A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 1

Dendroica pennsylvanica, BairdCHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER

Motacilla pennsylvanica, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 333, No. 19. Gmelin. Sylvia p. Lath.; Wilson, I, pl. xiv, fig. 5. Dendroica p. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 279; Rev. 191.—Sclater & Salvin, Ibis, 1859, 11; 1860, 273 (Coban, Guat.; November).—Samuels, 231. Sylvia icterocephala, Lath. Ind. Orn. II, 1790, 538.—Vieill.; Bon.; Aud. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lix. Sylvicola ict. Swains.; Jard.; Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxi. Dendroica ict. Sclater, P. Z. S. 1859, 363 (Xalapa), 373 (Oaxaca).

Other localities: Bahamas, Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1859. Costa Rica, Cab. Jour. 1860, 328. Panama, winter, Lawr., Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322. Yucatan, Lawr. Veragua, Salv.

Sp. Char. Male. Upper parts streaked with black and pale bluish-gray, which becomes nearly white on the forepart of the back; the middle of the back glossed with greenish-yellow. The crown is continuous yellow, bordered by a frontal and superciliary band, and behind by a square spot of white. Loral region black, sending off a line over the eye, and another below it. Ear-coverts and lower eyelid and entire under parts pure white, a purplish-chestnut stripe starting on each side in a line with the black mustache, and extending back to the thighs. Wing and tail-feathers dark brown, edged with bluish-gray, except the secondaries and tertials, which are bordered with light yellowish-green. The shoulders with two greenish-white bands. Three outer tail-feathers with white patches near the end of the inner webs.

Female like the male, except that the upper parts are yellowish-green, streaked with black; the black mustache scarcely appreciable. Length, 5.00; wing, 2.50; tail, 2.20.

Hab. Eastern Province of the United States; Bahamas; Guatemala to Costa Rica and Panama R. R. Not recorded from Mexico proper or West Indies, except Bahamas.

The young in autumn is very different from either male or female in spring. The entire upper parts are of a continuous light olive-green; the under parts white; the sides of the head, neck, and breast ash-gray, shading insensibly into and tingeing the white of the chin and throat. No black streaks are visible above or on the cheeks, and the eye is surrounded by a continuous ring of white not seen in spring. In this plumage it has frequently been considered as a distinct species.

The male in this plumage may usually be distinguished from the female by possessing a trace, or a distinct stripe, of chestnut on the flanks, the young female at least lacking it.

Habits. The geographical distribution of this common species during its season of reproduction is inferred rather than positively known. So far as I am aware, it is not known to breed farther south than Massachusetts. Yet it is probable that, when we know its history more exactly, it will be found during the breeding-season in different suitable localities from Pennsylvania to Canada. Mr. H. W. Parker, of Grinnell, Iowa, mentions this bird as common in that neighborhood.

Until recently it was regarded as a rather rare species, and to a large extent it had escaped the notice of our older ornithological writers. Wilson could give but little account of its habits. It passed rapidly by him in its spring migrations. He did not regard it as common, presumed that it has no song, and nearly all that he says in regard to it is conjectural. Mr. Audubon met with this species but once, and knew nothing as to its habits or distribution. Mr. Nuttall, who observed it in Massachusetts, where it is now known to be not uncommon in certain localities, also regarded it as very rare. His account of it is somewhat hypothetical and inexact. Its song he very accurately describes as similar to that of the D. æstiva, only less of a whistle and somewhat louder. He represents it as expressed by tsh-tsh-tsh-tshyia, given at intervals of half a minute, and often answered by its mate from her nest. Its lay is characterized as simple and lively. Late in June, 1831, he observed a pair collecting food for their young on the margin of the Fresh Pond swamps in Cambridge.

Mr. Allen has found this species quite common in Western Massachusetts, arriving there about the 9th of May, and remaining through the summer to breed. He states—and his observations in this respect correspond with my own—that during the breeding-season they frequent low woods and swampy thickets, nesting in bushes, and adds that they are rarely found among high trees. They leave there early in September.

Professor Verrill found this Warbler a common summer visitant in Western Maine, arriving about the second week in May, and remaining there to breed. Mr. Boardman thinks it reaches Eastern Maine about the middle of May, and is a common summer resident. I did not meet this species either in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, nor was Dr. Bryant more fortunate, but Lieutenant Bland gives it in his manuscript list of the birds found in the neighborhood of Halifax.

Mr. Ridgway informs me that this species breeds in the oak openings and among the prairie thickets of Southern Illinois.

During the eight months that are not included in their season of reproduction, this species is scattered over a wide extent of territory. Their earliest appearance in the Northern States (at Plattesmouth) is April 26, and they all disappear early in September. At other times they have been met with in the Bahamas, in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. It has not yet been detected in the West Indies. M. Boucard obtained specimens at Playa Vicente, in the hot country of Oaxaca, Mexico.

In the neighborhood of Calais, Mr. Boardman informs me that this Warbler is common, and that its habits resemble those of the Black-poll Warbler more than those of any other of the genus. It always nests in bushes or in low trees, and in the vicinity of swamps.

Among the memoranda furnished to the late Mr. Kennicott by Mr. Ross is one to the effect that the Chestnut-sided Warbler was observed at Lake of the Woods, May 29. How common it is at this point is not stated.

Mr. C. S. Paine regards the Chestnut-sided Warbler as one of the sweetest singers that visit Vermont. He describes it as very confiding and gentle in its habits. It is chiefly found inhabiting low bushes, in the neighborhood of taller trees, and it always builds its nest in the fork of a low bush, not more than from three to five feet from the ground. He has seen many of their nests, and they have all been in similar situations. They will permit a very near approach without leaving their nests. These are constructed about the last of May. Their song continues until about the last of June. After this they are seldom heard.

J. Elliot Cabot, Esq., had the good fortune to be the first of our naturalists to discover in June, 1839, the nest and eggs of this Warbler. It was fixed on the horizontal forked branch of an oak sapling, in Brookline, Mass. The female remained sitting on her nest until so closely approached as to be distinctly seen. The nest was of strips of red-cedar bark, and well lined with coarse hair, and was compact, elastic, and shallow. It contained four eggs, the ground-color of which was white, over which were distributed numerous distinct spots of umber-brown. These were of different sizes, more numerous towards the larger end.

In regard to their breeding in Pennsylvania, Mr. Nuttall mentions in the second edition of his work that he met them among the Alleghanies at Farranville in full song, and had no doubt that they were nesting there at the time.

The Chestnut-sided Warbler usually constructs its nest in localities apart from cultivated grounds, on the edges of low and swampy woods, but in places more or less open. Quite a number of their nests have been met with by Mr. George O. Welch, of Lynn, Mass. Their more common situation has been barberry-bushes. The nests vary from about two and a half to three and a half inches in external height, and have a diameter of from three to four inches. The cavity is about two inches deep. They are usually composed externally of loosely intertwined strips of the bark of the smaller vegetables, strengthened by a few stems and bits of dry grasses, and lined with woolly vegetable fibres and a few soft hairs of the smaller animals. They are usually very firmly bound to the smaller branches by silky fibres from the cocoons of various insects. These nests were all found in open places, in low, wild marshy localities, but none far from a cultivated neighborhood, and the situations chosen for the nests do not differ materially from those usually selected by the common D. æstiva.

The eggs of this Warbler are of an oblong-oval shape, have a ground-color of a rich creamy-white, and are beautifully spotted, chiefly about the larger end, with two shades of purple and purplish-brown. They measure .65 by .49 of an inch.

Dendroica striata, BairdBLACK-POLL WARBLER

Muscicapa striata, Forster, Phil. Trans. LXII, 383, 428. Motacilla s. Gmelin. Sylvia s. Lath.; Vieillot; Wils.; Bon.; Nutt.; Aud. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxxxiii.—Lembeye, Av. Cuba, 1850, 33. Sylvicola s. Swainson; Bon.; Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxviii.—Reinhardt, Vid. Med. for 1853, 1854, 73 (Greenland).—Max. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 113. Mniotilta s. Reinh. Ibis, 1861, 6 (Greenland). Rhimanphus s. Cab. Jour. III, 475 (Cuba). Dendroica s. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 280; Rev. 192.—Coues, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1861, 220 (Labrador coast).—Gundl. Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; rare).—Samuels, 233.—Dall & Bannister (Alaska). ? D. atricapilla, Landbeck, Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1864, 56 (Chile).

Other localities quoted: Bogota, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1855, 143. Bahamas, Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1839.

Sp. Char. Male. Crown, nape, and upper half of the head black; the lower half, including the ear-coverts, white, the separating line passing through the middle of the eye. Rest of upper parts grayish-ash, tinged with brown, and conspicuously streaked with black. Wing and tail-feathers brown, edged externally (except the inner tail-feathers) with dull olive-green. Two conspicuous bars of white on the wing-coverts, the tertials edged with the same. Under parts white, with a narrow line on each side of the throat from the chin to the sides of the neck, where it runs into a close patch of black streaks continued along the breast and sides to the root of the tail. Outer two tail-feathers with an oblique patch on the inner web near the end; the others edged internally with white. Female similar, except that the upper parts are olivaceous, and, even on the crown, streaked with black; the white on the sides and across the breast tinged with yellowish; a ring of the same round the eye cut by a dusky line through it. Length of male, 5.75; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.25.

Hab. Eastern Province of all North America to Arctic Ocean; Alaska; Greenland; Cuba, in winter (rare); Bahamas; Bogota. Chile? Not recorded from intermediate localities.

The autumnal dress of young birds is very different from that of spring. The upper parts are light olive-green, obsoletely streaked with brown; beneath greenish-yellow, obsoletely streaked on the breast and sides, the under tail-coverts pure white, a yellowish ring round the eye, and a superciliary one of the same color. In this dress it is scarcely possible to distinguish it from the immature D. castanea. The differences, as far as tangible, will be found detailed under the head of the latter species.

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, BairdBAY-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.