Family SYLVICOLIDÆ.—The Warblers. (continued 3)

Wilson states that the habits of this species partake more of those of the Creeper than of the true Warbler. He met with it in Georgia in the month of February. He speaks of its notes as loud, and as resembling those of the Indigo-Bird. It remained some time creeping around the branches of the same pine, in the manner of a Parus, uttering its song every few minutes. When it flew to another tree, it would alight on the trunk and run nimbly up and down in search of insects. They are said to arrive in Georgia in February, after an absence of only three months. Wilson states that they occur as far north as Pennsylvania, but does not give his authority. The food of this species appears to be larvæ and pupæ, rather than winged insects. Those dissected by Mr. Gosse in Jamaica were found to have quite large stomachs, containing caterpillars of various kinds.

Nuttall and Audubon are very contradictory in their statements touching its nesting, and it is not probable that the accounts given by either are founded upon any reliable authorities. The former describes a nest remarkable both for structure and situation, said to have been found in West Florida, suspended by a kind of rope from the end of branches over a stream or a ravine. This nest, entirely pensile, is impervious to rain, and with an entrance at the bottom. He gives a very full and minute description of this nest, but gives no authority and no data to establish its authenticity. We can therefore only dismiss it as probably erroneous.

On the other hand, Mr. Audubon claims to have seen its nest, of which he gives a very different account. He describes it as very prettily constructed, like the nests of any other of this genus, its outer parts made of dry lichens and soft mosses, the inner of silky substances and fibres of the Spanish moss. The eggs are said to be four in number, with a white ground-color and a few purple dots near the larger end. He thinks they raise two broods in a season in Louisiana. These nests are not pensile, but are placed on the horizontal branch of the cypress, from twenty to fifty feet above the ground. It closely resembles a knot or a tuft of moss, and therefore is not easily discovered from below.

A nest containing a single egg, found by Mr. Gosse near Neosho Falls, and supposed to belong to this species, but not fully identified, was built in a low sapling a few feet from the ground, and is a very neat structure, such as is described by Audubon. The egg is pure crystal-white, oblong and pointed, and marked with purple and brown.

Mr. Ridgway informs me that in Southern Illinois, at least in the valley of the Lower Wabash, the Yellow-throated Warbler may be said to be at least a regular, though not common, summer sojourner. Though it inhabits chiefly the swampy portions of the bottom-lands, it makes frequent visits to the orchards and door-yards, less often, however, in the breeding than in the migrating season. In its manners it is almost as much of a Creeper as the Mniotilta varia, being frequently seen creeping not only along the branches of trees, but over the eaves and cornices of buildings, with all the facility of a Nuthatch.

Eggs supposed to be of this species, taken near Wilmington, N. C., by Mr. Norwood Giles (16,199, Smith. Coll.), have a ground-color of dull ashy-white, with a livid tinge. They are thickly speckled, chiefly around the larger end, with irregular markings of rufous, and fainter ones of lilac interspersed with a very few minute specks of black. They are broadly ovate in form, and measure .70 by .55 of an inch.

Dendroica graciæ, Coues.

ARIZONA WARBLER.

Dendroica graciæ (Coues), Baird, Rev. Am. Birds, I, April, 1865; p. 210.—Elliot, Illust. Birds N. Am. I, vi.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 563 (Appendix).

Sp. Char. Adult male (No. 40,680, May 1, 1865, Dr. E. Coues). Whole upper parts, including ear-coverts and sides of neck, ash-gray; small cuneate streaks over the crown, coalesced laterally into a broad stripe on each side, with larger cuneate streaks on the interscapular region, and inconspicuous linear streaks on upper tail-coverts, black. Two conspicuous white bands across the wing, formed by the tips of middle and secondary coverts; secondaries passing externally into light ash. Lateral tail-feather entirely white, except about the basal third of the inner web (the dusky running some distance toward the end along the edge), and a broad streak covering most of the terminal fourth of the outer web, which are clear dusky; the next feather has the outer web exactly the same, but almost the basal half of the inner is dusky; on the next the white is confined to an oblong spot (not touching the inner edge) on about the terminal third, while the outer web is only edged with white; the rest have no white at all. A superciliary stripe extending about .20 of an inch behind the eye (that portion behind the eye white), the lower eyelid, maxillæ, chin, throat, and jugulum pure gamboge-yellow. Rest of lower parts, including lining of wing, pure white; the sides conspicuously streaked with black; lores, and a few obsolete streaks along the junction of the ash and yellow, dusky. Wing, 2.60; tail, 2.20; bill (from nostril), .30; tarsus, .60. Adult female (40,685, May 24). Similar to the male, but colors duller, and markings less sharply defined. Wing, 2.45; tail, 2.00. Young (36,992, August 11). Above brownish-gray without streaks. Beneath ochraceous-white, obsoletely streaked along the sides. Yellow superciliary stripe not well defined, and only a tinge of yellow on the jugulum, the throat being grayish-white. Wings and tail nearly as in the adult. The young in autumnal plumage is similar, but the yellow occupies its usual area; it is, however, much duller, as well as lighter, than in the adult.

Hab. Fort Whipple, near Prescott, Arizona. Belize, British Honduras (var. decora).

This species is most closely related to D. adelaidæ, from Porto Rico; but in the latter the yellow beneath extends back to the crissum, covering even the sides; there are also no streaks on the sides or back; the proportions, too, are quite different, the wings and tail being scarcely three fourths as long, while the bill and feet are much the same size, the tarsi even much shorter. A specimen (No. 41,808 ♂) from Belize, Honduras, differs so essentially from the Fort Whipple specimens, that it is, beyond doubt, entitled to a distinctive name. The differences between these two very well marked races can best be expressed in a table, as follows:—

(40,680, ♂, Fort Whipple, Arizona). Bill (from nostril), .30; tarsus, .60; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.20. Superciliary stripe extending .20 behind the eye, that portion behind the eye white; yellow of jugulum not spreading over breast (ending 1.35 from the bill). Streaks of crown coalesced into a broad stripe on each side; those of back broad, and those on upper tail-coverts almost obsolete. Wing-bands, .20 wide. Lore dusky-grayish. Hab. Fort Whipple, near Prescott, Arizona; abundant, breeding (Coues) … var. graciæ.

(41,808, ♂, Belize). Bill, .30; tarsus, .60; wing, 2.20; tail, 1.95. Superciliary stripe scarcely passing the eye, wholly yellow; yellow of jugulum spreading over breast (ending 1.60 from the bill). Streaks of the crown scarcely coalesced along its sides; those on back not longer than those on crown, and those on upper tail-coverts very conspicuous. Wing-bands, .10 wide. Lore deep black. Hab. Belize, Honduras, resident? … var. decora.

Habits. We are indebted to Dr. Elliott Coues for all that we at present know in reference to this recently discovered species. He first met with it July 2, 1864, in the Territory of Arizona. Dr. Coues first noticed this bird among the pine woods covering the summit of Whipple’s Pass of the Rocky Mountains. He saw no more in his journey into Central Arizona until he was again among the pines at Port Whipple. There he again found it, and it proved to be a very common bird. Dr. Coues anticipates that this species will yet be found to occur in the forests of the San Francisco Mountains, and that its range will be ascertained to include all the pine tracts of New Mexico and Arizona, from the valley of the Rio Grande to that of the Great Colorado River. He also has no doubt that it breeds near and around Fort Whipple.

Specimens found at Belize, first believed to be identical with those from Arizona, are now referred to a race called decora.

According to Dr. Coues’s observations, the Warbler arrives at Fort Whipple about the 20th of April, and remains in that neighborhood until the third week in September. It is found almost exclusively in pine woods, is active, industrious, and noisy, and possesses very marked flycatching habits, flying out from its perch to catch passing insects. It has been, so far, found almost exclusively among the tallest trees.

In regard to the song of this species, Dr. Coues states that it appears to have several different notes. One of these is the ordinary tsip, given out at all times by both old and young of all kinds of small insectivorous birds. Its true song, heard only in spring, consists of two or three loud sweet whistles, sometimes slurred, followed by several continuous notes, resembling chir-r-r, in a wiry but clear tone. Their notes are of great power for the size of the bird. It also has another and quite different song, which Dr. Coues thought greatly resembled the notes of the common American Redstart.

As all the birds he noticed had mated by the first of May, he has no doubt that they raise two broods in a season; and the fact that he found newly fledged young as late as the middle of August seems to corroborate the correctness of his supposition. In regard to the eggs, nest, or breeding-habits of this species, we have as yet no information.

Dendroica pennsylvanica, Baird.

CHESTNUT-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, Baird.

BLACK-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, Baird.

BAY-BREASTED WARBLER.

Sylvia castanea, Wils. Am. Orn. II, 1810, 97, pl. xiv, fig. 4.—Bon.; Nutt.; Aud. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lxix. Sylvicola castanea, Swains.; Jard.; Rich.; Bon.; Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxx. Rhimanphus castaneus, Cab. Dendroica castanea, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 276; Rev. 189.—Sclater & Salvin, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—Cassin, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1860, 193 (Isthmus Darien; winter).—Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322 (Isthmus Panama; winter).—Samuels, 228. Sylvia autumnalis, Wils. III, pl. xxiii, fig. 2.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lxxxviii.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dendroica cærulescens, Baird.

BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER.

Motacilla canadensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 336 (not p. 334, which is D. coronata). Sylvia canadensis, Lath.; Wilson.—Aud. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxlviii, clv.—Sallé, P. Z. S. 1857, 231 (St. Domingo). Sylvicola canadensis, Swains.; Jard.; Bon.; Aud. Birds Am. II, plate 95, pl. xcv. Rhimanphus can. Cab. Dendroica canadensis, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 271.—Ib. P. Z. S. 1861, 70 (Jamaica).—Gundl. Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common).—Samuels, 224. Motacilla cærulescens, Gm. S. Nat. I, 1788, 960. Sylvia cær. Lath.; Vieill. II, pl. lxxx.—D’Orb. Sagra’s Cuba, Ois. 1840, 63, pl. ix, figs. 1, 2. Dendroica cær. Baird, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 186. Sylvia pusilla, Wils. V, pl. xliii, fig. 3 (Juv.). Sylvia leucoptera, Wils. Sylvia palustris, Steph. Sylvia macropus, Vieillot. Sylvia sphagnosa, Bon.; Nuttall; Aud. Sylvicola pannosa, Gosse, Birds Jam. 1847, 162 (female).—Ib. Illust. No. 37.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

De la Sagra states that this bird occasionally breeds in Cuba, young birds having been killed that had evidently been hatched there. The record of this Warbler, as presented by different authors, is apparently inconsistent and contradictory: rare with some observers, abundant with others; remaining in Jamaica until well into April, yet common in South Carolina in March, and even appearing in Massachusetts in midwinter; supposed to breed in the highlands of Cuba, yet, except in the case of the nest taken near Halifax, its manner of breeding was unknown until lately. It is probably rare in lowlands everywhere, and nowhere common except among mountains, and, while able to endure an inclement season where food is abundant, is influenced in its migratory movements by instinctive promptings to change its quarters entirely in reference to a supply of food, and not by the temperature merely. Its presence in Boston in winter was of course a singular accident; but its plump condition, and its contented stay so long as its supply of food was abundant, sufficiently attested its ability to endure severe weather for at least a limited period, and while its food was not wanting. Mr. Trippe states that these birds reach Northern New Jersey during the first week of May, and stay a whole month, remaining there longer than any other species. At first they have no note but a simple chirp; but, before they leave, the males are said to have a singular drawling song of four or five notes.

Mr. Paine states that this Warbler is a resident, but not very common bird, in Randolph, Vt. He has usually noticed it in the midst of thick woods, not generally in tall trees, but among the lower branches or in bushes. The song he describes as very short and insignificant, its tones sharp and wiry, and not to be heard at any great distance. He knows nothing as to its nest. They arrive at Randolph from the South about the middle of May.

We are indebted to Mr. John Burroughs for all the knowledge we possess in relation to the nest and eggs of this species, which had previously baffled the search of other naturalists. He was so fortunate as to meet with their nest in the summer of 1871. Early in July, in company with his nephew, Mr. C. B. Deyoe, Mr. Burroughs visited the same woods, in Roxbury, Delaware County, N. Y., in which he had in a previous year found the nest of the Mourning Ground Warbler. The trees were mostly hemlock, with an undergrowth of birch and beech. They first noticed the parent birds with food in their bills, and then set about deliberately to find their nest by watching their movements. But the birds were equally vigilant, and watched them quite as determinedly. “It was diamond cut diamond.” They were so suspicious, that, after loading their beaks with food, they would swallow it themselves, rather than run the risk of betraying their secret by approaching the nest. They even apparently attempted to mislead them by being very private and confidential at a point some distance from the nest. The two watched the birds for over an hour, when the mosquitoes made it too hot for them to hold out any longer, and they made a rush upon the ground, determined to hunt it over inch by inch. The birds then manifested the greatest consternation, and when, on leaping over an old log, the young sprang out with a scream, but a few feet from them, the distracted pair fairly threw themselves under their very feet. The male bird trailed his bright new plumage in the dust; and his much more humbly clad mate was, if anything, more solicitous and venturesome, coming within easy reach. The nest was placed in the fork of a small hemlock, about fifteen inches from the ground. There were four, and perhaps five, young in the nest, and one egg unhatched, which, on blowing, proved to have been fresh.

The nest measures three and a half inches in diameter, and a trifle more than two in height. The cavity is broad and deep, two and a third inches in diameter at the rim, and one and a half deep. Its base and periphery are loose aggregations of strips of decayed inner bark from dead deciduous trees, chiefly basswood, strengthened by fine twigs, rootlets, and bits of wood and bark. Within this is a firm, compact, well-woven nest, made by an elaborate interweaving of slender roots and twigs, hair, fine pine-needles, and similar materials.

The egg is oval in shape, less obtuse, but not pointed, at one end, with a grayish-white ground, pinkish when unblown, and marked around the larger end with a wreath, chiefly of a bright umber-brown with lighter markings of reddish-brown and obscure purple. A few smaller dottings of the same are sparingly distributed over the rest of the egg. Its measurements are .70 by .50 of an inch. It more nearly resembles the eggs of the D. maculosa than any other, is about five per cent larger, a little more oblong, and the spots differ in their reddish and purplish tinge, so far as one specimen may be taken as a criterion.

Dendroica olivacea, Sclat.

OLIVE-HEADED WARBLER.

Sylvia olivacea, Giraud, Birds Texas, 1841, 14, pl. vii, fig. 2.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1855, 66. Sylvicola olivacea, Cassin, Ill. Birds Texas, etc. 1855, 283, pl. xlviii. Rhimamphus olivaceus, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1856, 291 (Cordova). Dendroica olivacea, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1858, 298 (Oaxaca; cold region).—Ib. P. Z. S. 1859, 363 (Jalapa).—Ib. Catal. 1861, 31, No. 190.—Baird, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 205. Sylvia tæniata, Dubus, Bull. Acad. Brux. XIV, 1847, 104.—Ib. Rev. Z. 1848, 245. Sylvicola tæniata, Bon. Consp. 1850, 309.

Sp. Char. Head and neck all round, with jugulum, brownish-saffron, with a greenish tinge on the nape. Rest of upper parts ashy. Middle and tips of greater wing-coverts white, forming two bands on the wing; a third white patch at the bases of the primaries (except the outer two), and extending forwards along the outer edges. Secondaries edged externally with olive-green. Inner webs of quills conspicuously edged with white. Under parts, except as described, white, tinged with brownish on the sides; a narrow frontal band, and a broad stripe from this through eye and over ear-coverts, black. Outer tail-feather white, except at base and towards tip; greater portion of inner web of next feather also white, much more restricted on the third. Length, 4.60; wing, 2.88; tail, 2.15; tarsus, .75.

A female specimen (14,369), perhaps also in autumnal plumage, has the saffron replaced by clear yellowish, except on the top of head and nape, which are olive-green. The black frontal and lateral bands are replaced by whitish, leaving only a dusky patch on the ears.

Hab. Mexico (both coasts to the southward); Guatemala.

This species is given by Mr. Giraud as occurring in Texas, but it is possible that he may have been misled as to the true locality. It may, however, be yet detected along the southern border of the United States.

Nothing is known of its habits.

Dendroica nigrescens, Baird.

BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER.

Sylvia nigrescens, Townsend, J. A. N. Sc. VII, II, 1837, 191 (Columbia River).—Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 57, pl. cccxcv. Vermivora nig. Bon.; Nutt. Sylvicola nig. Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. xciv. Rhimanphus nig. Cab. 1850. Dendroica nig. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 270; Rev. 186.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1858, 298; 1859, 374 (Oaxaca; high mountains in March).—Heermann, P. R. R. Rep. X, iv, 40.—Cooper & Suckley, P. R. R. Rep. XII, ii, 1859, 180.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 90. ? Sylvia halseii, Giraud, Birds Texas, 1838, pl. iii, fig. 1, ♀ (suggested by Sclater).

Sp. Char. Head all round, forepart of the breast, and streaks on the side of the body, black; rest of under parts, a stripe on the side of the head, beginning acutely just above the middle of the eye, and another parallel to it, beginning at the base of the under jaw (the stripes of opposite sides confluent on the chin), and running further back, white. A yellow spot in front of the eye. Rest of upper parts bluish-gray. The interscapular region and upper tail-coverts streaked with black. Wing-coverts black, with two narrow white bands; quills and tail-feathers brown, the two outer of the latter white, with the shafts and a terminal streak brown; the third brown, with a terminal narrow white streak. Bill black; feet brown. Length, 4.70; wing, 2.30; tail, 2.10.

Hab. Western and Middle Provinces of United States. Migratory southward into Western Mexico (Oaxaca); Orizaba (winter, Sumichrast).

Female (53,373, East Humboldt Mountains, Nev., July 14). Similar to the male, but crown ash medially streaked with black, instead of continuous black; the streaks on back narrow and inconspicuous; the black of the throat confined to the jugulum, appearing in spots only on anterior half. A young female (No. 53,376, East Humboldt Mountains, August 10) is plain brownish-ash above, lacking entirely the streaks on the back, and those on sides of crown extremely obsolete. There is no black whatever on throat or jugulum, which, with the well-defined supra-loral stripe and lower parts in general, are soiled white, more brownish laterally. The other features, including the yellow spot over the lores, with the wing and tail markings, are much as in the adult. A young male (53,375), same locality and date, differs from the last in having the sides of the crown black, and the throat-patch almost complete, but much hidden by the broad white borders to the feathers. An adult autumnal male (7,690, Calaveras River) is like the spring adult, but the ash is overspread by brownish, nearly obliterating the dorsal streaks, and dividing the black of the crown; the black throat-patch is perfectly defined, but much obscured by white borders to the feathers.

Habits. The Black-throated Gray or Dusky Warbler, so far as is now known, belongs to the Western and Middle Provinces, occurring certainly as far to the south as San Diego, in California, and as far to the north as Fort Steilacoom, in Washington Territory, penetrating in winter into Mexico. The most easterly localities in which it has been met with are in Arizona and New Mexico. The Smithsonian Institution has received specimens also from Columbia River, Calaveras, Cal., and Fort Defiance.

This species was first obtained and described by Mr. Townsend, who found it abundant in the forests of the Columbia, where it breeds and remains until nearly winter. Its nest, which he there met with, resembles that of Parula americana, only it is made of the long and fibrous green moss, or Usnea, peculiar to that region, and is placed among the upper branches of oak-trees, suspended between two small twigs.

Mr. Nuttall states that it arrives on the Columbia early in May, and from the manner in which its song was delivered at intervals, in the tops of deciduous trees, he had no doubt that they were breeding in those forests as early as May 23. This song he describes as delicate, but monotonous, uttered as it busily and intently searches every leafy bough and expanding bud for insects and their larvæ in the spreading oak, in which it utters its solitary notes. Its song is repeated at short and regular intervals, and is said by Mr. Nuttall to bear some resemblance to t-shee-tshāy-tshaitshee, varying the feeble sound very little, and with the concluding note somewhat slenderly and plaintively raised. Dr. Suckley speaks of this bird as moderately abundant near Fort Steilacoom, generally met with on oaks, and very much resembling Dendroica auduboni in its habits. Its arrival there he gives as occurring in the first week in April, or a month earlier than stated by Nuttall.

Dr. Cooper met with a pair at Puget Sound that appeared to have a nest, though he sought for it in vain. He describes its note as faint and unvaried.

Dr. Coues met with this Warbler in the vicinity of Fort Whipple, Arizona. He speaks of it as common there as a spring and autumn migrant. He thinks that a few remain to breed. It arrives in that Territory about April 20, and is found until late in September. It is most common among the pine-trees, and in its general habits is stated to resemble the new species D. graciæ.

Dr. Heermann found a few birds of this species near Sacramento, and also on the range of mountains dividing the Calaveras and the Mokelumne Rivers. During the survey by Lieutenant Williamson’s party, Dr. Heermann met with a single specimen among the mountains, near the summit of the Tejon Pass. It was in company with other small birds, migrating southward, and gleaning its food from among the topmost branches of the tallest oaks. He states that its notes closely resemble the sounds of the locust.

Dr. Cooper states that these birds appear at San Diego by the 20th of April, in small flocks migrating northward, and then uttering only a faint chirp. They frequent low bushes along the coast, but as they proceed farther north they take to the deciduous oaks as the leaves begin to expand, early in May, at which time they reach the Columbia River. He has never met with any in California after April.

Mr. Ridgway observed this species only in the pine and cedar woods of the East Humboldt Mountains, where, in all probability, they were breeding. He observed numerous families of young birds following their parents in the months of July and August. He met with them only among the cedars and the woods of the nut-pine, and never among the brushwood of the cañons and ravines. He states that the common note of this bird greatly resembles the sharp chirp of the Dendroica coronata, and is louder and more distinct than that of D. auduboni.

Mr. A. Boucard obtained specimens of these birds at Oaxaca, Mexico, during the winter months.

Dendroica chrysopareia, Scl. & Salv.

YELLOW-CHEEKED WARBLER.

Dendroica chrysopareia, Sclater & Salvin, P. Z. S. 1860, 298.—Ib. Ibis, 1860, 273 (Vera Paz, Guatemala).—Ib. 1865.—Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 477.—Baird, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 183.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 93.

Sp. Char. (229, Salvin collection.) Head and body above black, the feathers with olive-green edges, especially on the back, obscuring the ground-color; rump clear black. Entire side of head (extending to nostrils and on lower jaw), and the partially concealed bases of the feathers on the median line of the forehead, yellow, with a narrow black line from lores, through the eye, widening behind, but not crossing through the yellow. Beneath, including inside of wings, white; a large patch of black covering the chin and throat, and occupying the entire space between the yellow patches of the two sides of the head and neck, and extended along the sides in a series of streaks. Feathers of crissum with black centres. Wings above ashy, with two white bands across the coverts, the scapulars streaked with blackish; first quill edged externally with white, the rest with gray. Tail-feathers blackish, edged externally with ashy, the lateral with white at the base. Outer tail-feather white on the inner web, except a stripe along the shaft near the end; second similar, but the white not reaching so far towards the base; third with a short patch of white in the end. Bill and legs brownish-black. Bill unusually thick. Length, 4.50; wing, 2.50; tail, 2.40; tarsus, 2.75.

Hab. Vera Paz, Guatemala; San Antonio, and Medina River, Texas. (Heermann and Dresser.)

The capture of specimens of this species at San Antonio, Texas, by Dr. Heermann, and on the Medina River by Mr. Dresser, entitles it to a place in our fauna. The specimen described above is Mr. Salvin’s type.

Habits. A single specimen is said to have been taken near San Antonio, Texas, by Dr. Heermann. It is thought to be probably a bird belonging to the fauna of Arizona and New Mexico, and is given hypothetically by Dr. Cooper among the birds of California. In its appearance it resembles D. virens, D. townsendii, and D. occidentalis. It was originally described by Salvin from a single specimen obtained in Guatemala. Another pair was afterward obtained by Mr. Salvin on the highest point of the road between Salama and Tactic. In regard to its habits, nothing is on record.

Dendroica virens, Baird.

BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER.

Motacilla virens, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 985. Sylvia virens, Lath.; Vieillot; Wils. II; Nutt.; Bon.; Aud. Orn. Biog. IV, pl. cccxcix.—Gätke, Naumannia, 1858, 423 (Heligoland, Europe, an original description). Sylvicola virens, Sw.; Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxiv.—Reinhardt, Vid. Med. for 1853, 1854, 72, 81 (Greenland). Rhimanphus virens, Cab. Mus. Hein. Jour. III, 1855, 474 (Cuba; winter).—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1856, 291 (Cordova). Dendroica virens, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 267; Rev. 182.—Sclater & Salvin, Ibis, 1859, 1 (Guatemala).—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1859, 363 (Oaxaca?); 373 (Xalapa); Ibis, 1865, 89.—Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VII, 1861, 293 (Panama).—Gundl. Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba).—Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 232.—Samuels, 222. Mniotilta virens, Reinhardt, Ibis, III, 1861, 5 (Julianhaab, Greenland).

Sp. Char. Male. Upper parts, exclusive of wing and tail, clear yellow olive-green; the feathers of the back with hidden streaks of black. Forehead and sides of head and neck, including a superciliary stripe, bright yellow. A dusky olive line from the bill through the eye, and another below it. Chin, throat, and forepart of the breast, extending some distance along on the sides, continuous black; rest of under parts white, tinged with yellow on the breast and flanks. Wings and tail-feathers dark brown, edged with bluish-gray; two white bands on the wing; the greater part of the three outer tail-feathers white. Female similar, but duller; the throat yellow; the black of breast much concealed by white edges; the sides streaked with black. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.58; tail, 2.30.

Hab. Eastern Province of United States; Greenland; Heligoland, Europe; south to Panama R. R. In Mexico, Xalapa, Cordova, and Oaxaca? Cuba alone in West Indies. Mexico (everywhere in winter, Sumichrast).

The autumnal male has the black of throat and breast obscured by whitish tips. Females are yellowish-white beneath, tinged with grayish towards the tail.

As shown in the generic chapter, D. virens is the type of a section of olivaceous Warblers with black chin and throat. The following more elaborate diagnoses of the group may facilitate its study, the species being quite closely related:—

Common Characters. Upper parts more or less olivaceous-green, with the feathers streaked centrally with black (sometimes concealed). Sides of head yellow. Chin and throat black; rest of the under parts, including inside of wings, white, with or without yellow on breast. Wings with two white bands. Inner web of lateral tail-feather almost entirely white from the base.

Above bright olive-green with concealed black streaks; tail-coverts ashy. Sides conspicuously streaked with black; crissum unspotted. Jugulum sometimes faintly tinged with yellowish. An obscure dusky-olive stripe through the eye, and a crescentic patch of the same some distance beneath it … virens.

Above olivaceous-ashy (rump pure ash), with more distinct black spots. Top and sides of head clear yellow, the feathers of the crown tipped with black, or clouded with dusky plumbeous. No dark markings or stripes on side of head. No distinct black streaks beneath; black of throat restricted to front of neck … occidentalis.

Prevailing color of upper parts black, with olivaceous edgings on the back; rump and upper tail-covert pure black. Sides and crissum streaked with black. A simple black stripe through the eye; no patch beneath it … chrysopareia.

Above olive-green. Upper tail-coverts ashy, with central black streaks. Feathers of head above black, with olive-green edges. A broad olivaceous black stripe through eye from lores, involving the ears, in which is a yellowish crescentic patch below the eye. Black feathers of throat and chin edged with yellow. Jugulum and sides of breast also yellow. Sides streaked with black. No distinct black streaks on crissum … townsendii.

Habits.—The Black-throated Green Warbler, like nearly all the members of this highly interesting genus, has, to a very great degree, escaped the closer observations of our older ornithologists. Wilson only noticed it as it passed through Pennsylvania in its early spring migrations. He mentions its frequenting the higher branches of forest trees in search of the larvæ of the smaller insects that feed upon the opening buds, and describes it as a lively, active bird, having only a few chirping notes. All had passed on by the 12th of May. Their return he was never able to notice, and he became afterwards satisfied that a few remained all the summer in the higher grounds of that State, having obtained several in June, 1809.

Audubon met with this bird from Newfoundland to Texas, but never found it breeding. Nowhere abundant, there were large tracts of country where he never met with it, or where it was of rare occurrence. He found it most abundant in the vicinity of Eastport, Me. He also met with it during summer, in New England generally, Northern Pennsylvania, and New York, but not in Labrador. He describes its habits as a mingling of those of the Warblers and of the Vireo, and its notes as resembling those of the latter. In its search for food he found it quite regardless of the near presence of man. In its spring migrations it passes through the woods usually in pairs, in the fall reappearing in flocks of six or seven. In breeding it occurs only in single pairs, and each pair appropriates to itself a large tract of territory within which no other is usually found. After October, all have passed beyond the limits of the United States.

During the winter months it appears to be quite common in different parts of Mexico and Central America. In the large collection of Guatemalan skins collected by Dr. Van Patten, and purchased by the Boston Natural History Society, this bird was one of the most abundant of the migratory species. Specimens were taken by Mr. Boucard at Playa Vicente, in the hot country of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Dr. Woodhouse found this Warbler common in the Indian Territory and in Texas, and Lieutenant Couch met with it in Tamaulipas, Mexico, in March, 1853. With these exceptions it has not been observed in any of the government surveys, or found west of the valley of the Rio Grande. Besides the points named, it has been obtained in Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and in the West Indies, in Central and in the northern portions of South America. Reinhardt gives it as accidental in Greenland. A single stray specimen was obtained in Heligoland, Europe, October 19, 1858.

Mr. Paine, of Randolph, Vt., notes the arrival of this bird about the 10th of May. He speaks of it as a very sweet singer, and as usually seen in the tops of tall trees, the hemlock being its favorite resort. There it chants its sweet sad notes through even the heat of the day. It continues in song nearly throughout the summer. Later in the season it frequents the open fields, in which it is seldom seen in the breeding-season. Its food, which it catches on the wing in the manner of Vireos, consists of the smaller winged insects, caterpillars, and other larvæ. In the fall, according to Mr. Audubon, it feeds upon various kinds of small berries.

It reaches Massachusetts the first of May, and is most numerous about the 15th, when the larger proportion pass farther north. In Western Maine, Professor Verrill states it to be a summer but not a common visitant; and near Calais, Mr. Boardman has found it breeding, but does not regard it as at all common, though in the year 1867 he found it quite abundant in the thick woods in that neighborhood during its breeding-season. Dr. Bryant also speaks of it as one of the most common of the Warblers observed by him near Yarmouth, N. S. A single specimen was taken at Julianhaab, Greenland, in 1853, and sent to the Royal Museum of Copenhagen.

In the vicinity of Boston, especially in the high grounds of Norfolk and Essex Counties, it is a not uncommon species, and its nests are found in certain favorite localities. Nuttall regards May 12 as the average of their first appearance. Busy, quiet, and unsuspicious of man, they were seen by him, collecting, in early October, in small groups, and moving restlessly through the forests preparatory to departing south. June 8, 1830, he found a nest of this species in a solitary situation among the Blue Hills of Milton, Mass. The nest was in a low and stunted juniper (a very unusual location). As he approached, the female remained motionless on the edge of the nest, in such a manner as to be mistaken for a young bird. She then darted to the ground, and, moving away expertly, disappeared. The nest contained four eggs, which he describes as white inclining to flesh-color, variegated at the larger end with pale purplish points interspersed with brown and black. The nest was formed of fine strips of the inner bark of the juniper, and tough white fibrous bark of other plants, lined with soft feathers and the slender tops of grass. The male bird was singing his simple chant, resembling the syllables tē-dē-teritsé-a, pronounced loud and slow, at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the nest. He describes his song as simple, drawling, and plaintive. He was constantly interrupting his song to catch small flies, keeping up a perpetual snapping of his bill.

Several nests of this bird, given me by Mr. George O. Welch of Lynn, have been found by him in high trees in thick woods on the western borders of that city. They are all small, snug, compact structures, built on a base of fine strips of bark, bits of leaves, and stems of plants. The upper rims are a circular intertwining of fine slender twigs, interwoven with a few fine stems of the most delicate grasses. The inner portions of these nests are very softly and warmly bedded with the fine down and silky stems of plants. They have a diameter of three and a quarter inches, and a height of one and a half. The cavity is two inches in diameter, and one and a half in depth. The eggs measure .70 by .50 of an inch, have a white or purplish-white ground, and are blotched and dotted with markings of reddish and purplish brown, diffused over the entire egg, but more numerous about the larger end. One end is much more pointed than the other.

Dendroica townsendi, Baird.

TOWNSEND’S WARBLER.

Sylvia townsendi, “Nuttall,” Townsend, J. A. N. Sc. VII, II, 1837, 191.—Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, pl. cccxciii. Sylvicola t. Bon.; Aud. Birds Am. II, 1841, pl. xcii. Dendroica t. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 269; Rev. 185.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1858, 298 (Oaxaca; high lands in winter); 1859, 374 (Totontepec; winter); Ibis, 1865, 89.—Sclater & Salvin, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—Cooper & Suckley, P. R. R. XII, II, 1859, 179 (Cal.).—Turnbull, Birds of East Penn., etc. 1869, 42.—Sundeval, Ofvers. 1869, 610 (Sitka).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 91.

Sp. Char. Spring male. Above bright olive-green; the feathers all black in the centre, showing more or less as streaks, especially on the crown, where the black predominates. Quills, tail, and upper tail-covert feathers dark brown, edged with bluish-gray; the wings with two white bands on the coverts; the two outer tail-feathers white with a brown streak near the end; a white streak only in the end of the third feather. Under parts as far as the middle of the body, with the sides of head and neck, including a superciliary stripe and a spot beneath the eye, yellow; the median portion of the side of the head, the chin and throat, with streaks on the sides of the breast, flanks, and under tail-coverts, black; the remainder of the under parts white. Length, 5 inches; wing, 2.65; tail, 2.25.

Spring female. Resembling the male, but the black patch on the throat replaced by irregular blotches upon a pure yellow ground.

Hab. Western Province of United States, north to Sitka; Mexico, into Guatemala. Migratory. Accidental near Philadelphia.

The autumnal adult male is much like the spring female, but the black throat-patch is perfectly defined, though much obscured by the yellow edges of the feathers, instead of broken into small blotches. The young male in autumn is similar in general appearance, but there are no streaks above, except on the crown, where they are mostly concealed; the stripe on side of head is olivaceous, instead of black; and nearly all the black on the throat is concealed.

A fine adult male of this species was taken near Philadelphia, Penn., in the spring of 1868, and is now in the collection of the late W. P. Turnbull, Esq., of that city.

Habits. In regard to the habits of this very rare Western Warbler very little is as yet positively known, and nothing whatever has been ascertained as to its nesting or eggs. The species was first met with by Mr. Townsend, October 28, 1835, on the banks of the Columbia River, and was named by Mr. Nuttall in honor of its discoverer. It is spoken of by these gentlemen as having been a transient visitor only, stopping but a few days, on its way north, to recruit and feed, previous to its departing for the higher latitudes in which it spends the breeding-season. It is, however, quite as probable that they disperse by pairs into solitary places, where for a while they escape observation. When the season again compels them to migrate, they reappear on the same path, only this time in small and silent flocks, as they slowly move toward their winter quarters. These birds also are chiefly to be found in the tops of the loftiest firs and other evergreens of the forests, where it is almost impossible to procure them.

Dr. Cooper observed one of this species at Shoalwater Bay, December 20, 1854. It was in company with a flock of Titmice and other small birds. The following year, in November, he saw a small flock in California, frequenting the willows in a low wet meadow, and was so fortunate as to procure a pair.

Ridgway met with it in the East Humboldt Mountains, where it was rather common in September, inhabiting the thickets of aspens, alders, etc., along the streams.

Mr. P. L. Sclater obtained several fine specimens of this Warbler from the west coast of Central America, and Mr. Salvin found it a winter visitant at Duenas, where he met with it even more frequently than the Dendroica virens, with which he found it associated. Skins were found among the birds taken by Dr. Van Patten in Guatemala. A single specimen has been taken in Pennsylvania.

Mr. A. Boucard obtained specimens of this species in the mountainous district of Totontepec, in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Dendroica occidentalis, Baird.

WESTERN WARBLER.

Sylvia occidentalis, Townsend, J. A. N. Sc. VII, II, 1837, 190 (Columbia River).—Ib. Narrative, 1839, 340.—Aud. Orn. Biog. V, pl. lv. Sylvicola occ. Bon.; Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. xciii. Dendroica occ. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 268; Rev. 183.—Cooper & Suckley, R. R. Rep. XII, II, 1859, 178 (N. W. coast).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 92. Dendroica chrysopareia, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1862, 19 (La Parada, Mex.) (not of P. Z. S. 1860, 19); Ibis, 1865, 89; 1866, 191. Dendroica niveiventris, Salvin, P. Z. S. May 26, 1863, 187, pl. xxiv, fig. 2 (Guatemala).

Sp. Char. Spring male. Crown with sides of the head and neck continuous bright yellow, feathers of the former edged narrowly with black; rest of upper parts dark brown, edged with bluish-gray, so much so on the back and rump feathers as to obscure the brown, and with an olivaceous shade. Chin, throat, and forepart of breast (ending convexly behind in a subcrescentic outline), with the nape, black; rest of under parts white, very faintly streaked on the sides with black. Two white bands on the wing, two outer tail-feathers, and the terminal portion of a third, white; the shafts, and an internal streak towards the end, dark brown. Bill jet-black; legs brown. Length, 4.70; wing, 2.70; tail, 2.30.

Spring female. Similar, but duller gray above; the yellow of the head less extended, and the throat whitish spotted with dusky.

Hab. Western Province of United States and Mexico (Moyapam, winter, Sumichrast) to Guatemala. Not seen at Cape St. Lucas.

An autumnal adult male (30,681, Guatemala, December, received from Mr. Salvin, and a type specimen of his “niveiventris”) is much like the spring male, having the throat wholly black, the feathers, however, faintly margined with whitish; there are no black spots on the crown, but, instead, an olivaceous stain; the nape is olivaceous instead of black, and the black centres to dorsal feathers more concealed; the ash above is less pure, and there is no trace of streaks on the sides. A female (autumnal?)—38,141—from Orizaba, Mexico, is grayish-olivaceous above, including the whole top of the head, except beneath the surface; the feathers on top of head have conspicuous black centres, but there are none on the back; the sides of the head, and the bases of the feathers on its top, are soiled yellow; the throat is dirty white, with the feathers dusky beneath the surface; the breast and sides have a strong brownish tinge. Another female, and an autumnal one (probably of the year), is more brown above, the specks on the top of the head exceedingly minute; there are also obscure streaks along the sides, where there is a strong brownish tinge.

Habits. The Western or Hermit Wood Warbler, so far as known, is limited in its distribution to the Pacific coast from Central America to Washington Territory. Specimens procured from Volcan de Fuego, Mexico, Arizona, and California, are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. But little is positively known as to its history or habits. Nuttall, who first met with it in the forests on the banks of the Columbia, had no doubt that it breeds in the dark forests bordering on that river. He described it as a remarkably shy and solitary bird, retiring into the darkest and most silent recesses of the evergreens, and apparently living among the loftiest branches of the gigantic firs of that region. In consequence of its peculiar habits it was with extreme difficulty that his party could get a sight of this retiring species. Its song, which he frequently heard from these high tree-tops at very regular intervals for an hour or two at a time, he describes as a faint, moody, and monotonous note, delivered when the bird is at rest on some lofty twig, and within convenient hearing of its mate.

Mr. Townsend, who was one of the same party, shot a pair of these birds near Fort Vancouver, May 28, 1835. They were flitting among the tops of the pine-trees in the depths of the forest, where he frequently saw them hanging from the twigs, in the manner of Titmice. Their notes, uttered at different intervals, he describes as very similar to those of the Black-throated Blue Warbler (D. cærulescens).

Dr. Suckley obtained, June, 1856, two specimens at Fort Steilacoom. He also describes them as very shy, feeding and spending most of their time in the tops of the highest firs, so high up as to be almost out of the reach of fine shot. The species he regards as not at all rare on the Pacific coast, but only difficult of procuring, on account of the almost inaccessible nature of its haunts.

Dr. Coues procured a single specimen of this species in Arizona early in September. It was taken in thick scrub-oak bushes. He thinks it may be a summer resident of that Territory, but, if so, very rare.

A single specimen was also obtained at Petuluma, Cal., by Mr. Emanuel Samuels, May 1, 1856. It was also observed, August 29, by Mr. Ridgway, among the bushes of a cañon among the East Humboldt Mountains. He describes its single note as a lisped pzeet.

Three individuals of this species were collected by Mr. Boucard in Southern Mexico in 1862, and were referred by Dr. Sclater to D. chrysopœia (P. Z. S., 1862, p. 19). Subsequently Mr. Salvin described as a new species, under the name of D. niveiventris, other individuals of the D. occidentalis obtained by him in Guatemala. The true specific relations of the specimens both from Southern Mexico and Central America have since been made clear by Dr. Sclater, Ibis, 1865, p. 87, enabling us to give this species as a winter visitant of the countries above named. Mr. Salvin states (Ibis, 1866, p. 191) that these birds were found in most of the elevated districts where pines abound. He procured specimens in the Volcan de Fuego, in the hills above the Plain of Salama, and near the mines of Alotepeque.

Dendroica pinus, Baird.

PINE-CREEPING WARBLER.

Sylvia pinus, Wils. Am. Orn. III, 1811, 25, pl. xix, fig. 4.—Bon.; Nutt.—Aud. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxi. Thryothorus pinus, Steph. Sylvicola pinus, Jard.; Rich.; Bon.; Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxii.—Jones, Nat. Bermuda, 1859, 59 (abundant in Oct.). Rhimanphus pinus, Bon. Dendroica pinus, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 277; Rev. 190.—Sclater, Catal. 1861, 31, No. 189.—Coues, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1861, 220 (Labrador coast).—Samuels, 229.—Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1867, 67 (Inagua). Sylvia vigorsii, Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 153, pl. xxx. Vireo vigorsii. Nutt.

Sp. Char. Spring male. Upper parts nearly uniform and clear olive-green, the feathers of the crown with rather darker shafts. Under parts generally, except the middle of the belly behind, and under tail-coverts (which are white), bright gamboge-yellow, with obsolete streaks of dusky on the sides of the breast and body. Sides of head and neck olive-green like the back, with a broad superciliary stripe; the eyelids and a spot beneath the eye very obscurely yellow; wings and tail brown; the feathers edged with dirty white, and two bands of the same across the coverts. Inner web of the first tail-feather with nearly the terminal half, of the second with nearly the terminal third, dull inconspicuous white. Length, 5.50; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.40. (1,356.)

Spring female. Similar, but more grayish above, and almost grayish-white, with a tinge of yellow beneath, instead of bright yellow. Young. Umber-brown above, and dingy pale ashy beneath, with a slight yellowish tinge on the abdomen. Wing and tail much as in the autumnal adult.

Hab. Eastern Province of United States, north to Massachusetts; winters in United States. Not recorded in West Indies or Middle America (except Bahamas and Bermuda?).

Autumnal males are much like spring individuals, but the yellow beneath is softer and somewhat richer, and the olive above overlaid with a reddish-umber tint.

Habits. The Pine-creeping Warbler is found more or less abundantly throughout the United States from the Atlantic to the Valley of the Mississippi. Dr. Woodhouse states that it is common in Texas and New Mexico. It was not, however, met with by any other of the government exploring parties. Dr. Gerhardt found it quite common in Northern Georgia, where it remains all the winter, and where it breeds very early in the season. On the 19th of April he found a nest of these birds with nearly full-grown young. It has not been found in Maine by Professor Verrill nor by Mr. Boardman, nor in Nova Scotia by Lieutenant Bland. Mr. Allen has found it breeding abundantly in the western part of Massachusetts, where it is one of the earliest Warblers to arrive, and where it remains until October. In 1861 they were abundant in the pine woods near Springfield as early as April 4, although the ground at that time was covered with snow. During the last weeks of April and the early part of May they frequent the open fields, obtaining much of their food from the ground in company with D. palmarum, the habits of which, at this time, it closely follows. Later in the season they retire to the pine forests, where they remain almost exclusively throughout the summer, chiefly on the tops of the tallest trees. For a few weeks preceding the first of October they again come about the orchards and fields. In its winter migrations it does not appear to leave this country, and has not been found in any of the West India Islands, in Mexico, nor in South or Central America. It breeds sparingly in Southern Illinois.

Mr. Jones found these birds numerous in Bermuda late in September, but they all disappeared a few weeks later. Dr. Bryant found them at Inagua, Bahamas.

Wilson first noticed this Warbler in the pine woods of the Southern States, where he found it resident all the year. He describes it as running along the bark of pine-trees, though occasionally alighting and feeding on the ground. When disturbed, it always flies up and clings to the trunks of trees. The farther south, the more numerous he found it. Its principal food is the seeds of the Southern pitch-pine and various kinds of insects. It was associated in flocks of thirty in the depths of the pine barrens, easily recognized by their manner of rising from the ground and alighting on the trunks of trees.

Audubon also speaks of this bird as the most abundant of its tribe. He met with them on the sandy barrens of East Florida on the St. John’s River early in February, at which period they already had nests. In their habits he regarded them as quite closely allied to the Creepers, ascending the trunks and larger branches of trees, hopping along the bark searching for concealed larvæ. At one moment it moves sideways along a branch a few steps, then stops and moves in another direction, carefully examining each twig. It is active and restless, generally searching for insects among the leaves and blossoms of the pine, or in the crevices of the bark, but occasionally pursuing them on the wing. It is found exclusively in low lands, never in mountainous districts, and chiefly near the sea.

Its nest is usually placed at considerable height, sometimes fifty feet or more from the ground, and is usually fastened to the twigs of a small branch. In Massachusetts it has but a single brood in a season, but at the South it is said to have three.

The flight of this Warbler is short, and exhibits undulating curves of great elegance. Its song is described as monotonous, consisting merely of continuous and tremulous sounds. Mr. Audubon found none beyond New Brunswick, and it has never been found in Nova Scotia so far as I am aware.

Both old and young birds remain in Massachusetts until late in October, and occasionally birds are seen as far to the north as Philadelphia in midwinter. At this season they abound in the pine forests of the Southern States, where they are at that time the most numerous of the Warblers, and where some are to be found throughout the year.

In the summer their food consists of the larvæ and eggs of certain kinds of insects. In the autumn they frequent the Southern gardens, feeding on the berries of the cornel, the box grape, and other small fruit. Mr. Nuttall states that their song is deficient both in compass and in variety, though not disagreeable. At times, he states, it approaches the simpler trills of the canary; but is usually a reverberating, gently rising or murmuring sound like er-r´-r´r´r´r´r´-ah, or in the springtime like twe twe-tw tw tw-tw tw, and sometimes like tsh-tsh-tsh-tw-tw-tw-tw, exhibiting a pleasing variety in its cadences. The note of the female is not unlike that of the Black and White Creeper.

On the 7th of June, Mr. Nuttall discovered a nest of this Warbler in a Virginia juniper-tree in Mount Auburn, some forty feet from the ground, and firmly fixed in the upright twigs of a close branch. It was a thin but very neat structure. Its principal material was the old and wiry stems of the Polygonum tenue, or knot-weed. These were circularly interlaced and inter-wound with rough linty fibres of asclepias and caterpillars’ webs. It was lined with a few bristles, slender root-fibres, a mat of the down of fern-stalks, and a few feathers. Mr. Nuttall saw several of these nests, all made in a similar manner. The eggs in the nest described were four, and far advanced towards hatching. They were white, with a slight tinge of green, and were freely sprinkled with small pale-brown spots, most numerous at the larger end, where they were aggregated on a more purplish ground. The female made some slight complaint, but immediately returned to the nest, though two of the eggs had been taken.

Mr. Nuttall kept a male of this species in confinement. It at once became very tame, fed gratefully from the hand, from the moment it was caught, on flies, small earthworms, and minced flesh, and would sit contentedly on any hand, walking directly into a dish of water offered for drink, without any precautions, or any signs of fear.

Mr. J. G. Shute found a nest of these Warblers in Woburn as early as May 8. It contained four eggs, the incubation of which had commenced. Three other nests were also found by him in the same locality, all of them between the 8th and the 24th of May, and all built on branches of the red pine and near the top. Several nests of this Warbler, found in Lynn, Mass., by Mr. George O. Welch, are alike in their mode of construction, and differ in their materials from other accounts. They are all somewhat loosely put together, and are composed externally of fine strips of the bark of the red cedar, fine inner bark of several deciduous trees, dry stalks of plants, the exuviæ of insects, and fine dry grasses. The cavities of these nests, which are comparatively large and deep, were lined with the fur of the smaller mammals, the silky down of plants, and feathers. A few fine wiry roots were also intermingled. These nests are about two and a half inches in height and three in diameter.

The eggs of this Warbler are of a rounded oval shape, have an average length of .72 of an inch, and a breadth of .55. They resemble in size and appearance the eggs of the D. castanea, but the spots are more numerous, and the blotches larger and more generally distributed. The ground-color is a bluish-white. Scattered over this are subdued tintings of a fine delicate shade of purple, and upon this are distributed dots and blotches of a dark purplish-brown, mingled with a few lines almost black.

Dendroica montana, Baird.

BLUE MOUNTAIN WARBLER.

Sylvia montana, Wils. Am. Orn. V, 1812, 113, pl. xliv, fig. 2 (“Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania”).—Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 294 (“California”!) Sylvicola montana, Jard.; Aud. Birds Am. II, 1841, 69, pl. xcviii. Dendroica montana, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 279; Rev. 190. Sylvia tigrina, Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. II, 1807, 34, pl. xciv (U. S. and St. Domingo).

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.