Part 37

SP. CHAR. This species is four inches and three quarters in length; the upper parts a rich yellow-olive; front, cheeks, and chin yellow, also the sides of the neck; breast and belly pale yellow, streaked with black or dusky; vent plain pale yellow. Wings black; first and second rows of coverts broadly tipped with pale yellowish-white; tertials the same; the rest of the quills edged with whitish. Tail black, handsomely rounded, edged with pale olive; the two exterior feathers on each side white on the inner vanes from the middle to the tips, and edged on the outer side with white. Bill dark brown. Legs and feet purple-brown; soles yellow. Eye dark hazel. (Wilson.)

HAB. “Blue Mountains of Virginia.” St. Domingo?

This species is only known from the description of Wilson, Vieillot, and Audubon, and we are not aware that a specimen is to be found in any collection. If described correctly, it appears different from any established species, although the most nearly related to _D. pinus_, which, however, differs in the absence of a yellow frontlet, in having a greener back, less distinct streaks beneath, and in the white of the anal region.

HABITS. Whether the Blue Mountain Warbler is a genuine species or an unfamiliar plumage of a bird better known to us in a different dress is a question not altogether settled to the minds of some. It was described by Wilson from a single specimen obtained near the Blue Ridge of Virginia. Audubon found another in the collection of the Zoölogical Society. From this he made his drawing. A third has also been met with and described by Vieillot. We know nothing in regard to its habits, except that its song is said to be a single _screep_, three or four times repeated. Its breeding-habits, its manner of migration, and the place of its more abundant occurrence, yet remain entirely unknown.

Dendroica kirtlandi, BAIRD.

KIRTLAND’S WARBLER.

_Sylvicola kirtlandi_, BAIRD, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. V, June, 1852, 217, pl. vi (Cleveland, Ohio).—CASSIN, Illust. I, 1855, 278, pl. xlvii. _Dendroica kirtlandi_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 286; Rev. 206.

SP. CHAR. Above slate-blue, the feathers of the crown with a narrow, those of the middle of the back with a broader, streak of black; a narrow frontlet involving the lores, the anterior end of the eye, and the space beneath it (possibly the whole auriculars), black; the rest of the eyelids white. The under parts are clear yellow (almost white on the under tail-coverts); the breast with small spots and sides of the body with short streaks of black. The greater and middle wing-coverts, quills, and tail-feathers are edged with dull whitish. The two outer tail-feathers have a dull white spot near the end of the inner web, largest on the first. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.80; tail, 2.70. (4,363.)

HAB. Northern Ohio, and Bahamas.

In addition to the type which is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, a second specimen was obtained by Dr. Samuel Cabot, of Boston, taken at sea between the islands of Abaco and Cuba. It must, however, be considered as one of the rarest of American birds.

HABITS. Kirtland’s Warbler is so far known by only a few rare specimens as a bird of North America, and its biography is utterly unknown. The first specimen of this species, so far as is known, was obtained by Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, of Cleveland, O., in May, 1851. It was shot by that naturalist in woods near that city, and was by him given to Professor Baird, who described it in the Annals of the New York Lyceum. It appears to be closely allied to both the _D. coronata_ and _D. auduboni_, and yet to be a specifically distinct bird. A second specimen, in the cabinet of Dr. Samuel Cabot, Jr., of Boston, was obtained at sea, between the islands of Cuba and Abaco. A third specimen was obtained June 9, 1860, near Cleveland, and is in the collection of Mr. R. K. Winslow, of that city. Another specimen is also reported as having been obtained in the same neighborhood, but not preserved; and Dr. Hoy, of Racine, Wis., is confident that he has seen it in the neighborhood of that place. At present all that we can give in regard to its history, habits, or distribution must be inferred from these few and meagre facts.

Dendroica palmarum, BAIRD.

YELLOW RED-POLL WARBLER.

_Motacilla palmarum_, GMEL. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 951 (based on Palm Warbler, LATHAM, Syn. II, p. 498, no. 131, St. Domingo). _Sylvia p._ LATH.; VIEILLOT, II, pl. lxxiii.—BON.; D’ORB. Sagra’s Cuba, Ois. 1840, 61, pl. viii. _Sylvicola p._ SALLÉ, P. Z. S. 1857, 231 (St. Domingo). _Dendroica p._ BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 288; Rev. 207.—SCLATER, Catal. 1861, 33, no. 199.—IB. P. Z. S. 1861, 71 (Jamaica; April).—BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1859 (Bahamas).—IB. 1867, 91 (Hayti).—BREWER, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1867, 139.—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common).—SAMUELS, 240. _Sylvia petechia_, WILS. VI, pl. xxviii, fig. 4.—BON.; NUTT.; AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. clxiii, clxiv. _Sylvicola petechia_, SWAINS.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. xc. _Sylvicola ruficapilla_, BON. _Rhimanphus ruf._ CAB. Jour. III, 1855, 473 (Cuba; winter).

SP. CHAR. _Adult in spring._ Head above chestnut-red; rest of upper parts brownish olive-gray; the feathers with darker centres, the color brightening on the rump, upper tail-coverts, and outer margins of wing and tail-feathers, to greenish-yellow. A streak from nostrils over the eye, and under parts generally, including the tail-coverts, bright yellow; paler on the body. A maxillary line; breast and sides finely but rather obsoletely streaked with reddish-brown. Cheeks brownish (in highest spring plumage chestnut like the head); the eyelids and a spot under the eye olive-brown. Lores dusky. A white spot on the inner web of the outer two tail-feathers, at the end. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.42; tail, 2.25. Sexes nearly alike.

Autumnal males are more reddish above; under parts tinged with brown, the axillars yellow.

HAB. Eastern Province of North America to Fort Simpson and Hudson’s Bay; Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, and St. Domingo in winter. Not noted from Mexico or Central America.

This species varies considerably in different stages, but can generally be recognized. Immature specimens resemble those of _P. tigrina_, but differ in the chestnut crown, browner back, less bright rump, brighter yellow of under tail-coverts, smaller blotches on tail, no white bands on the wings, etc., as well as in the shape of the bill.

HABITS. The Red-Poll Warbler belongs, in its geographical distribution, to that large class of birds which visit high northern latitudes to breed, passing back and forth over a wide extent of territory, from the West India Islands to the extreme northern portions of the continent. Specimens have been procured from Cuba, Jamaica, St. Domingo, and the Bahamas, in fall, winter, and spring, where, at such times, they seem to be generally quite common. It has not been observed in Mexico or in Central or South America. It has been met with on the western shore of Lake Michigan, but nowhere farther to the west. It has been found in the Red River Settlement, Fort George, Fort Simpson, and Fort Resolution, in the Hudson Bay Territory. It is not known, so far as I am aware, to breed south of latitude 44°. Wilson and Nuttall both state that this bird remains in Pennsylvania through the summer, but they were probably misinformed; at least, there is no recent evidence to this effect. Wilson also states that he shot specimens in Georgia, near Savannah, early in February, and infers that some pass the entire winter in Georgia, which is not improbable, as this bird can endure severe weather without any apparent inconvenience.

There are several marked peculiarities in the habits of this Warbler which distinguish it from every other of its genus. Alone of all the _Dendroicæ_, so far as is known, it builds its nest on the ground, and is quite terrestrial in its habits, and, notwithstanding the statements of earlier writers, these are quite different from all others of this genus. It has very little of the habits of the Creeper and still less of the Flycatcher, while it has all the manners of the true Ground Warbler, and even approximates, in this respect, to the Titlarks.

My attention was first called to these peculiarities by Mr. Downes of Halifax, in the summer of 1851; and I was surprised to find it nesting on the ground, and yet more to note that in all its movements it appeared fully as terrestrial as the Maryland Yellow-Throat, or the Towhee Finch. Since then Mr. Boardman and other naturalists have found its nest, which is always on the ground.

Mr. MacCulloch, in the fourth volume of the Journal of the Boston Natural History Society, has given an interesting paper upon the terrestrial peculiarities of this species, showing them to be nearly identical with those of the _seiuri_, with whom he thinks it should be classed. In its terrestrial movements this bird is shown to be quite at home, while other Warblers, when driven by necessity to feed upon the ground, are awkward, and manifest a want of adaptation.

Dr. Henry Bryant, another very close and accurate observer, in his notes on the birds of the Bahamas, referring to this Warbler, speaks of it as extremely abundant, but confined to the sea-shore. “Its habits,” he adds, apparently with some surprise, “are decidedly terrestrial, and it approaches, in this respect, to the Titlarks. They were constantly running along the edges of the road, or else hopping amongst the low branches in the pastures. I did not see a single individual seeking for food amidst the large trees. These birds could be constantly seen running up and down in the market in search of small flies. These they caught either on the ground or else by hopping up a few inches, scarcely opening the wings, and alighting directly.”

Mr. J. A. Allen, in his Birds observed in Western Massachusetts, shows that these peculiarities of habits in this Warbler had not escaped his notice. He speaks of it as “frequenting, in company with _D. pinus_, the edges of thickets, orchards, and open fields, _and is much on the ground_.”

Mr. George A. Boardman, writing me from St. Stephen, March, 1867, says: “The Yellow Red-Poll is one of our most common Warblers, and, unlike most other Warblers, spends much of its time feeding upon the ground. It is no uncommon thing to see a dozen or two on the ground in my garden at a time, in early spring. Later in the season they have more of the habits of other Warblers, and are in summer expert flycatchers. In the fall we again see them mostly upon the ground, feeding with the Blue Snowbirds (_Junco hyemalis_) and the Chipping Sparrow. They breed in old brushy pastures, and very early, nesting alongside of some little knoll, and, I think, always upon the ground. The nest is very warmly lined with feathers.”

Mr. MacCulloch, in the paper already referred to, states that during their autumnal migrations they seem invariably to exhibit the habits of true _Sylvicolidæ_, gleaning among branches of trees for the smaller insects, and not unfrequently visiting the windows of dwellings in search of spiders and insects.

In their migrations through Massachusetts these Warblers are everywhere quite abundant in the spring, but in their return in autumn are not observed in the eastern part of the State, though very common in the western from September into November, remaining long after all the other Warblers are gone. None remain during the summer.

In Western Maine, Mr. Verrill states, it is quite common both in spring and in fall, arriving in April, earlier than any other Warbler, and again becoming abundant the last of September.

I found it plentiful in the vicinity of Halifax, where it occurs throughout the summer from May to September.

Mr. Ridgway gives this species as perhaps the most numerous of the transient visitants, in spring and fall, in Southern Illinois. It is very terrestrial in its habits, keeping much on the ground, in orchards and open places, and its movements are said to be wonderfully like those of _Anthus ludovicianus_.

In the vibratory motions of its tail, especially when upon the ground, these birds greatly resemble the Wagtails of Europe. They have no other song than a few simple and feeble notes, so thin and weak that they might almost be mistaken for the sounds made by the common grasshopper.

The Red-Poll usually selects for the site of its nest the edge of a swampy thicket, more or less open, placing it invariably upon the ground. This is usually not large, about three and a half inches in diameter and two and a half in depth, the diameter and depth of the cavity each averaging only half an inch less. The walls are compactly and elaborately constructed of an interweaving of various fine materials, chiefly fine dry grasses, slender strips of bark, stems of the smaller plants, hypnum, and other mosses. Within, the nest is warmly and softly lined with down and feathers.

Mr. Kennicott met with a nest of this bird at Fort Resolution, June 18. It was on the ground, on a hummock, at the foot of a small spruce, in a swamp. When found, it contained five young birds.

Their eggs are of a rounded-oval shape, and measure .70 of an inch in length by .55 in breadth. Their ground-color is a yellowish or creamy-white, and their blotches, chiefly about the larger end, are a blending of purple, lilac, and reddish-brown.

Dendroica discolor, BAIRD.

PRAIRIE WARBLER.

_Sylvia discolor_, VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 37, pl. xcviii.— BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. xiv; NUTT.—LEMBEYE, Aves Cuba, 1850, 32, pl. vi, fig. 2. _Sylvicola discolor_, JARD.; RICH.; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. xcvii.—GOSSE, Birds Jam. 1847, 159. _Rhimanphus discolor_, CAB. Jour. III, 1855, 474 (Cuba; winter). _Dendroica discolor_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 290; Rev. 213.—NEWTON, Ibis, 1859, 144 (St. Croix).—BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1859 (Bahamas).—IB. 1866 (Porto Rico); 1867, 91 (Hayti).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common).—SAMUELS, 241. _Sylvia minuta_, WILSON, III, pl. xxv. fig. 4.

SP. CHAR. _Spring male._ Above uniform olive-green; the interscapular region with chestnut-red centres to feathers. Under parts and sides of the head, including a broad superciliary line from the nostrils to a little behind the eye, bright yellow, brightest anteriorly. A well-defined narrow stripe from the commissure of the mouth through the eye, and another from the same point curving gently below it, also a series of streaks on each side of the body, extending from the throat to the flanks, black. Quills and tail-feathers brown, edged with white; the terminal half of the inner web of the first and second tail-feathers white. Two yellowish bands on the wings. _Female_ similar, but duller. The dorsal streaks indistinct. Length, 4.86; wing, 2.25; tail, 2.10.

First plumage of the young not seen.

HAB. Atlantic region of United States, north to Massachusetts; South Illinois; in winter very abundant throughout all the West India Islands, as far, at least, as the Virgin Islands. Not recorded from Mexico or Central America.

Autumnal specimens have the plumage more blended, but the markings not changed. A young male in autumnal dress is wholly brownish olive-green above, the whole wing uniform; the forehead ashy, the markings about the head rather obsolete, the chestnut spots on the back and the black ones on the sides nearly concealed.

HABITS. The Prairie Warbler, nowhere an abundant species, is pretty generally, though somewhat irregularly, distributed through the eastern portion of the United States from Massachusetts to Georgia during its breeding-season. The Smithsonian Museum embraces no specimens taken west of Philadelphia or Washington. I have had its nest and eggs found in Central New York. Mr. Audubon speaks of its occurring in Louisiana, but his accounts of its nesting are so obviously inaccurate that we must receive this statement also with misgivings. Wilson, however, obtained specimens in Kentucky, and gave to it the inappropriate name of _Prairie_ Warbler. Nuttall regarded it as rare in New England, which opinion more careful observations do not confirm. They certainly are not rare in certain portions of Massachusetts. In Essex County, and, according to Mr. Allen, in the vicinity of Springfield, they are rather common. The Smithsonian possesses specimens from the Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and other West India islands. Dr. Gundlach speaks of it as common in Cuba. In the Bahamas, Dr. Bryant found these Warblers more abundant than he had ever known them in the United States. In January all the males were in winter plumage, some not having changed by April to their summer costume. He regarded them as constant residents of those islands. They had all paired off by the middle of April.

In the island of St. Croix, Mr. Edward Newton observed these Warblers from the 10th of September to the 27th of March. They were present on the island about two thirds of the year, and while they were found were very common.

In Jamaica, according to Mr. March, they are numerous throughout the entire year, though less abundant during the summer months. They were always plentiful in the gardens about the _Malpighia glabra_, capturing small insects from the ripe fruit.

Mr. Gosse, on the contrary, regarded it as only a winter visitant of that island, appearing by the 18th of August, and disappearing by the 11th of April. He observed them among low bushes and herbaceous weeds, along the roadside, near the ground, examining every stalk and twig for insects. Others flew from bushes by the wayside to the middle of the road, where, hovering in the air, a few feet from the ground, they seemed to be catching small dipterous insects. Their stomachs were filled with fragments of insects.

Wilson found them usually in open plains and thinly wooded tracts, searching most leisurely among the foliage, carefully examining every leaf or blade of grass for insects, uttering, at short intervals, a brief _chirr_. They did not appear to be easily alarmed, and he has known one of these birds to remain half an hour at a time on the lower branch of a tree, and allow him to approach the foot, without being in the least disturbed. He found their food consisted of winged insects and small caterpillars.

In 1858, Mr. John Cassin wrote me: “The Prairie Warbler certainly breeds in New Jersey, near Philadelphia. I have seen it all summer for the last twelve years, and have seen the young just able to fly, but never found the nest. It has a very peculiar note, which I know as well as I do the Catbird’s, having often followed and searched it out. It frequents cedar-trees, and I suspect breeds in and about them.”

Dr. Coues found the Prairie Warbler mostly a spring and autumn visitant in the vicinity of Washington, being quite abundant during those seasons. A few were observed to remain during the breeding-season. They arrive earlier than most of this family of birds, or about the 20th of April. He found them frequenting, almost exclusively, cedar-patches and pine-trees, and speaks of their having very peculiar manners and notes.

Both Wilson and Audubon were evidently at fault in their descriptions of the nest and eggs. These do not correspond with more recent and positive observations. Its nest is never pensile. Mr. Nuttall’s descriptions, on the other hand, are made from his own observations, and are evidently correct. He describes a nest that came under his observation as scarcely distinguishable from that of the _D. æstiva_. It was not pensile, but fixed in a forked branch, and formed of strips of the inner bark of the red cedar, fibres of asclepia, and caterpillars’ silk, and thickly lined with the down of the _Gnaphalium plantagineum_. He describes the eggs as having a white ground, sharp at one end, and marked with spots of lilac-purple and of two shades of brown, more numerous at the larger end, where they formed a ring. He speaks of their note as slender, and noticed their arrival about the second week of May, leaving the middle of September.

At another time Mr. Nuttall was attracted by the slender, filing notes of this bird, resembling the suppressed syllables _’tsh-’tsh-’tsh-’tshea_, beginning low and gradually growing louder. With its mate it was busily engaged collecting flies and larvæ about a clump of locust-trees in Mount Auburn. Their nest was near, and the female, without any precautions, went directly to it. Mr. Nuttall removed two eggs, which he afterwards replaced. Each time, on his withdrawal, she returned to the nest, and resorted to no expedients to entice him away.

Several nests of this Warbler have been obtained by Mr. Welch in Lynn. One was built on a wild rose, only a few feet from the ground. It is a snug, compact, and elaborately woven structure, having a height and a diameter of about two and a half inches. The cavity is two inches wide and one and a half deep. The materials of which the outer parts are woven are chiefly the soft inner bark of small shrubs, mingled with dry rose-leaves, bits of vegetables, wood, woody fibres, decayed stems of plants, spiders’ webs, etc. The whole is bound together like a web by cotton-like fibres of a vegetable origin. The upper rim of this nest is a marked feature, being a strongly interlaced weaving of vegetable roots and strips of bark. The lining of the nest is composed of fine vegetable fibres and a few horse-hairs. This nest, in its general mode of construction, resembles all that I have seen; only in others the materials vary,—in some dead and decayed leaves, in others remains of old cocoons, and in others the pappus of composite plants, being more prominent than the fine strips of bark. The nests are usually within four feet of the ground. The eggs vary from three to five, and even six.

The late Dr. Gerhardt found this bird the most common Warbler in Northern Georgia. There its nests were similar in size, structure, and position, but differed more or less in the materials of which they were made. The nests were a trifle larger and the walls thinner, the cavities being correspondingly larger. The materials were more invariably fine strips of inner bark and flax-like vegetable fibres, and were lined with the finest stems of plants, in one case with the feathers of the Great Horned Owl. In that neighborhood the eggs were deposited by the 15th of May.

In Massachusetts the Prairie Warbler invariably selects wild pasture-land, often not far from villages, and always open or very thinly wooded. In Georgia their nests were built in almost every kind of bush or low tree, or on the lower limbs of post-oaks, at the height of from four to seven feet. Eggs were found once as early as the 2d of May, and once as late as the 10th of June. The birds arrived there by the 10th of April, and seemed to prefer hillsides, but were found in almost any open locality.

In Southern Illinois, Mr. Ridgway cites this species as a rather rare bird among the oak barrens where it breeds. He also met with it in orchards in the wooded portions, in April, during the northward migration of the _Sylvicolidæ_.

The eggs are of an oval shape, pointed at one end, and measure .68 by .48 of an inch. They have a white ground, marked with spots of lilac and purple and two shades of umber-brown.

SUBFAMILY GEOTHLYPINÆ.

SECTION SEIUREÆ.

The diagnosis of the subfamily will be found on page 178. The _Seiureæ_, as there stated, have the wings pointed, and rather longer than the nearly even tail, which is unspotted. The genera differ in proportion rather than absolutely, _Oporornis_ having longer wings and larger claws. The coloration, however, is always distinctive, as follows:—

Under part white or whitish, thickly streaked … _Seiurus._ Beneath yellow, without spots … _Oporornis._

GENUS SEIURUS, SWAINSON.