If the children had had the naming of birds we venture to say that it
would have been more appropriately done, and "Blackburnian," as many
other names of Warblers, would have had no place in literature. There
are about seventy-five well known Warblers, nearly all with common
names indicating the most characteristic colors or habits, or partly
descriptive of the bird itself. The common names of this beautiful
Warbler are Orange-throated Warbler and Hemlock Warbler. Some one has
suggested that it should be called the Torch Bird, for "half a dozen
of them as they flash about in the pines, raising their wings and
jerking their tails, make the darkest shadows seem breaking into
little tongues of flame."
The Orange-throat is only migratory in Illinois, passing through in
spring and fall, its summer home being chiefly if not wholly, to
the northward, while it passes the winter in Central America and
northern South America. It is found in New York and in portions of
Massachusetts, frequenting the coniferous forests, and building its
nest in bushes or small trees a few feet above the ground. Dr. C. Hart
Merriam found a pair of these birds nesting in a grove of large white
pines in Lewis County, New York. In the latter part of May the female
was observed building, and on the second of June the nest contained
four fresh eggs of the Warbler and one of the Cow bird. The nest was
saddled on the horizontal limb about eight feet from the ground and
about ten feet from the trunk. Nests have been found in pine trees in
Southern Michigan at an elevation of forty feet. In all cases the
nests are placed high in hemlocks or pines, which are the bird's
favorite resorts. From all accounts the nests of this species are
elegantly and compactly made, consisting of a densely woven mass of
spruce twigs, soft vegetable down, rootlets, and fine shreds of bark.
The lining is often intermixed with horse hairs and feathers. Four
eggs of greenish-white or very pale bluish-green, speckled or spotted,
have usually been found in the nests.
The autumnal male Warblers resemble the female. They have two white
bands instead of one; the black stripes on the side are larger; under
parts yellowish; the throat yellowish, passing into purer yellow
behind. Few of our birds are more beautiful than the full plumaged
male of this lovely bird, whose glowing orange throat renders it a
conspicuous object among the budding and blossoming branches of the
hemlocks. Chapman says, coming in May, before the woods are fully
clad, he seems like some bright plumaged tropical bird who has lost
his way and wandered to northern climes. The summer is passed among
the higher branches in coniferous forests, and in the early fall the
bird returns to surroundings which seem more in keeping with its
attire.
Mr. Minot describes the Blackburnian Warbler's summer song as
resembling the syllables _wee-see-wee-see_, while in the spring its
notes may be likened to _wee-see-wee-see, tsee, tsee, tsee_, repeated,
the latter syllables being on ascending scale, the very last shrill
and fine.