wings and tail black above, the former with a conspicuous white patch formed by the bases of all the primaries (except the first); the inner webs of the secondaries and tertials with similar patches towards the base and along the inner margin. All the tail-feathers, except the innermost, with a white patch on the inner web near the end. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.25.

_Female_, olive-green above and dull yellow beneath. Sides of head dusky olive, the eyelids and a superciliary stripe whitish. Traces of the white patches at the base of the primaries and of the tail.

HAB. Eastern Province of United States; Jamaica, Cuba, and St. Domingo in winter; very abundant; Bahamas (BRYANT). Not recorded from Mexico or Central America.

The white patch at the base of the primary, together with the total absence of outer markings on the wings, is peculiar to this species, and is found in both sexes. The female is more different from the male than that of any other species.

The plumage of the male in autumn is similar to the spring dress, but the back and wings are washed with greenish, and the black of the throat variegated with white edges to the feathers. A younger male (788, October 10, Carlisle, Penn.) differs in having the black appearing in patches, the throat being mostly white; there is also a narrow white superciliary stripe.

HABITS. The Black-throated Blue Warbler, at different seasons of the year, is distributed over nearly the whole eastern portion of North America. Abundant in the West Indies in winter, as also in the South Atlantic States in early spring and late in fall, it is found during the breeding-season from Northern New York and New England nearly to the Arctic regions. A few probably stop to breed in the high portions of Massachusetts, and in late seasons they linger about the orchards until June. They undoubtedly breed in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Dr. Woodhouse states that he found it abundant in Texas; but this is the only instance, so far as is known, of its occurring west of the Mississippi Valley.

Towards the close of the remarkably mild winter of 1866, a pair of these birds were observed for several days in a sheltered portion of Boston. They were in excellent condition, and were very busily employed hunting for the larvæ and eggs of insects and spiders in the corners and crevices of the walls of houses and out-buildings, evidently obtaining a full supply. In Southern Illinois, Mr. Ridgway cites this Warbler as one of the least common of the spring and fall visitants.

Audubon found this species in nearly every Southern and Southwestern State during their migrations. They arrive in South Carolina late in March, are most abundant in April, and leave early in May. They keep in the deep woods, passing among the branches about twenty feet from the ground. He traced them as far north as the Magdaleine Islands, but found none in Newfoundland, and but a single specimen in Labrador. They breed in Nova Scotia, and a nest was given him found near Halifax by Dr. MacCulloch. These were said to be usually placed on the horizontal branch of a fir-tree, seven or eight feet from the ground, and to be composed of fine strips of bark, mosses, and fibrous roots, and lined with fine grasses and a warm bed of feathers. The eggs, five in number, were white, with a rosy tint, and sprinkled with reddish-brown dots, chiefly at the larger end.

This Warbler is an expert catcher of the smaller winged insects, pursuing them quite a distance, and, when seizing them, making the clicking sound of the true Flycatcher. So far as they have been observed, they have no song, only a monotonous and sad-sounding _cheep_.

Nuttall, in the second edition of his Manual, mentions having observed several pairs near Farranville, Penn., on the Susquehanna, and among the Alleghanies. It was in May, and in a thick and shady wood of hemlock. They were busy foraging for food, and were uttering what he describes as slender, wiry notes.

In Western Massachusetts, Mr. Allen states it to be common from the 15th to the 25th of May, and again in September. They were found by Mr. C. W. Bennett on Mount Holyoke during the breeding-season, and by Mr. B. Hosford on the western ridges during the same period. They are common, Mr. Boardman states, in the thick woods about Calais, through all the breeding-season.

In Jamaica, during the winter, it exclusively frequents the edges of tall woods in unfrequented mountainous localities. They are found in that island from October 7 until the 9th of April. Mr. Gosse, who has closely observed their habits during winter, speaks of their playing together with much spirit for half an hour at a time, chasing each other swiftly round and round, occasionally dodging through the bushes, and uttering at intervals a pebbly _cheep_. They never remain long alighted, and are difficult to kill. Restlessness is their great characteristic. They often alight transversely on the long pendent vines or slender trees, hopping up and down without a moment’s intermission, pecking at insects. They are usually very plump and fat.