Part 27

_Winter range._--The magnolia warbler is found in winter =north= to northern Puebla (Metlatoyuca); Veracruz (Tlacotalpan); and Quintana Roo (Puerto Morelos and Cozumel Island). =East= to Cozumel Island; British Honduras (Orange Walk and Belize); Honduras (Tela and Ceiba); Nicaragua (Río Escondido); and Panamá (Canal Zone). =South= to Panamá (Canal Zone and Almirante). =West= to western Panamá (Almirante); Costa Rica (Guayabo); El Salvador (Puerto del Triunfo); Guatemala (San Lucas); Oaxaca (Tehuantepec); western Veracruz (Motzorongo); and northern Puebla (Metlatoyuca). Occasional or accidental in winter (possibly from delayed migration), in southern Sonora (Alamos); Texas (Brownsville, Dallas, and Huntsville); Mississippi (Edwards and Gulfport); Alabama (Tupelo); and Florida (New Smyrna). It has also occurred rarely in migration in the West Indies; Cuba (Habana); Dominican Republic (Puerto Plata); and Puerto Rico (Mayagüez).

_Migration._--Late dates of spring departure from the winter home are: Nicaragua--Edén, March 29. El Salvador--Chilata, April 24. Guatemala--Chuntuqui, April 25. Honduras--Tela, April 24. Veracruz--Minatitlán, April 27. Puerto Rico--San Germán, April 20. Cuba--Santiago de las Vegas, May 4.

Early dates of spring arrival are: Florida--Palm Beach, March 3. Alabama--Long Island, April 10. Georgia--Savannah, April 13. South Carolina--Summerton, April 17. North Carolina--Waynesville, April 14. Virginia--Lynchburg, April 18. West Virginia--White Sulphur Springs, April 25. District of Columbia--Washington, April 22. Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh, April 22. New York--Canandaigua, April 23. Massachusetts--Amherst, April 29. Vermont--St. Johnsbury, April 29. Maine--Dover-Foxcroft, May 5. New Brunswick--Scotch Lake, May 2. Nova Scotia--Wolfville, May 6. Quebec--Quebec, May 4. Prince Edward Island--Mount Herbert, May 4. Louisiana--Avery Island, April 6. Mississippi--Edwards, April 17. Arkansas--Helena, April 20. Tennessee--Knoxville, April 17. Kentucky--Bowling Green, April 23. Illinois--Le Roy, April 19. Ohio--Oberlin, April 19. Michigan--Grand Rapids, April 26. Ontario--London, April 30. Missouri--Marionville, April 20. Iowa--Iowa City, April 27. Wisconsin--Milwaukee, April 26. Minnesota--Crystal Bay, April 29. Texas--Brownsville, April 3. Nebraska--Lincoln, April 29. South Dakota--Yankton, May 2. North Dakota--Argusville, May 11. Manitoba--Aweme, May 11. Saskatchewan--Wiseton, May 5. Colorado--Derby, May 3. Alberta--Glenevis, May 22. Mackenzie--Simpson, May 23.

Late dates of spring departure of transients are: Florida--Dry Tortugas Island, May 22. Alabama--Leighton, May 10. Georgia--Margret, May 25. South Carolina--Spartanburg, May 18. North Carolina--Raleigh, May 18. Virginia--Naruna, May 25. District of Columbia--Washington, June 4. Louisiana--Cameron Farm, May 15. Mississippi--Deer Island, May 21. Arkansas--Winslow, May 22. Tennessee--Nashville, May 22. Kentucky--Danville, May 27. Illinois--Chicago, June 8. Ohio--Youngstown, June 3. Missouri--St. Louis, June 3. Iowa--Mount Vernon, June 2. Texas--Waco, May 23. Oklahoma--Arnett, May 28. Kansas--Stockton, May 21. Nebraska--Stapleton, May 23. South Dakota--Yankton, June 6. North Dakota--Argusville, June 12.

Late dates of fall departure are: Alberta--Glenevis, September 18. Saskatchewan--Wiseton, September 27. Manitoba--Shoal Lake, September 28. North Dakota--Fargo, October 9 (bird banded). South Dakota--Lennox, October 5. Texas--Cove, November 13. Minnesota--St. Paul, October 2. Wisconsin--Appleton, October 18. Iowa--Sigourney, October 20. Ontario--Toronto, October 16. Ohio--Cleveland, November 2. Indiana--Elkhart, October 16. Kentucky--Bowling Green, November 10. Tennessee--Nashville, November 11. Mississippi--Gulfport, November 8. Louisiana--New Orleans, November 4. Newfoundland--Tompkins, September 25. Prince Edward Island--North River, September 8. Quebec--Quebec, September 19. New Brunswick--Saint John, October 12. Maine--Portland, September 28. New Hampshire--Hanover, October 16. Massachusetts--Lynn, October 28. New York--Long Beach, October 27. Pennsylvania--Jeffersonville, October 15. District of Columbia--Washington, October 28. Virginia--Lawrenceville, October 25. North Carolina--Raleigh, October 20. South Carolina--Cherokee Plantation, November 12. Georgia--Atlanta, November 4. Florida--Pensacola, October 31.

Early dates of fall arrival: North Dakota--Fargo, September 3. South Dakota--Aberdeen, August 26. Nebraska--Monroe Canyon, Sioux County, September 12. Texas--Brownsville, September 3. Wisconsin--New London, August 12. Iowa--Grinnell, August 20. Illinois--Chicago, August 12. Indiana--Indianapolis, August 25. Kentucky--Wurtland, August 8. Tennessee--Nashville, August 27. Mississippi--Edwards, September 7. Louisiana--September 11. District of Columbia--Washington, August 15. Virginia--Charlottesville, September 3. North Carolina--Asheville, August 28. Georgia--Athens, September 7. Alabama--Birmingham, September 13. Florida--St. Augustine, September 3. Cuba--Habana, November 3. Yucatán--Chichén-Itzá, October 7. Honduras--Truxillo, September 27. Guatemala--Colomba, September 30. El Salvador--Divisadero, October 12. Nicaragua--Río Escondido, October 27. Panamá--Cocoplum, October 24.

_Casual records._--A specimen was secured in Bermuda on May 7, 1878; a specimen was collected at Godthaab, Greenland, in 1875; a bird was picked up, recently dead, at Salem, Oreg., in January 1907; and on October 1, 1913, a specimen was picked up dead on the sea ice a mile off shore from Humphrey Point, Alaska. Eight specimens have been taken in California: Farallon Islands, May 29 and June 2, 1911; at sea about 10 miles west of Halfmoon Bay, June 8, 1943; Yosemite Valley, October 6, 1919; Santa Cruz Island, May 23, 1908; Santa Barbara Island, May 15, 1897; and Los Angeles, October 21, 1897, and October 5, 1901.

_Egg dates._--Maine: 95 records, June 4 to 30; 74 records, June 7 to 15, indicating the height of the season.

New Brunswick: 59 records, June 7 to 28; 37 records, June 13 to 19.

New York: 23 records, June 3 to July 1; 13 records, June 5 to 12.

Pennsylvania: 41 records, May 28 to June 13; 32 records, May 30 to June 8 (Harris).

DENDROICA TIGRINA (Gmelin)

CAPE MAY WARBLER

PLATE 29

HABITS

This is the bird that made Cape May famous. Dr. Stone (1937) suggests that it has "served to advertise the name of Cape May probably more widely than has been done in any other way." The inappropriate name Cape May warbler was given to it by Alexander Wilson (1831), who described and figured it from a specimen of an adult male taken by his friend, George Ord, in a maple swamp in Cape May County, N. J., in May, 1811. He never saw it in life and never obtained another specimen. Audubon never saw it in life, the specimens figured by him having been obtained by Edward Harris near Philadelphia. Nuttall apparently never saw it.

Dr. Stone (1937) writes: "Curiously enough it seems never to have been recorded again at Cape May until September 4, 1920, when I recognized one in a shade tree on Perry Street in company with some Chestnut-sided Warblers. Since then we have seen a few nearly every year in spring and fall both at Cape May and at the Point." It is perhaps not to be wondered at that the early ornithologists knew so little about it before 1860, for bird observers were few and widely scattered in those days, and the Cape May warbler is only a hurried migrant through the United States over a very wide immigration range, nowhere very abundant, and its numbers seem to fluctuate from year to year.

Some years before Wilson named the Cape May warbler, a specimen of the same bird flew aboard a vessel off the coast of Jamaica and was painted and described by George Edwards. This was the basis of Gmelin's name _tigrina_, little tiger. Although not striped exactly like a tiger, it has carried this name ever since.

_Spring._--Cape May warblers leave their winter home in the West Indies in March and pass through the Bahamas and Florida in March and April, northward along the Atlantic coast, and branch out westward to southern Missouri and up through the Mississippi Valley to Minnesota and Canada. Very few stop to settle much short of the Canadian border. Dr. Chapman (1907) writes of the spring migration: "In early May in Florida, I have seen this species actually common, feeding in weedy patches among a rank growth of poke-berries. It seemed like wanton extravagance on the part of nature to bring so many of these generally rare creatures within one's experience in a single morning. Both on the east and west coasts of the State the bird is at times a common migrant, possibly bound for its summer home by way of the Mississippi Valley, where it is more numerous than in the north Atlantic States."

Amos W. Butler (1898) says:

The Cape May Warbler is generally considered a rare bird everywhere. While this is true, and some years it is altogether absent, there are years when it is common and even abundant. In Indiana it appears as a migrant, perhaps more numerous in fall than spring. * * * Some years with us they are found upon the drier uplands, among the oak woods, where they usually keep among the lower branches or upon the high bushes and smaller trees. They are not very active, but keep persistently hunting insects. At other times, we find them among our orchards, even coming into towns, where they occupy themselves catching insects among the foliage and about the blossoms of all kinds of shade and fruit trees.

In Ohio, according to Milton B. Trautman (1940), "the bird was uncommon in every spring except 1, and seldom more than 10 individuals were noted in a day. Between May 14 and 20, 1926, the species was very numerous throughout central Ohio. On May 16 I noted at least 40 individuals in Lakeside Woods, and it was evident that hundreds were present in the area on that day." Referring also to Ohio, W. F. Henninger (1918) writes: "This year, on May 25, 1917, we entered a large patch of woods about half a mile from the Grand Reservoir early in the morning, just when the fog had barely raised above the treetops, and the warblers were fairly swarming there, among them numbers of Cape May's. I counted more than fifty, but got tired counting and then gave it up, after taking a fine pair." Rev. J. J. Murray (MS.) refers to this warbler as common in the vicinity of Lexington, Va., in the spring from April 29 to May 18, where it seems to prefer conifers at that season.

I have seen the Cape May warbler fairly common in Florida at times and I have collected it there, but I have never seen it in my corner of Massachusetts. Mr. Forbush (1929) tells the story very well for this State:

For nearly one hundred years at least this species had been considered very rare in New England, but about 1909 it seemed to become more common. In May, 1912, at Amesbury, Massachusetts, one chilly morning I found bright males scattered through the village. A cold wave, catching them in night migration, had brought them down, and they could be seen here and there on or near the ground, and in low bushes by the roadside. In the door-yards and along the streets these lovely birds hopped and fluttered fearlessly in their search for food, paying little attention to passers-by. By 1915 they had appeared more generally, and in May, 1917, they were well distributed over a large part of New England. Since that time Cape May Warblers have been not uncommon transients in certain years, and they have never been as rare as they formerly were. In migration they may be found in trees and shrubbery about dwellings and along village streets almost as commonly as in woods or in swampy thickets, where at this season they find many insects. Occasionally a few may be seen in blossoming orchards.

_Courtship._--Information on the courtship behavior of the wood warblers is so scanty that it seems worthwhile to include two small items on this subject for the Cape May warbler. While watching a pair at their nest-building, Dr. Merriam (1917) observed that "on June 11 the male was seen to chase the female. The next day nest building was apparently complete. An hour's watching on the 13th also failed to show any further nest construction, although the female was frequently heard in the low growth. Once she flew ten feet up in a spruce and gave a peculiar note at the same time lifting her tail. Immediately the male flew down and copulation took place. The whole proceeding resembled very much that of the Chipping Sparrow." James Bond (1937) noted at times that, "when the female was working on the nest, the male would fly with rigid wings just above her. This was a characteristic courting display, noted with other individuals."

_Nesting._--The Cape May warbler seeks for its summer home the country of the pointed firs and spruces that tower like tapering church spires in the Canadian Life Zone of our northern border and in Canada. It seems to prefer an open, parklike stand of these noble trees rather than the denser coniferous forests, though it often finds a congenial home along the borders of the forests or in the more open spaces within them, especially where there is a mixture of tall white or yellow birches, or a few hemlocks. Its breeding range follows the Canadian Zone rather closely, as along the cool coastline of eastern Maine. James Bond writes to me of its interesting distribution in that state: "In the eastern half of the state it is found mainly along the coast, as far south as Hog Island, Knox County. It ranges across Maine through Washington, Aroostook and northern Penobscot Counties, but is a rare species in the interior, and is unknown in summer from the Bangor and Lincoln sections of Penobscot County. I found it most abundant in southern Mount Desert Island in the vicinity of Ship Harbor. Here several pairs nest every year in the cool, often fog-drenched woods, although I have found but one nest."

The first published report of the nesting of the Cape May warbler was perhaps based on an error in identification. Montague Chamberlain (1885) reported that his friend James W. Banks found a nest apparently "just outside the city limits" of Saint John, New Brunswick; he states that it "was hid among a cluster of low cedars growing in an exposed position, on a rather open hill-side, near a gentleman's residence, and within a stone's throw of a much frequented lane. The nest was placed less than three feet from the ground and within six inches of the tips of the branches." The location of this nest, as will be seen from the accounts that follow, was entirely different from that of the many nests found since; both nest and eggs were said to resemble somewhat those of the magnolia warbler; no male Cape May warbler was seen or heard, and the bird Banks reports having shot from the nest may have been wrongly identified, since the females of the two species are somewhat alike. Referring to this account, James Bond (1937) remarks: "It would be wise to regard the 'classical' nest taken near Saint John, New Brunswick, by Banks as that of a Magnolia Warbler, as is indicated not only by its situation but by its construction, for the nest of the Cape May Warbler is a decidedly more bulky affair. I mention this since recent books still perpetuate this undoubted error, ignoring the information that has been gleaned during the past twenty years."

Probably the first undoubted nest of the Cape May warbler was found on an island in Lake Edward, Quebec, on June 7, 1916, by Dr. H. F. Merriam, who published an interesting account of it (1917). He watched the building of the nest for some days before the nest was taken on the eighteenth. The female was seen carrying nesting material into the thick top of a spruce about 40 feet from the ground in a rather open part of the woods, consisting for the most part of spruce and balsam of moderate size interspersed with large white and yellow birches.

The female was not at all timid and apparently gathered most of her nesting material at two places, both within sixty feet of the nest tree. * * * While searching in the low growth she was absorbed in manner, giving only occasionally a sharp chip. In going to the nest her actions were more rapid and she chipped more frequently, generally alighting ten to twenty feet below the nest and working her way up from limb to limb on the outside of the tree. * * * The male was not seen to carry any nest material but seemed to be generally in the immediate neighborhood. At times he accompanied the female part way to or from the nest and sometimes remained near her in the low spruces. * * *

The nest was placed about six feet from the top of the tree on a short branch nine inches from the trunk and an equal distance from the tip. From the ground it could not be seen even with field glasses. From a few feet below the nest was apparently a green ball of moss. Closer examination, however, showed it to be a neatly cupped nest resting on the branch and short twigs. To these it was not securely tied and was lifted intact from its position without difficulty.

The exterior of the nest was of green Sphagnum moss, interwoven with vine stems, and a very few twigs, bound lightly with plant down, small wads of which appeared here and there over the moss. The body of the nest consisted of fine grass stems. Within this was a lining of white hairs apparently from the rabbit, one small partridge feather and a few fine black rootlets. The nest was bulky but very neatly and fairly compactly put together. At the rim one side was very smoothly finished. This was probably the entrance side toward the tree trunk. It was an unusual and beautiful nest.

Its dimensions were: outside, 4 inches wide by 2-1/4 deep; inside, 1-3/4 inches wide by 1 inch deep.

Two years later, Philipp and Bowdish (1919) found four nests in northern New Brunswick. "They were in rather high spruce trees, within two or three feet of the extreme top, usually as near the top as suitable site and cover could be secured. All were built in very thick foliage, against the main stem of the tree, resting lightly on twigs and foliage, but fairly secured thereto by webs, and were entirely invisible from the ground, in every case." The nests were from 35 to 40 feet above the ground, and were not substantially different in size and construction from that described by Dr. Merriam. They add that the thick lining of hair, feathers, and a little fur, all smoothly felted, serves to distinguish the nests from those of the black-poll and myrtle warblers, and note that the nest tree is usually "fairly openly situated, at least as to one side, although this is not always the case, since other pairs watched were very evidently nesting in trees where it was much more difficult to detect them."

Richard C. Harlow has sent me the data for seven nests of the Cape May warbler that he collected in Tabusintac, New Brunswick, in 1919. Two of these were 55 feet from the ground in a fir, and the others were 35, 45, 50, 55, and 60 feet up, respectively, in black spruces. All were in the very topmost shelters of the trees, and three of them were in heavy forests, the others being on the edges. In other respects they were similar to those described above. The females sat very closely until almost touched, and then dropped down to the ground.

The nest found by James Bond (MS.) on Mount Desert Island, Maine, was against the trunk of a red spruce 38 feet above ground and about 4 feet from the extreme top of the tree. In construction it was similar to those described above. In his published (1937) paper the tree was said to be a black spruce, but he now writes to me that it was a red spruce and that there were no black spruces in the immediate vicinity; these two spruces are difficult to distinguish.

Dr. Paul Harrington, of Toronto, writes to me that he found a nest of the Cape May warbler in an open spruce forest near Dorcas Bay, Bruce Peninsula, on June 12, 1934. "The tree was about 35 feet high, a typical 'church spire.' Near the top was a heavy clump, but I could see nothing that indicated a nest; when I put my hand in the heavy needles near the trunk a bird popped out and straight down. * * * I carefully groped about and eventually found the nest, built near the trunk in the uppermost clump of needles."

_Eggs._--Mr. Harlow tells me that the Cape May warbler lays from 4 to 9 eggs to a set. The larger numbers must be very rare, but 6 or 7 seem to be the commonest numbers among my records, and sets of 4 seem to be uncommon. The eggs vary in shape from ovate to short ovate and are almost lusterless. They are creamy white, richly spotted and blotched with shades of reddish brown, such as "auburn," "chestnut," "sayal brown," "bay," or "snuff brown," with an occasional scrawl of black. The undermarkings are of "fawn," "light brownish drab," "brownish drab," or "light mouse gray." The markings are more concentrated at the large end. The measurements of 50 eggs average 16.8 by 12.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =18.4= by 12.3, 18.0 by =14.0=, =15.0= by 12.0, and 16.0 by =11.5= millimeters (Harris).

_Plumages._--Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the juvenal plumage, in which the sexes are alike, as "above, dark hair-brown, olive tinged on the back. Wings and tail black, edged chiefly with dull brownish olive-green, the coverts with drab and tipped with buffy white. The two outer rectrices with subterminal white spots. Below, including sides of head, mouse-gray with dusky mottling or streaking on the breast and sides; the abdomen and crissum dingy white faintly tinged with primrose-yellow."

The partial postjuvenal molt, beginning early in July, involves the contour plumage and the wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings or the tail. This produces the first winter plumage, in which the sexes begin to differentiate. Dr. Dwight describes the first winter male as "above, dull olive-green, each feather centrally clove-brown veiled with olive-gray edgings; the rump canary-yellow, the feathers basally black. Below, including sides of neck, superciliary lines and spot under eye, canary-yellow, palest on abdomen and crissum, narrowly streaked on sides of chin, on the throat, breast and sides with black which is veiled by grayish edgings; auriculars mouse-gray." The young female, he says, is "duller and browner above, and generally without yellow below, being dull white with gray streaking."

The first nuptial plumage is acquired by a partial prenuptial molt beginning in late winter, "which involves much of the body plumage but not the wings nor the tail. The black crown, the streaks on the back, the chestnut ear-patches and the streaked yellow of the throat and breast are acquired," in the male. The female in first nuptial plumage "shows a little yellow assumed by a limited prenuptial moult." Both sexes are now in nearly fully adult plumage, except for the worn juvenal wings and tail.

Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in July and probably a partial prenuptial molt, as in the young bird, though there is not enough pertinent material available to prove the latter. Dr. Dwight (1900) says that the adult winter plumage of the male is "similar to first winter plumage but the head black, the back streaked and everywhere veiled with smoke-gray edgings. Below, whitish edgings obscure the black streaks, the chestnut ear-coverts and the bright lemon-yellow areas. The wings and tail are blacker than in first winter, the back is black, either streaked or spotted, and the yellow below is deeper." Of the female, he says: "The adult winter plumage is similar to the male in first winter dress, the yellow below rather paler and with less heavy streakings."