Part 41

Mr. John Burroughs, of Washington, was so fortunate as to obtain the nest and eggs of this Warbler near the head-waters of the Delaware River, in Roxbury, Delaware County, N. Y. “The nest,” he writes me, “was in the edge of an old bark-peeling, in a hemlock wood, and was placed in some ferns about one foot from the ground. The nest was quite massive, its outer portions being composed of small dry stalks and leaves. The cavity was very deep, and was lined with fine black roots. I have frequently observed this Warbler in that section. About the head of the Neversink and Esopus, in the northwest part of Ulster County, New York, they are the prevailing Warbler, and their song may be heard all day long. Their song suggests that of the Kentucky Ground Warbler, but is not so loud and fine.” Mr. Burroughs states elsewhere that “the eggs, three in number, were of light flesh-color, uniformly speckled with fine brown specks. The cavity of the nest was so deep that the back of the sitting bird sank below the edge.”

Their eggs are of an oblong-oval shape, pointed at one end. They measure .75 by .55 of an inch. Their ground-color is a pinkish-white, and they are marked with dots and blotches, of varying size, of dark purplish-brown.

Geothlypis macgillivrayi, BAIRD.

MACGILLIVRAY’S GROUND WARBLER.

_Sylvia macgillivrayi_, AUD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 75, pl. cccxcix. _Trichas macg._ AUD. _Geothlypis macg._ BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 244, pl. lxxix, fig. 4; Rev. 227.—SCLATER, Catal. 1861, 27 (Jalapa and Guat.).—IB. P. Z. S. 1859, 363, 373 (Xalapa, Oaxaca).—CAB. Jour. 1861, 84 (Costa Rica).—COOPER & SUCKLEY, P. R. R. Rep. XII, II, 1859, 177.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 96. _Sylvicola macg._ MAX. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 118. _Sylvia tolmiæi_, TOWNS. J. A. N. Sc. 1839. _Trichas tolmiæi_, NUTT. Man. I. _Trichas vegeta_ (LICHT.), BP. Consp. 1850, 310; _fide_ Cab. Jour. 1861, 84 (Mexico).

SP. CHAR. _Adult male._ Head and neck all round, throat and forepart of the breast, dark ash-color; a narrow frontlet, loral region, and space round the eye (scarcely complete behind), black. The eyelids above and below the eye (not in a continuous ring) white. The feathers of the chin, throat, and fore breast really black, with ashy-gray tips more or less concealing the black. Rest of upper parts dark olive-green (sides under the wings paler); of lower, bright yellow. _Female_ with the throat paler and without any black. Length of male, 5 inches; wing, 2.45; tail, 2.45. _Young_ not seen.

HAB. Western and Middle Provinces of United States, to northern boundary; east to Fort Laramie; south to Costa Rica.

The white eyelids of this species distinguish its males from those of _G. philadelphia_, in which there is a black jugular patch not seen in the present species. The females can only be known by the slenderer bill and more rounded wing, the first quill being intermediate between the fifth and sixth, instead of being considerably longer than the fifth.

The autumnal adult male is as described above, except that there is a faint tinge of green on the crown, and the ashy borders to feathers of throat and jugulum broader, concealing more the black. The adult female in autumn is considerably more dully colored than in spring.

HABITS. This comparatively new Warbler was first met with by Townsend, and described by Audubon in the last volume of his Ornithological Biography. It has since been found to have a wide range throughout the western portion of North America, from Cape St. Lucas to British America, and from the Plains to the Pacific. It has also been obtained at Choapan in the State of Orizaba, Mexico, by Mr. Boucard, and in Guatemala by Mr. Salvin, who states that throughout the district between the volcanoes of Agua and Fuego this was a common species, frequenting the outskirts of the forests and the edges of the clearings. It breeds in abundance in Utah, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington Territory, and probably also in Northern California.

Townsend first met with it on the banks of the Columbia. He states that it was mostly solitary and extremely wary, keeping chiefly in the most impenetrable thickets, and gliding through them in a cautious and suspicious manner. Sometimes it might be seen, at midday, perched upon a dead twig, over its favorite places of concealment, at such times warbling a very sprightly and pleasant little song, raising its head until its bill is nearly vertical.

Mr. Nuttall informed Mr. Audubon that this Warbler is one of the most common summer residents of the woods and plains of the Columbia, where it appears early in May, and remains until the approach of winter. It keeps near the ground, and gleans its subsistence among the low bushes. It is shy, and when surprised or closely watched it immediately skulks off, often uttering a loud _click_. Its notes, he states, resemble those of the _Seiurus aurocapillus_. On the 12th of June a nest was brought to Mr. Nuttall, containing two young birds quite fledged, in the plumage of the mother. The nest was chiefly made of strips of the inner bark of the _Thuja occidentalis_, lined with slender wiry stalks. It was built near the ground in the dead, moss-covered limbs of a fallen oak, and was partly hidden by long tufts of _usnea_. It was less artificial than the Yellow-Throat’s nest, but was of the same general appearance. On his restoring the nest to its place, the parents immediately approached to feed their charge.

Dr. Suckley found this Warbler very abundant between the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific coast. Like all Ground Warblers it was entirely insectivorous, all the stomachs examined containing coleoptera and other insects. He did not find them shy, but as they frequented thick brush they were very difficult to procure.

Dr. Cooper found this species very common about Puget Sound, frequenting the underbrush in dry woods, occasionally singing a song from a low tree, similar to that of the Yellow-Throat. He found its nest built in a bush, a foot from the ground. It was of straw, loosely made, and without any soft lining. Dr. Cooper found this species as far east as Fort Laramie, in Wyoming. They reach the Columbia River by the 3d of May.

The same writer noticed the first of this species at Fort Mojave, April 24. He regarded their habits as varying in some respects from those of the _Trichas_, as they prefer dry localities, and hunt for insects not only in low bushes but also in trees, like the _Dendroicæ_. Dr. Cooper twice describes their eggs as white, which is inaccurate. He thinks that some of them winter in the warmer portions of California. He regards them as shy, if watched, seeking the densest thickets, but brought out again by their curiosity if a person waits for them, and the birds will approach within a few feet, keeping up a scolding chirp.

The nests of this species obtained by Dr. Kennerly from Puget Sound were all built on the ground, and were constructed almost exclusively of beautifully delicate mosses, peculiar to that country. They are shallow nests, with a diameter of four and a height of two inches, the cavity occupying a large proportion of the nest. Its walls and base are of uniform thickness, averaging about one inch. The nests are lined with finer mosses and a few slender stems and fibres.

Mr. Ridgway found these Warblers breeding in great numbers, June 23, 1869, at Parley’s Park, Utah, among the Wahsatch Mountains. One of these nests (S. I., 15,238) was in a bunch of weeds, among the underbrush of a willow-thicket along a cañon stream. It was situated about eight inches from the ground, is cuplike in shape, two inches in height, three in diameter, and somewhat loosely constructed of slender strips of bark, decayed stalks of plants, dry grasses, intermixed with a few fine roots, and lined with finer materials of the same. The cavity is one and a half inches in depth, and two in diameter at the rim.

The eggs, four in number, are .75 of an inch in length and .50 in breadth. Their ground-color is a pinkish-white, marbled and spotted with purple, lilac, reddish-brown, and dark brown, approaching black. The blotches of the last color vary much in size, in one instance having a length of .21 of an inch, and having the appearance of hieroglyphics. When these spots are large, they are very sparse.

“This species,” Mr. Ridgway writes, “inhabits exclusively the brushwood along the streams of the mountain cañons and ravines. Among the weeds in such localities numerous nests were found. In no case were they on the ground, though they were always near it; being fixed between upright stalks of herbs, occasionally, perhaps, in a brier, from about one to two feet above the ground. The note of the parent bird, when a nest was disturbed, was a strong _chip_, much like that of the _Cyanospiza amæna_ or _C. cyanea_.” He also states that it was abundant in the East Humboldt Mountains in August and in September, and also throughout the summer. A pair of fully fledged young was caught on the 21st of July.

SUBFAMILY ICTERIANÆ.

SECTION ICTERIEÆ.

In this section there are two American genera; one found in the United States, the other not. The diagnoses are as follows:—

Size large (about 8 inches). Lower jaw not deeper than upper anterior to nostrils. Tail moderate. Partly yellow beneath, olive-green above … _Icteria_.

Size smaller (about 6 inches). Lower jaw deeper than upper. Tail almost fan-shaped. Partly red beneath, plumbeous-blue above … _Granatellus_.[58]

GENUS ICTERIA, VIEILL.

_Icteria_, VIEILLOT, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, iii and 85. (Type, MUSCICAPA VIRIDIS, GM. _Turdus virens_, LINN.)

[Line drawing: _Icteria virens._ 2260]

GEN. CHAR. Bill broad at base, but contracting rapidly and becoming attenuated when viewed from above; high at the base (higher than broad opposite the nostrils); the culmen and commissure much curved from base; the gonys straight. Upper jaw deeper than the lower; bill without notch or rictal bristles. Nostrils circular, edged above with membrane, the feathers close to their borders. Wings shorter than tail, considerably rounded; first quill rather shorter than the sixth. Tail moderately graduated; the feathers rounded, but narrow. Middle toe without claw about two thirds the length of tarsus, which has the scutellæ fused externally in part into one plate.

The precise systematic position of the genus _Icteria_ is a matter of much contrariety of opinion among ornithologists; but we have little hesitation in including it among the _Sylvicolidæ_. It has been most frequently assigned to the _Vireonidæ_, but differs essentially in the deeply cleft inner toe (not half united as in _Vireo_), the partially booted tarsi, the lengthened middle toe, the slightly curved claws, the entire absence of notch or hook in the bill, and the short, rounded wing with only nine primaries. The wing of _Vireo_, when much rounded, has ten primaries,—nine only being met with when the wing is very long and pointed.

Of this genus only one species is known, although two races are recognized by naturalists, differing in the length of the tail.

I. virens. Above olive-green; beneath gamboge-yellow for the anterior half, and white for the posterior. A white stripe over the eye.

Length of tail, 3.30 inches. _Hab._ Eastern United States to the Plains; in winter through Eastern Mexico to Guatemala … var. _virens_.

Length of tail, 3.70 inches. _Hab._ Western United States from the Plains to the Pacific; Western Mexico in winter … var. _longicauda_.

Icteria virens, BAIRD.

YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT.

_Turdus virens_, LINN. Syst. Nat. 10th ed. 1758, 171, no. 16 (based on _Œnanthe americana_, _pectore luteo_, Yellow-breasted Chat, CATESBY, Carol. I, tab. 50). _Icteria virens_, BAIRD, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 228. _Muscicapa viridis_, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 936. _Icteria viridis_, BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxxxvii.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 248. _Icteria dumecola_, VIEILL. _Pipra polyglotta_, WILS. _? Icteria velasquezi_, BON. P. Z. S. 1837, 117 (Mexico).—SCLATER & SALV. Ibis, I, 1859, 12 (Guatemala). Localities quoted: _Costa Rica_, CABAN. _Orizaba_ (winter), SUM. _Yucatan_, LAWR.

SP. CHAR. Third and fourth quills longest; second and fifth little shorter; first nearly equal to the sixth. Tail graduated. Upper parts uniform olive-green; under parts, including the inside of wing, gamboge-yellow as far as nearly half-way from the point of the bill to the tip of the tail; rest of under parts white, tinged with brown on the sides; the outer side of the tibiæ plumbeous; a slight tinge of orange across the breast. Forehead and sides of the head ash, the lores and region below the eye blackish. A white stripe from the nostrils over the eye and involving the upper eyelid; a patch on the lower lid, and a short stripe from the side of the lower mandible, and running to a point opposite the hinder border of the eye, white. Bill black; feet brown. Female like the male, but smaller; the markings indistinct; the lower mandible not pure black. Length, 7.40; wing, 3.25; tail, 3.30. Nest in thickets, near the ground. Eggs white, spotted with reddish.

_Hab._ Eastern United States, west to Arkansas; rare north of Pennsylvania; south to Eastern Mexico and Guatemala. Not noticed in West Indies.

Both sexes in winter apparently have the base of lower mandible light-colored, the olive more brown, the sides and crissum with a strong ochraceous tinge. It is this plumage that has been recognized as _I. velasquezi_.

HABITS. The Yellow-breasted Chat is found throughout the Eastern United States, from Massachusetts to Florida, and as far to the west as Fort Riley and Eastern Kansas. Mr. Say met with it among the Rocky Mountains as far north as the sources of the Arkansas. It is not very rare in Massachusetts, but a few breed in that State as far north as Lynn. It has been found in Mexico and Guatemala, but not, so far as I am aware, in the West Indies.

Probably no one of our birds has more distinctly marked or greater peculiarities of voice, manners, and habits than this very singular bird. It is somewhat terrestrial in its life, frequenting tangled thickets of vines, briers, and brambles, and keeping itself very carefully concealed. It is noisy and vociferous, constantly changing its position and moving from place to place.

It is not abundant north of Pennsylvania, where it arrives early in May and leaves the last of August. The males are said always to arrive three or four days before their mates.

This species is described by Wilson as very much attached to certain localities where they have once taken up their residence, appearing very jealous, and offended at the least intrusion. They scold vehemently at every one who approaches or even passes by their places of retreat, giving utterance to a great variety of odd and uncouth sounds. Wilson states that these sounds may be easily imitated, so as to deceive the bird itself, and to draw it after one; the bird following repeating its cries, but never permitting itself to be seen. Such responses he describes as constant and rapid, and strongly expressive both of anger and anxiety, their voice, as it shifts, unseen, from place to place, seeming to be more like that of a spirit than a bird. These sounds Wilson compares to the whistling of the wings of a duck, being repetitions of short notes, beginning loud and rapid, and falling lower and lower. Again a succession of other notes, said to closely resemble the barking of young puppies, is followed by a variety of hollow, guttural sounds, each eight or ten times repeated, at times resembling the mewing of a cat, only hoarser,—all of these, as he states, uttered with great vehemence, in different keys and with peculiar modulations, now as if at a considerable distance, and the next moment as if close by your side; so that, by these tricks of ventriloquism, one is utterly at a loss to ascertain from what particular quarter they proceed. In mild weather this strange melody of sounds is kept up throughout the night during the first of the pairing-season, but ceases as soon as incubation commences.

They construct their nest about the middle of May. These are placed within a few feet of the ground, in the midst of low brambles, vines, and bushes, generally in a tangled thicket. They build a rude but strongly woven nest, the outer portions more loosely made of dry leaves; within these are interwoven thin strips of the bark of the wild grape, fibrous roots, and fine dry grasses.

The eggs, four or five in number, are usually hatched out within twelve days, and in about as many more the young are ready to leave their nest.

While the female is sitting, and still more after the young are hatched, the cries of the male are loud and incessant when his nest is approached. He no longer seeks to conceal himself, but rises in the air, his legs dangling in a peculiar manner, ascending and descending in sudden jerks that betray his great irritation.

The food of this bird consists chiefly of beetles and other insects, and of different kinds of berries and small fruit, and it said to be especially fond of wild strawberries.

Audubon states that in their migrations they move from bush to bush by day, and frequently continue their march by night. Their flight at all times is short and irregular. He also states that when on the ground they squat, jerk their tails, spring on their legs, and are ever in a state of great activity. Although the existence of this bird north of Pennsylvania is generally disputed, I have no doubt that it has always been, and still is, a constant visitor of Massachusetts, and has been found to within a score of miles of the New Hampshire line. Among my notes I find that a nest was found in Brookline, in 1852, by Mr. Theodore Lyman; in Danvers, by Mr. Byron Goodale; in Lynn, by Messrs. Vickary and Welch; and in many other parts of the State. It certainly breeds as far south as Georgia on the coast, and in Louisiana and Texas in the southwest. On the Pacific coast it is replaced by the long-tailed variety, _longicauda_.

A nest of this species from Concord, Mass., obtained by Mr. B. P. Mann, and now in the collection of the Boston Natural History Society, has a diameter of four inches and a height of three and a half. The cavity has a depth of two and a quarter inches, and is two and a half wide. This is built upon a base of coarse skeleton leaves, and is made of coarse sedges, dried grasses, and stems of plants, and lined with long, dry, and wiry stems of plants, resembling pine-needles. Another from Pomfret, Conn., obtained by Mr. Sessions, is a much larger nest, measuring five inches in diameter and three and three quarters in height. The cup is two and a half inches deep by three in width. It is made of an interweaving of leaves, bark of the grapevine, and stems of plants, and is lined with fine, long wiry stems and pine-needles.

Their eggs are of a slightly rounded oval shape, vary in length from .85 to .95 of an inch, and in breadth from .65 to .70. They have a white ground with a very slight tinge of yellow, and are marked with reddish-brown and a few fainter purplish and lilac spots.

Icteria virens, var. longicauda, LAWR.

LONG-TAILED CHAT.

_Icteria longicauda_, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VI, April, 1853, 4.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 249, pl. xxxiv, fig. 2; Rev. 230.—SCLATER, Catal. 42, no. 253.—FINSCH, Abh. Nat. Brem. 1870, 331 (Mazatlan).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 98. _? Icteria auricollis_ (LICHT. Mus. Berl.), BON. Consp. 1850, 331.

SP. CHAR. Similar to var. _virens_. Fourth quill longest; third and fifth shorter; first shorter than the seventh. Above ash-color, tinged with olive on the back and neck; the outer surface of the wings and tail olive. The under parts as far as the middle of the belly bright gamboge-yellow, with a tinge of orange; the remaining portions white. The superciliary and maxillary white stripes extend some distance behind the eye. Outer edge of the first primary white. Length, 7 inches; wing, 3.20; tail, 3.70.

_Young_ (8,841, Loup Fork of Platte, August 5; F. V. Hayden). Above light grayish-brown; beneath yellow on anterior half as in adult, but yellow less pure; rest of under parts (except abdomen) ochraceous; markings on head obsolete, the eyelids only being distinctly white.

HAB. Western and Middle Provinces of United States, east to Missouri River and Texas; Cape St. Lucas and Western Mexico.

The most tangible difference between this bird and typical _virens_ consists in the longer tail. In addition, the upper plumage is grayish, with hardly any olive tinge, and the white maxillary stripe extends farther back; the bill is not so deep as that of the Eastern bird. All these differences, however, are in strict accordance with various laws; the more grayish cast of plumage is what we should expect in birds from the Middle Province, while the restriction of the yellow from the maxillæ we see also in Western specimens of _Helminthophaga ruficapilla_; the longer tail, also, is a well-known characteristic of Western birds, as distinguished from Eastern of the same species.

Upon the whole, therefore, taking into consideration the absolute identity of their habits and notes, we can only consider the _I. longicauda_ and _I. virens_ as restricted, as being merely geographical races of one species.

This variety, as well as the Eastern, has in autumn and winter a slightly different plumage. A pair (53,348 ♂, and 53,347 ♀, West Humboldt Mountains, Nevada) obtained September 4 differ in the following respects from spring adults: the upper plumage is decidedly brown, with even a russet tinge,—not gray, with a greenish wash; the lores are less purely black, and the sides and crissum are deep cream-color, instead of pure white; the female has a shade of olive across the jugulum; both male and female have the lower mandible almost wholly white, and the commissure broadly edged with the same.

No. 38,402 ♂, Laramie Peak, June, has the throat and jugulum strongly stained with deep cadmium-orange.

HABITS. The Western or Long-tailed Chat has an exclusively Western distribution, and has been found from Mexico and Cape St. Lucas to Oregon, on the Pacific coast, and as far to the east as the Upper Missouri.

According to Dr. Cooper, these birds appear in San Diego and at Fort Mojave in the latter part of April. They are said to inhabit chiefly the warmer valleys near streams and marshes, rarely on the coast. At Fort Mojave, Dr. Cooper found a nest of this bird May 19, built in a dense thicket of algarobia. It contained three eggs, and one of the _Molothrus_. The nest was built of slender green twigs and leaves, lined with grass and hair. The eggs were white, sprinkled with cinnamon, somewhat in the form of a ring near the larger end, and measured .75 by .64 of an inch.

These nests were usually very closely concealed, but one that he found at Santa Cruz, near the coast, was in a very open situation, only two feet above the ground. When the nest is approached, the old birds are very bold, keeping up a constant scolding, and almost flying in the face of an intruder. At other times they are very shy. The notes and sounds uttered by the Western bird Dr. Cooper states to be the same as those of the Eastern species, and with the same grotesqueness. They leave the State of California on or before the first of September.

Dr. Gambel states that the Chat appears in California about the middle of April, resorting to the hedges, vineyards, and bushy portions of gardens to breed.