Synonyms.—Little Flycatcher. Little Western Flycatcher.
Description.—Plumage of upperparts very similar to that of _E.
difficilis_, but olive inclining to brownish; wing-bars usually paler,
more whitish; outer web of outer rectrix pale grayish white; sides of
head and neck decidedly browner; underparts everywhere paler, nearly
white on throat; breast sordid, scarcely olivaceous; lower abdomen and
crissum pale primrose yellow; bend of wing yellow flecked with dusky;
a faint eye-ring pale olive-gray. Bill black above, light brownish
below (not so light in life as _E. difficilis_). _Young_: much as in
preceding species, but averaging browner; more yellow below than
adult. Length 5.50-6.00 (139.7-152.4); wing 2.76 (70); tail 2.25 (57);
bill .49 (12.5); tarsus .65 (16.5).
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; olivaceous coloration; not so yellow
below as preceding species; brush-haunting habits; note a smart
_swit’choo_.
Nesting.—_Nest_: a rather bulky but neatly-turned cup of plant-fibres,
bark-strips, grass, etc., carefully lined with fine grasses; placed
three to ten feet up, in crotch of bush or sapling of lowland thicket
or swamp. _Eggs_: 3 or 4, not certainly distinguishable from those of
preceding species. Av. size, .70 × .54 (17.8 × 13.7). _Season_: June;
one brood.
General Range.—Western North America, breeding north to southern
Alaska (Dyea), “east, northerly, to western portion of Great Plains,
much farther southerly, breeding in Iowa(?), Missouri, southern
Illinois, and probably elsewhere in central Mississippi Valley”; south
in winter over Mexico to Colombia, etc.
Range in Washington.—Imperfectly made out—summer resident in thickets
at lower levels thruout(?) the State.
Authorities.—_Empidonax pusillus_ Cabanis, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R.
Surv. IX. 1858, p. 195. Ibid, C&S. 170. (T). C&S. L¹. D¹. Ra. B. E.
Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. B. E.
Discrimination is the constant effort of those who would study the
Empidonaces, the Little Flycatchers. Comparing colors, Traill’s gives an
impression of brownness, where the Western is yellowish green, Hammond’s
blackish, and Wright’s grayish dusky. These distinctions are not
glaring, but they obtain roughly afield, in a group where every floating
mote of difference is gladly welcomed. The Traill Flycatcher, moreover,
is a lover of the half-open situations, bushy rather than timbered, of
clearings, low thickets, and river banks. Unlike its congeners, it will
follow a stream out upon a desert; and a spring, which gladdens a few
hundred yards of willows and _cratægi_ in some nook of the bunch-grass
hills, is sure to number among its summer boarders at least one pair of
Traill Flycatchers. This partiality for water-courses does not, however,
prevent its frequenting dry hillsides in western Washington and the
borders of mountain meadows in the Cascades.
Traill’s Flycatcher is a tardy migrant, for it arrives not earlier than
the 20th of May, and frequently not before June 1st. In 1899, the bird
did not appear at Ahtanum, in Yakima County, until the 14th of June; and
it became common immediately thereafter. This bird is restless,
energetic, and pugnacious to a fault. It posts on conspicuous places,
the topmost twig of a syringa bush, a willow, or an aspen, making
frequent outcries, if the mood is on, and darting nimbly after passing
insects. During the nesting season it pounces on passing birds of
whatever size and drives them out of bounds. It is not always so hardy
in the presence of man, and if pressed too closely will whisk out of
sight for good and all.
The notes of the Little Flycatcher, as it used to be called, are various
and not always distinctive. Particularly, there is one style which
cannot be distinguished from the commonest note of the Hammond
Flycatcher, _switchoo, sweéchew_, or unblushingly, _sweébew, sweébew,
ssweet_. Other notes, delivered sometimes singly and sometimes in
groups, are _pisoó_; _swit’oo, sweet, swit’oo_; _Swee, kutip, kutip_;
_Hwit_ or _hooit_, softly.
Nesting begins late in June and fresh eggs may be expected about the 4th
of July. Nests are placed characteristically in upright forks of
willows, alder-berry bushes, roses, etc. They are usually compact and
artistic structures of dried grasses, hemp (the inner bark of dead
willows) and plant-down, lined with fine grasses, horse-hair, feathers
and other soft substances. Not infrequently the nests are placed over
water; and low elevations of, say, two or three feet from the ground
appear to prevail westerly. A Yakima County nest, taken July 10th,
containing two eggs, was half saddled upon, half sunk into the twigs of
a horizontal willow branch one and a half feet above running water, and
had to be reached by wading.
Incubation lasts twelve days, and the babies require as much more time
to get a-wing. But by September 1st, tickets are bought, grips are
packed—or, no! think of being able to travel without luggage—goodbyes
are said; and it’s “Heighho! for Mexico!”
No. 150.
HAMMOND’S FLYCATCHER.
A. O. U. No. 468. Empidonax hammondi (Xantus).
Synonym.—Dirty Little Flycatcher.
Description.—_Adult_: Above olive-gray inclining to ashy on
foreparts,—color continued on sides, throat and breast well down, only
slightly paler than back; remaining underparts yellowish in various
degrees, or sometimes scarcely tinged with yellow[62]; pattern and
color of wing much as in preceding species; outermost rectrix edged
with whitish on outer web; bill comparatively small and narrow, black
above, dusky or blackish below. _Young birds_ present a minimum of
yellow below and their wing-markings are buffy instead of whitish.
Length about 5.50 (139.7); wing 2.80 (71); tail 2.29 (58); bill .41
(10.5); breadth of bill at nostril .19 (4.83); tarsus .63 (16).
Females average a little smaller.
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size, the smallest of the four Washington
_Empidonaces_, and possibly the most difficult (where all are vexing);
olive-gray of plumage gives impression of blackish at distance; the
most sordid below of the Protean quartette; nests high in coniferous
trees; eggs _white_.
Nesting.—_Nest_: of fir-twigs, grasses and moss, lined with fine
grasses, vegetable down and hair; placed on horizontal limb of fir
tree at considerable heights. _Eggs_: 4, pale creamy white, unmarked.
Av. size, .65 × .51 (16.5 × 12.7). _Season_: June; one brood.
General Range.—Western North America north to southeastern Alaska, the
valley of the Upper Yukon and Athabasca, breeding south, chiefly in
the mountains, to Colorado and California; south in winter thru Mexico
to the highlands of Guatemala.
Range in Washington.—Summer resident in coniferous timber on both
sides of the Cascades, irregularly abundant and local in distribution.
Authorities.—[“Hammond’s fly-catcher,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884
(1885), 22.] Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II. 1895, p. 315ff.
D¹. Ra. D². B. E(H).
Specimens.—C.
Hammondi is the western analogue of _minimus_, the well-known Least
Flycatcher of the East. It has not, however, attained any such
distinctness in the public mind, nor is it likely to except in favored
localities. These chosen stations are quite as likely to be in the city
as elsewhere; but no sooner do we begin to arrive at conclusions as to
its habits, notes, etc., than the bird forsakes the region and our work
is all to do over again at some distant time.
In the summer of 1895 I found Hammond Flycatchers fairly abundant on
Capitol Hill (which was then in its pin-feather stage). Twenty or thirty
might have been seen in the course of a morning’s walk in June.
Everywhere were to be heard brisk _Sewick’s_ in the precise fashion of
eastern _minimus_; and at rarer intervals a more intense but still harsh
and unresonant _Sweé-chew_. These observations were confirmed by the
taking of several specimens; but elsewhere and in other seasons I have
found the bird most unaccountably silent, and have been able to add
little to its repertory of speech.
In the summer of 1906 we found these Flycatchers preparing nests on
Cannon Hill in Spokane. In both instances the birds were building out in
the open after the fashion of the Western Wood Pewee (_Myiochanes
richardsonii_); one on the bare limb of a horse-chestnut tree some ten
feet from the ground; the other upon an exposed elbow of a picturesque
horizontal limb of a pine tree at a height of some sixty feet. Near
Newport, in Stevens County, we located a nearly completed nest of this
species on the 20th of May, and returned on the 1st of June to complete
accounts. The nest was placed seven feet from the trunk of a tall fir
tree, and at a height of forty feet. The bird was sitting, and when
frightened dived headlong into the nearest thicket, where she skulked
silently during our entire stay. The nest proved to be a delicate
creation of the finest vegetable materials, weathered leaves, fibers,
grasses, etc., carefully inwrought, and a considerable quantity of the
orange-colored bracts of young fir trees. The lining was of hair, fine
grass, bracts, and a single feather. In position the nest might well
have been that of a Wood Pewee; but, altho it was deeply cupped, it was
much broader, and so relatively flatter. The four fresh eggs which it
contained were of a delicate cream-color, changing to pure white upon
blowing.
The Hammond Flycatcher was also found to be a common breeder in the
valley of the Stehekin, where Mr. Bowles has taken several sets in very
similar situations, viz., upon horizontal branches of fir trees at
considerable heights.
No. 151.
WRIGHT’S FLYCATCHER.
A. O. U. No. 469. Empidonax wrightii Baird.
Synonym.—Little Gray Flycatcher.
Description.—_Adult_ (_gray phase_): Above dull bluish gray or faintly
olivaceous on back and sides; throat and breast pale gray to whitish
with admixture of ill-concealed dusky; remaining parts, posteriorly,
faintly tinged with pale primrose; a whitish eye-ring; wing-markings,
of the same pattern as in other species, or more extensive on
secondaries and outer webs of tertials, definitely white; outer web of
outermost rectrix pale whitish. _Adult_ (_yellow-bellied phase_): As
in gray phase, but underparts strongly tinged with yellow and
upperparts faintly tinged with olive-green; wing-markings less purely
white. Bill blackish above, more or less pale below and dusky tipped.
_Young birds_ are whitish below and the wing-bands are buffy as in
other species. Length about 5.75 (146); wing 2.69 (68); tail 2.40
(61); bill .47 (12); tarsus .71 (18).
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size; prevailing gray coloration; whitish
eye-ring; excessively retiring habits.
Nesting.—_Nest_: of hemp, bark-strips, etc., softly lined; built in
upright crotch of bush. _Eggs_: 4 or 5, white, unmarked. Av. size, .68
× .52 (17.3 × 13.2). _Season_: June; one brood.
General Range.—Western United States and southern British Columbia,
breeding in Transition and Canadian life-zones, south to southern
Arizona and east to Rocky Mountains; south in winter thru southern
California and Mexico.
Authorities.—Dawson, Auk, Vol. XIV. Apr. 1897, p. 176.
Specimens.—Prov. C.
Bird-afraid-of-his-shadow is the name this shy recluse deserves. The few
seen in Washington have always been skulking in the depths of brush
patches, or in clumps of thorn bushes, and they seem to dread nothing so
much as the human eye. For all they keep so close to cover they move
about restlessly and are never still long enough to afford any
satisfaction to the beholder.
The only note I have ever heard it utter (and this repeatedly by
different individuals) was a soft liquid _swit_. But Major Bendire says
of its occurrence at Fort Klamath in Oregon; “I do not consider this
species as noisy as the Little Flycatcher [_E. traillii_] which was
nearly as common, but its notes are very similar; in fact they are not
easily distinguishable, but are given with less vigor than those of the
former, while in its actions it is fully as energetic and sprightly as
any of the species of the genus _Empidonax_.”
Wright’s Flycatcher affects higher altitudes than do the other species
during the nesting season. The nest is placed at heights ranging from
two to twenty feet, and is built in upright forks of bushes, or against
the trunks of small saplings. Willows, alders, aspens, buck-brush, and
service berry are common hosts. Perhaps the only nesting record for
Washington consists of a set of four fresh eggs taken by myself from a
draw on the side of Boulder Mountain overlooking the Stehekin Valley, on
May 30, 1896. The nest had been deserted because of a brush fire which
had swept the draw, but it was uninjured; and the situation, an alder
fork eight feet up, together with the _white_ eggs, made identification
certain.
_Trochilidæ_—The Hummingbirds
No. 152.
BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD.
A. O. U. No. 429. Trochilus alexandri Bourc. & Muls.
Synonyms.—Alexander Hummingbird. Sponge Hummer.
Description.—_Adult male_: Upperparts including middle pair of
tail-feathers shining bronzy green; wing-quills and remaining
rectrices fuscous with purplish reflections; tail double-rounded, its
feathers broadly acuminate, and central pair of feathers about .12
shorter than the third pair, the outermost pair shorter than middle
pair; the gorget chiefly opaque velvety black, on each side of the
median line a small irregular patch of metallic orange, or else with
various jewelled iridescence posteriorly; remaining underparts white,
heavily tinged with greenish on sides, elsewhere lightly tinged with
dusky and dull rufous; bill slender, straight. _Adult female_: Similar
to male in coloration but without gorget, a few dusky specks instead;
tail different, single-rounded, central feathers like back in
coloration, and scarcely shorter than succeeding pairs, remaining
feathers with broad subterminal space of purplish black, and tipped
with white, lateral feathers scarcely acuminate, the outermost barely
emarginate on inner web. Length of adult male: about 3.50 (88.9); wing
1.75 (44.5); tail 1.25 (31.8); bill .75 (19.1). Female, length about
4.00 (101.6); wing 1.95 (49.5).
Recognition Marks.—Pygmy size; black gorget of male distinctive;
female larger than in _Stellula calliope_, with which alone it is
likely to come into comparison.
Nesting.—_Nest_: Of plant down secured by cobwebs, saddled upon small
descending branch at moderate height, or lashed to twigs of small
fork. _Eggs_: 2 or, rarely, 3, pure white, elliptical oval in shape.
Av. size, .50 × .33 (12.7 × 8.3). _Season_: May or June according to
altitude; one brood.
General Range.—Western United States, except the northern Pacific
coast district, north in the interior into British Columbia, breeding
south to northern Lower California and east to the Rocky Mountains;
south in winter into Mexico.
Range in Washington.—Not common summer resident east of the Cascades
only.
Authorities.—? _Bendire_, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II. 1895, p.
199 (inferential). Dawson, Auk, Vol. XIV. Apr. 1897, p. 175. Sr. Ss².
J.
Specimens.—(U. of W.) P¹. C.
Those of us, who as children were taught to call lady-bugs “lady-birds,”
might have been pardoned some uncertainty as to the whereabouts of the
dividing line between insects and birds, especially if, to the vision of
the “Hum-bird’s” wings shimmering by day above the flower bed, was added
the twilight visits of the hawk-moths not a whit smaller. The Hummer is
painted like a butterfly; its flight is direct and buzzing like a bee’s;
it seeks its food at the flower’s brim by poising on rapidly vibrating
wing like the hawk-moth; but there the resemblances cease. For the rest
it is a bird, migrating, mating, and nesting quite like grown folks.
While more than five hundred species of Hummingbirds—and these all
confined to the New World—are known to science, those which have looked
northward at all have shown a decided preference for the Pacific Coast.
Thus, we have four species in Washington, and we send our boldest
member, _Selasphorus rufus_, as far north as the St. Elias range in
Alaska, while our friends east of the Mississippi River know only one
species, the Ruby-throat, _Trochilus colubris_, which is own cousin, and
only own cousin to our _T. alexandri_.
Contrary to the popular belief Hummers do not feed largely upon nectar,
but insert their needle-bills into the depths of flowers mainly for the
purpose of capturing insects. This explains the otherwise puzzling habit
the birds have of revisiting the same flower beds at frequent intervals.
It is not to gather new-flowing sweets, but to see what flies the sweets
themselves have gathered. If a Hummingbird extracted honey to any great
extent—it does some—it would be rifling the bait from its own traps.
Again, the bird is not footless, as some suppose, for it spends a good
deal of time perching on exposed limbs, from which it may dart,
Flycatcher fashion, after passing insects.
Nor is the bird quite songless. At La Claire’s, on the banks of the Pend
d’Oreille River, we once witnessed a very pretty episode in the life of
the Black-chinned Hummer. We were passing beside a brush-and-log fence
in a clearing, when we noticed the rocking song-flight of a male
Black-chin. The bird first towered to a height of forty feet, or such a
matter, with loudly buzzing wing, then descended noisily in a great
loop, passing under a certain projecting branch in the fence, and
emitting along the lower segment of his great semicircle a low, musical,
murmuring sound of considerable beauty. This note, inasmuch as we stood
near one end of the fairy lover’s course, was raised in pitch a musical
third upon each return journey. Back and forth the ardent hero passed,
until he tired at length and darted off to tap a Canada lily for
nourishment, or the pretense of it. Then he perched on a twig at ten
feet and submitted to a most admiring inspection.
The Hummer’s back, well up on the neck, was of a dull green shade, the
wings were dusky, and the head dusky, shading into the deep velvety
brownish black of the throat. There was no lustrous sheen of the gorget
in the dull light, but on each side of the median line of the throat lay
an irregular patch of metallic orange. The underparts were tinged with
dusky and dull rufous; and these modest vestments completed the attire
of a plain-colored but very dainty bird.
Upon the passionate resumption of his courting dance we ordered an
investigation, and succeeded in finding “the woman in the case.” She
rose timidly from the thicket at the very lowest point of the male’s
song circuit, but at sight of us quickly took to the brush again.
The fairy’s nest is commonly saddled to an obliquely descending branch
of willow, alder, cottonwood, or young orchard tree. It is a tiny tuft
of vegetable down, bound together and lashed to its support by a wealth
of spider-webbing. Unlike the nest of _colubris_, the nest of
_alexandri_ is not decorated with lichens; and it not infrequently
resembles some small fine sponge, not only in its yellow-brown tint, but
in the elastic texture of its walls, which regain their shape after
being lightly squeezed. The eggs, two in number (but sometimes three in
this species alone), look like homeopathic pills—so dainty, indeed, that
the owner herself must needs dart off the nest every now and then and
hover at some distance to admire them. The male deserts his mate as soon
as she is well established, and the entire care of the little family
falls upon her shoulders. The young are fed by regurgitation, “a
frightful looking act,” as Bradford Torrey says.
No. 153.
RUFOUS HUMMER.
A. O. U. No. 433. Selasphorus rufus (Gmel.).
Synonyms.—Red-backed Hummingbird. Nootka Hummer.
Description.—_Adult male_: In general above and below bright rufous or
cinnamon-red, changing to bronzy green on crown, fading to white on
belly and on chest, where sharply contrasting with gorget; wing-quills
purplish-dusky on tips; the central pair of tail-feathers broadened
and broadly acuminate; the succeeding pair with a deep notch on the
inner web and a slighter emargination on the outer web; gorget
somewhat produced laterally, of close-set rounded metallic scales,
shining coppery-red, fiery red, or (varying with individuals) rich
ruby-red. Bill slender and straight. _Adult female_: Above rufous
overlaid with bronzy green, clear rufous on rump and tail-coverts;
pattern of tail as in male but less decided; central tail-feathers
green tipped with black; lateral feathers chiefly rufous, changing to
black subterminally, and tipped with white; underparts whitish, shaded
with rufous on sides; gorget wanting or represented by a small central
patch. _Young males_: Like adult female but more extensively rufous
above and throat flecked with reddish metallic scales. _Young
females_: Like adult female but rump green and throat flecked with
greenish scales. Length of adult male about 3.50 (88.9); wing 1.65
(41.91); tail 1.30 (33); bill .65 (16.5). Female: 3.70 (94); wing 1.75
(44.5); tail 1.28 (32.5); bill .68 (17.3).
Recognition Marks.—Pygmy size; abundant rufous of male distinctive;
female requires careful discrimination from that of _S. alleni_ and
may be known certainly from it by notching of next central
tail-feather, and by outer tail-feather more than .10 wide.
Nesting.—_Nest_: Of plant down and fine mosses bound together with
cobwebs, and ornamented with lichens, placed on horizontal or
declining stem of bush or tree. _Eggs_: 2, pure white, elliptical
oval. Av. size, .50 × .33 (12.7 × 8.3). _Season_: April 15-July 10;
two broods.
General Range.—Western North America from the Rocky Mountains to the
Pacific, breeding south in mountainous regions to Arizona and north to
Mount St. Elias and southwest Yukon Territory; south in winter over
the tablelands of Mexico.
Range in Washington.—Common summer resident on the West-side from
sea-level to timber-line; less common on the eastern slopes of the
Cascades; rare in the mountains of eastern Washington.
Migrations.—_Spring_: March 15-April 15.
Authorities.—? _Trochilus rufus_, Aud. Orn. Biog. IV. 1838, 555, pl.
372. _Selasphorus rufus_ Swains, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX.
1858, p. 135. T. C&S. L¹. Rh. D¹. Sr. Kb. Ra. Kk. J. B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. BN. E.
These gaudily dressed little fellows, seemingly part and parcel of the
sunshine itself, are by no means the delicate creations they appear to
be. West of the Cascades they are, strange to say, among the very first
of the spring arrivals from the South. The vanguard always arrives by
the last week of March, and sometimes as early as the middle of that
month. East of the Cascades they are considerably later, and are not
found in nearly so large numbers. They are seldom to be seen in greatest
abundance, however, much before the middle of April. At this season
certain bushes flower in profusion, and in these flowers the hummers
find unlimited food and drink,—honey, and the innumerable tiny insects
which it attracts.
Wright Park, situated in the center of the city of Tacoma, has been very
extensively planted with the decorative wild currant; and it is here
that hummers may oftenest be seen in great numbers. It is not uncommon
to see them by hundreds in this park, and often as many as twenty
disport themselves in and around a single bush. They are the most
pugnacious little creatures and are continually squabbling, the females
being quite as quarrelsome as the males. Their war song is a penetrating
squeak, or chirrup. The pausing of one of the birds to select some
luscious insect from a cluster of flowers seems to be the signal for an
onset from one or more of its fellows, when all squeak with greatest
animation. One cannot help believing that this is more or less in the
nature of play, for it is joined in by both the males and the females,
and the one attacked never resents it in the least. Usually it describes
a great circle in the air and descends into the center of some other
bush, where it sits watching the others and occasionally preening its
feathers. They are exceedingly tame at this season, and the bird-lover
may seat himself under some flower-laden bush while these most beautiful
little birds hover and perch within three or four feet of him.
What appears to be the only other vocal accomplishment of this hummer is
a somewhat long-drawn, rasping note, very loud and harsh for so small a
bird. This is made by the male, and, curiously enough, it is the love
song uttered while wooing his mate. She perches quietly in the center of
some small tree, apparently quite insensible to his frenzied actions.
These consist in flying up to a very considerable height, and then
dropping in a circular course to within a few feet of where she sits. It
is on the downward course that he makes his declaration of love, and if
it is done to arouse her he ought to be successful. Certainly it is a
sound most startling to a human being, when it explodes unexpectedly
within a few feet of his head.
It is almost unnecessary to say that the nesting habits of these little
birds are of unusual interest. The male is a disgracefully idle fellow,
never doing a stroke of work while the female is building the nest, and
leaving her as soon as the eggs are laid. It seems that at least he
might feed her while she sits so patiently upon her eggs; but no, he
retires to some warm, sunny gulch and spends his time in selfish
enjoyment.
[Illustration: _Taken in Oregon._ _Photo by Finley and Bohlman._
RUFOUS HUMMER AT NEST.]
Strange to say, the first nest-building occurs during the first week in
April, at which season sleet and cold rains are of not infrequent
occurrence. This is long before the majority of the species have arrived
from the South, and it would lead one to think that the first comers are
already paired when they arrive. A nest containing two fresh eggs was
found on the 14th of April, the eggs hatching on the 26th. On this last
date it was raining in torrents with a bitter cold wind, yet the tiny
young did not seem to suffer in the least, altho frequently left for as
long as fifteen or twenty minutes by their mother. Indeed it was a
mystery where she could possibly have found anything to eat. This nest
was saddled upon a twig a few feet above the ground amidst the
sheltering branches of a huge cedar, thus protecting the young from any
direct contact with the rain.
[Illustration: _Taken near Tacoma._ _Photo by the Authors._
NEST OF RUFOUS HUMMER ON FIR BRANCH.]
There is scarcely a conceivable situation, except directly on the
ground, that these birds will not select for a nesting site. Such odd
places have been chosen as a knot in a large rope that hung from the
rafters of a woodshed; and again, amongst the wires of an electric light
globe that was suspended in the front porch of a city residence. It may
be found fifty feet up in some huge fir in the depths of the forest, or
on the stem of some blackberry bush growing in a city lot.
Very often they form colonies during the nesting season, as many as
twenty nests being built in a small area. Some large fir grove is
generally chosen for the colony, but a most interesting one was located
on a tiny island in Puget Sound. This island has had most of its large
timber cut away, and is heavily overgrown with huckleberry, blackberry,
and small alders. In the center is the colony, the nests placed only a
few yards apart on any vine or bush that will serve the purpose.
Huckleberry bushes seem the favorites, but many nests are built in the
alders and on the blackberry vines.
The nesting season is greatly protracted, for fresh eggs may be found
from April till July. This makes it seem probable that each pair raises
at least two broods during the spring and summer. After incubation is
somewhat advanced, the female is most courageous, often permitting
herself to be lifted off the nest before its contents can be examined.
At such times the bird student must be on his guard, as the little
mother will often resent the intrusion, and her attack is always made at
the eyes.
[Illustration: _Taken near Tacoma._ _Photo by W. Leon Dawson._
TREASURE TROVE FOR THE HUMMER.
COBWEBS ARE LARGELY UTILIZED IN THE BUILDING OF A HUMMINGBIRD’S NEST.]
The eggs, so far as has ever been recorded, are invariably two in
number. They are immaculate milky white in color; and when freshly laid
the yolk makes them look like little pink moonstones, such as one finds
on the beach. In shape they are elliptical, and seem large for so small
a bird, measuring .50 × .33 inches.
The young are fed by regurgitation. For several days after hatching
their bills are little longer than those of any other young bird; but by
the time they leave the nest, their sword-like beaks are nearly as long
as those of their parents.
J. H. Bowles.
No. 154.
ALLEN’S HUMMINGBIRD.
A. O. U. No. 434. Selasphorus alleni Hensh.
Synonym.—Green-backed Rufous Hummingbird.
Description.—_Adult male_: Similar to adult male of _S. rufus_, but
upperparts shining bronzy green (duller on crown); underparts,
including belly, cinnamon-rufous, changing to white on chest only;
tail-feathers without notching or emargination, the two outer pairs
smaller and very narrow, the outermost acicular. _Adult female_: Very
similar to adult male of _S. rufus_, but with tail as in male _S.
alleni_. Length of adult male: 3.25 (82.6); wing 1.52 (38.6); tail
1.17 (29.7); bill .63 (16). Female a little larger.
Recognition Marks.—Pygmy size; fiery gorget with _green_ back of male
unmistakable; female indistinguishable out of hand from that of _S.
rufus_; outermost tail-feathers less than .10 wide.
Nesting.—As in preceding.
General Range.—Pacific Coast district north to southwestern British
Columbia, east, southerly, to Arizona; south in winter to Lower
California and Sonora.
Range in Washington.—Imperfectly made out; at least summer resident
and migrant west of the Cascades; not yet reported from the East-side.
Authorities.—Lawrence, Auk, Vol. IX. Jan. 1892, p. 44. L. Ra. Kb. B.
E.
Specimens.—C. E.
It is the misfortune of certain well-deserving mortals to be known to
fame as the husbands or brothers or cousins of some celebrity. Allen’s
Hummer is the daintier, as he is the rarer, of the summer _Selasphori_
but we know him thus far only as a momentary vision. At each appearance
we pause to assure ourselves that we really did see a Hummer with a
green back _and_ a red gorget, for otherwise, we have been duped again
by one of those tiresome female Rufouses.
Mr. R. H. Lawrence records the Allen Hummer as a summer resident of the
Gray’s Harbor country, and says of it[63]: “Perhaps as common as _T.
rufus_, and frequenting similar places. First noted in 1891 on the East
Humptulips, April 30. I had a good view of one on Quiniault Lake June
13.”
Mr. Chas. A. Allen, of Nicasio, Cal., who discovered this species and in
whose honor it was named, says of these birds[64]: “Their courage is
beyond question; I once saw two of these little warriors start after a
Western Red-tailed Hawk, and they attacked it so vigorously that the
Hawk was glad to get out of their way. But these little scamps were even
then not satisfied, but helped him along after he had decided to go.
Each male seems to claim a particular range which he occupies for
feeding and breeding purposes, and every other bird seen by him
encroaching on his preserve is at once so determinedly set upon and
harassed that he is only too glad to beat a hasty retreat. During their
quarrels these birds keep up an incessant sharp chirping, and a harsh
rasping buzzing with the wings, which sounds very different from the low
soft humming they make with these while feeding. * * * During the mating
and breeding season the male frequently shoots straight up into the air
and nearly out of sight, only to turn suddenly and rush headlong down
until within a few feet of the ground. The wings during the downward
rushes cut the air and cause a sharp, whistling screech, as they descend
with frightful velocity, and should they strike anything in their
downward course, I believe they would be instantly killed.”
[Illustration: CALLIOPE HUMMERS
MALE AND FEMALE, ⅚ LIFE SIZE
From a Water-color Painting by Allan Brooks]
No. 155.
CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD.
A. O. U. No. 436. Stellula calliope Gould.
Synonyms.—Calliope Hummer. Star Hummer.
Description.—_Adult male_: Upperparts golden-green; tail chiefly
dusky, rufous at base, paler on tips, slightly double-rounded, its
feathers broadening distally and nearly round at tips; sides of throat
and underparts white, washed with greenish and brownish on sides;
gorget somewhat produced laterally, of lengthened acuminate feathers
having white bases, rose-purple, or violet, with lilac reflections.
Bill straight, black above, yellowish below. _Adult female_:
Coloration of upperparts, save tail, as in male; central tail-feathers
green tipped with dusky; remaining rectrices greenish gray mingled
with rufous basally, crossed with black, and tipped with white. _Young
birds_ resemble adult female but are heavily washed with rufous below
and have throat more or less specked with dusky. Length of adult male:
2.75-3.00 (69.9-76.2); wing 1.55 (39.4); tail 1.00 (25.4); bill .57
(14.5). Female much larger—up to 3.50 (88.9).
Recognition Marks.—Pygmy size; the smallest of the northern ranging
species; gorget of male with _radiating_ feathers of rose-purple hue
distinctive, but female hard to discriminate afield.
Nesting.—Much as in other species. Av. size of _Eggs_: .47 × .30 (11.9
× 7.6). _Season_: June or July according to altitude; one brood.
General Range.—Breeding in the mountains of the West, north to central
British Columbia; south in winter to the mountains of Mexico.
Range in Washington.—Summer resident, chiefly in Transition and
Canadian zones, east of the Cascades, and in these mountains to the
limit of trees. Mr. Lawrence’s record remains unique for the
West-side, but the bird probably breeds in the Olympics also.
Authorities.—? Lawrence, Auk, Vol. IX. Jan. 1892, p.44. Bendire, Life
Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II. 1895, p.219. L¹. D². J. B.
Specimens.—P¹. C.
Ornithologists have been hard put to it to provide names for these most
exquisite of birds, the Hummers. The realms of callilithology,
chromatics, esthetics, astronomy, history, classical mythology, and a
score beside, have been laid under tribute to secure such fanciful and
high-sounding titles as the Fiery Topaz, Ruby-and-Topaz, Allied Emerald,
Red-throated Sapphire, Sparkling-tail, White-booted Racket-tail,
Fork-tailed Rainbow, the Sappho Comet, the Circe, Rivoli and Lucifer
Hummers, the Adorable Coquette, and, last but not least, the truly
Marvelous Hummingbird (_Loddigesia mirabilis_). What wonder, then, that
with so many children to provide for, Gould, the great monographer of
the _Trochilidæ_, should have named this nearly silent but always
beautiful species after the muse of eloquence, Calliope?
While it is true that the species may be found in abundance thruout the
higher Cascades, and especially along their eastern slopes, it is hardly
just to say with Bendire, that “the Calliope Hummingbird is a
mountain-loving species and during the breeding season is rarely met
with below altitudes of 4,000 feet, and much more frequently between
6,500 to 8,000 feet.”[65] We have found it commonly in the northern and
eastern portions of Washington at much lower altitudes, and have taken
its nest in the burning gorge of the Columbia at an altitude of only six
hundred feet. In the mountains the bird knows no restriction of range,
save that it avoids the heavily timbered slopes of the West-side; and it
is at least as common along the divide as is the Rufous Hummer.
[Illustration: _Taken in Spokane._ _Photo by F. S. Merrill._
CALLIOPE HUMMER, FEMALE.]
Without doubt the mind remembers longest those birds which visit the
mountain heather beds, gorgeous with flowers, and varied beyond
description. A bit of heather on Wright’s Peak at an elevation of 8,000
feet, yielded thirty-two species of plants in conspicuous bloom within a
stone’s throw of camp. The Hummers appear to be attracted to the flower
beds by color and position rather than by scent, and as sure as we
neglected to rise with the sun, a troop of puzzled honey-hunters hovered
by turns over our parti-colored blankets. Once a Hummer minutely
inspected a red bandana handkerchief which graced the bird-man’s neck;
and once, I regret to say it, fluttered for some moments before his nose
(sunburned!).
The tower and dive of the Calliope Hummer produces at its climax a
squeak of the tiniest and shrillest quality. It is a sight well worth
seeing when one of these elfin gallants, flashing like a jewel and
bursting with self-consciousness, mounts slowly upward on vibrating
wings to a height of a hundred feet, then darts back with the speed of
lightning to make an affectionate pass at the placid lady on the twig
below. The same tactics are pursued when the cat or a snooping chipmunk
is the object of attention, but the change in temper is unmistakable. I
do not feel sure that the spitfire will strike an enemy, but the sudden
explosions of winged fury hard about the ears are quite sufficient to
put a prowler in a panic.
The secret of nest-finding in the case of Hummingbirds lies in the
tell-tale wing-buzz of the female as she quits her nest. In this way, on
the 17th of June, 1906, we found the first Washington nest of the
Calliope, in the dense greenery of La Chapelle’s Springs, on the
Columbia River, near Chelan Falls. The nest was saddled on a slender
descending branch of a red birch tree, at a point seven feet out from
the trunk and twelve feet from the ground. It was overshadowed by a
little canopy of leaves, and was held in place not only by its lashings
of cobwebs, but by a drooping filament from a loftier branch.
[Illustration: _Taken in Spokane._ _Photo by F. S. Merrill._
A NEARER VIEW.]
In eastern Oregon Bendire found these birds nesting extensively in the
pine trees. The nests were usually settled upon a cluster of pine cones,
and so closely simulated their surroundings that detection would have
been impossible save for the visits of their owners. Ridgway figures[66]
a four-story nest taken at Baird, California, and believed to represent
the occupation of successive seasons.
_Caprimulgidæ_—The Nighthawks (Goatsuckers, etc.)
No. 156.
POORWILL.
A. O. U. No. 418. Phalænoptilus nuttallii (Aud.).
Description.—_Adult_: A narrow band of pure white across throat; below
this in abrupt contrast a band of black; under tail-coverts clear
creamy buff; the three outer pairs of rectrices tipped broadly with
white or buffy white; remaining plumage an exquisite complex of
skeletonized black centers of feathers with buffy and intermingled
dusky marginings, the whole producing a frosted or tarnished silvery
effect; black most conspicuously outcropping on back and on center of
crown; buffy “silvering” most complete on sides of crown,
wing-coverts, and upper surfaces of tail-feathers; black of underparts
appearing chiefly as bars where also mingled with pale olivaceous;
flight feathers finely and fully banded, ochraceous and blackish. Bill
black; feet (drying) dark brown; iris brown. Length: 7.00-8.00
(177.8-203.2); wing 5.50 (139.7); tail 3.50 (88.9); tarsus .65 (16.5).
Recognition Marks.—Strictly Chewink size but appearing larger; smaller
than a Nighthawk, which it superficially resembles in coloration.
_Poorwill_ cry heard a hundred times to once the bird is seen.
Nesting.—_Eggs_: 2 laid upon the bare ground, creamy white with a
faint pinkish tinge, oval to blunt elliptical oval in shape. Av. size,
.99 × .75 (25.2 × 19). _Season_: c. June 1st; one brood.
General Range.—Breeds from the western portions of the Great Plains
west to the Cascade-Sierra Ranges, north into British Columbia,
Alberta, etc.; south in winter thru Mexico to Guatemala.
Range in Washington.—Not common summer resident in treeless portions
of eastern Washington.
Authorities.—_Antrostomus nuttallii_ Cassin, “Illustrations,” (1856)
p. 237. C&S. D¹. D². Ss¹. J.
Specimens.—Prov. C.
The sun has set and the last chore is done, all save carrying in the
brimful pail of milk, which slowly yields tribute of escaping bubbles to
the evening air. Sukey, with a vast sigh of relief, has sunk upon the
ground, where, after summoning a consoling cud, she regards her master
wonderingly. But the farmer boy is loath to quit the scene and to
exchange the witching twilight for the homely glare of the waiting
kerosene; so he lingers on his milk-stool watching the fading light in
the western sky and dreaming, as only a boy can dream, of days which are
yet to be. Every sense is lulled to rest, and the spirit comes forth to
explore the lands beyond the hills, to conquer cities, discover poles,
or scale the heights of heaven, when suddenly out of the stillness comes
the plaintive cry of the Poor-will, _Poor-will - poor-will_. It is not a
disturbing note, but rather the authentic voice of silence, the yearning
of the bordering wilderness made vocal in appeal to the romantic spirit
of youth. _Poor Will! Poor Will!_ you think upon cities, actions,
achievements; think rather upon solitude, upon quietness, upon lonely
devotions. Come, oh, come to the wilderness, to the mystic, silent,
fateful wastes! And ever after, even tho duty call him to the city, to
the stupid, stifling, roaring, (and glorious) city, the voice of the
Poor-will has wrought its work within the heart of the exiled farmer
boy, and he owns a reverence for the silent places, a loyalty of
affection for the wilderness, which not all the forced subservience of
things which creak or blare or shriek may fully efface.
The Poor-will spends the day sleeping on the ground under the shelter of
a sage-bush, or close beside some lichen-covered rock, to which its
intricate pattern of plumage marvelously assimilates. When startled, by
day, the bird flits a few yards over the sage-tops and plumps down at
haphazard. If it chances to settle in the full sunlight, it appears to
be blinded and may allow a close approach; but if in the shade, one is
not likely to surprise it again. Even after nightfall these fairy
moth-catchers are much more terrestrial in their habits than are the
Nighthawks. They alight upon the ground upon the slightest pretext and,
indeed, appear most frequently to attain their object by leaping up at
passing insects. They are more strictly nocturnal in habit, also, than
the Night Jars, and we know of their later movements only thru the
intermittent exercise of song. Heard in some starlit cañon, the passing
of a Poor-will in full cry is an indescribable experience, producing
feelings somewhere between pleasure and fear,—pleasure in the delightful
melancholy of the notes heard in the dim distance, but something akin to
terror at the near approach and thrilling climax of the portentous
sounds.
Taken in the hand, one sees what a quiet, inoffensive fay the Poor-will
is, all feathers and itself a mere featherweight. The silken sheen and
delicate tracery of the frost-work upon the plumage it were hopeless to
describe. It is as tho some fairy snowball had struck the bird full on
the forehead, and from thence gone shivering with ever lessening traces
all over the upperparts. Or, perhaps, to allow another fancy, the dust
of the innumerable moth-millers, with which the bird is always
wrestling, gets powdered over its garments. The large bristles which
line the upper mandible, and which increase the catching capacity of the
extensive gape by half, are seen to be really modified feathers, and not
hairs, as might be supposed, for in younger specimens they are protected
by little horny basal sheaths. With this equipment, and wings, our
melancholy hero easily becomes the envy of mere human entomologists.
No. 157.
PACIFIC NIGHTHAWK
A. O. U. No. 420 part. Chordeiles virginianus hesperis J. Grinnell.
Synonym.—Bull-bat.
Description.—_Adult male_: Mottled, black, gray and ochraceous, and
with white in patches; above black predominates, especially on
forehead and back, mottling falling into indistinct bars on upper
tail-coverts and tail; anterior edge of wing white; the wing-quills
dusky; a large, white, transverse patch about midway on the first five
primaries, save on the outer web of the first; a large V-shaped
throat-patch white; remaining underparts distinctly and finely barred,
dusky and whitish with some faint ochraceous,—the latter found
especially on the parts adjacent to the white throat-patch; the
crissum sometimes pure white, usually barred, at greater intervals
than on breast; a white band crossing tail near tip, except on central
feathers. Bill without evident bristles, the horny part very small,
but length of gape about an inch. Tarsus very short; the middle claw
enlarged, and with a curious, horny, comb-like process on the inner
edge. _Adult female_: Similar, but without white band on tail, and
with white spots on primaries often much reduced; throat-patch tinged
with ochraceous, and suffusion of underparts by this color more
pronounced. _Immature_: More finely and heavily mottled than adults,
and with upperparts more heavily marked, or even suffused with
ochraceous-buff. Length 9.00-10.00 (228.6-254); wing 4.85 (123.2);
tail 4.32 (109.7); bill from nostril .21 (5.3).
Recognition Marks.—To appearance “Little Hawk” size—really smaller;
central white spot in long wing distinctive.
Nesting.—_Eggs_: 2, deposited on the bare ground, often among rocks,
sometimes upon a flat rock, or on the gravel roof of a tall building;
grayish white, or dull olive-buff marbled, mottled, or clouded and
speckled with various shades of olive, and brownish- or purplish-gray.
Av. size, 1.18 × .86 (30 × 21.8). _Season_: June; one brood.
General Range.—Pacific coast slope north to British Columbia.
Range in Washington.—West-side, summer resident in open situations.
Authorities.—_Chordeiles popetue_, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX.
1858, p. 153. T. C&S. B. E.
Specimens.—Prov.
The Nighthawk arrives so tardily—never before the middle of May and from
that date to the middle of June—that he reminds us of the naughty child
who has disregarded the parental summons and comes upon the scene sleepy
and cross at 9.30 a. m., when all good little children are at school. We
are sure, too, that it must be something like the necessity of eating
cold victuals that makes the bird grumble _bayard - bayard_ as it flits
about discontentedly on the first morning. Moreover, there is always
something incongruous about the appearance of this prairie species in
the land of tall timber. He is like the man from Kansas. He has a
perfect right here and he is a very good fellow. Oh, to be sure!
The Pacific Nighthawk differs by scarcely assignable characters from the
typical form of the eastern United States, but it is separated from it
in distribution by two bleached phases, _C. v. henryi_ and _C. v.
sennetti_, of the desert and plain respectively; so we feel confident
that it represents a resaturation of the intermediate stock rather than
a division or colony of _C. virginianus_ proper. Bird of the plains tho
it be, it is pushing its way determinedly on the West-side wherever
openings offer, and is as likely to occur upon the San Juan Islands or
in some little clearing of the mountain valleys as upon the ampler
reaches of the Chehalis prairies. Latterly, also, it has accommodated
itself to the life of the city, and from the fearless way in which it
appears over Pacific Avenue in Tacoma, or Second Avenue in Seattle, we
judge that it must be following the well established eastern custom of
laying its eggs on the flat roofs of down-town buildings.
No. 158.
WESTERN NIGHTHAWK.
A. O. U. No. 420 a. Chordeiles virginianus henryi (Cass.).
Description.—Similar to _C. v. hesperis_, but paler thruout; areas of
black reduced, white patches of throat, wing, and tail averaging
larger; below more extensively tawny whitish.
Recognition Marks.—As in preceding.
Nesting.—_Nest_ and _Eggs_ not distinguishable from those of _C. v.
hesperis_.
General Range.—Arid Transition and Canadian life-zones of the Western
United States from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the
Cascade-Sierra ranges, north into British Columbia; south in winter to
northern South America.
Range in Washington.—Common summer resident in open situations east of
the Cascade Mountains.
Migrations.—_Spring_: Moses Lake, May 13, 1906; Chelan, May 29, 1905;
Oro, May 29, 1896.
Authorities.—[“Western Nighthawk,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884
(1885) 22]; Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II., 1895, p. 168.
D¹. Sr. Ra. D². Ss¹. Ss². Kk(?). J.
Specimens.—(U. of W.) P¹. Prov. E.
These Nighthawks are perfectly harmless except to moths, midges, and
their ilk; and their uplifted wings half careened by the evening breeze
furnish one of the most pleasing adornments of lowland meadow or
sage-covered upland. The birds “quarter the air” incessantly in a
bat-like flight of irregular zigzags, often pouting as they go, _bayard
- bayard_. They are not so strictly nocturnal as the Poor-wills, but put
a liberal construction on “twilight,” being careful to avail themselves
of all cloudy days, and, in fact, moving about at will whenever the sun
slants fairly. The middle hours of the day are spent upon the ground,
where their neutral tints serve a protective purpose and are almost
implicitly relied on. During the mating season the males take great
parabolic headers in the air, returning sharply and producing a loud
booming _daw-w_—whether by the rushing of air thru the wings or across
the opened mouth, will, perhaps, never be determined.
[Illustration: _Taken near Spokane._ _Photo by F. S. Merrill._
EGGS OF WESTERN NIGHTHAWK, IN SITU.]
During migrations scores of these birds are sometimes seen moving aloft
in loose array and, customarily at this season, silent. While not at any
time strictly gregarious, favorable conditions are likely to attract
considerable numbers to a given spot. I have seen scores at a time
winging noiselessly to and fro over the tranquil waters of Brook Lake,
and once I saw a company of not less than two hundred executing a grand
march with bewildering evolutions, in a Yakima pasture. The date in the
last-mentioned instance was August 10th, and it is more likely that the
birds had discovered some notable event in the insect world, than that
they themselves were preparing to migrate.
[Illustration: _Taken near Spokane._ _Telephoto by W. H. Wright._
WESTERN NIGHTHAWK AT MIDDAY.]
The eggs of the Nighthawk are heavily mottled with slaty and other
tints, which render them practically invisible to the searching eye,
even tho they rest upon the bare ground or, as oftener, upon an exposed
lava ledge. Except during the very warmest hours (when the sun’s rays
might addle them) and the coolest (when they might become chilled), the
sitting bird is likely to rest beside her eggs instead of on them. The
young birds when hatched place great reliance upon their protective
coloration, and even permit the fondling of the hand rather than confess
the defect of their fancied security. The old bird, meanwhile has
fluttered away over the ground with uncertain wing and drooping tail to
drop at last on the very point of death. Or failing in this ruse, she is
charging about in mid air with plaintive cries. Look upon the babies for
the last time, for they will be spirited away before your return,—borne
off, it is said, between the thighs of the parent bird.
_Micropodidæ_—The Swifts
No. 159.
BLACK SWIFT.
A. O. U. No. 422. _Cypseloides niger borealis_ (Kennerly).
Synonyms.—Cloud Swift. Northern Black Cloud Swift.
Description.—_Adults_: Sooty black; feathers of extreme chin, anterior
portion of lores, forecrown, lining of wings, abdomen, sides, crissum,
and under tail-coverts, narrowly skirted with white. Bill, feet, and
eyes black. Length about 7.00 (177.8); wing 6.50 (165.1); tail 2.09
(53).
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size but appearing larger; long wings and
rapid flight, cloud-haunting habits with color and size distinctive.
Nesting.—_Nest_: in crannies of cliffs; reported by Bendire from the
breaks of the Columbia in Douglas County. _Eggs_: unknown. _Season_:
presumably June.
General Range.—Western North America from the Rocky Mountains to the
Pacific, north thru British Columbia to southwestern Alaska; partially
nomadic, erratic, and far-ranging; winters south to Central America.
Range in Washington.—Summer resident in the higher Cascades and
(presumably) the Olympics; appears sporadically at lower levels,
chiefly west of the Cascade Mountains.
Migrations.—_Spring_: Seattle, May 16, 1905. _Fall_: Seattle,
September 20, 1907; October 7, 1905; Tatoosh Island, June 4, 1907.
Authorities.—_Cypseloides borealis_, Kennerly, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci.
Phila. IX., Nov. 1857, 202; _fide_ Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX.,
1858, p. 143. Rh. D¹. Ra. B. E.
Specimens.—Prov. C. E.
No other bird of equal prominence in the North American ornis has so
successfully eluded the investigation of the curious. Of equal
prominence, I say, for on occasion the birds do exhibit themselves at
close quarters with every appearance of frankness. And it is precisely
because they do occasionally stoop to our level, that we long to follow
them as they sweep the clouds or hasten back at a thought to their
mountain fastnesses.
Cloud Swifts hunt in great straggling companies, and when one of them
has attracted attention by swooping near the ground, and the eyes are
lifted, a dozen others may be noted in the neighborhood, and a hundred
more in the sky, up, up to the limit of vision. Certain atmospheric
conditions, especially a drizzling rain, may impel the whole company to
seek the lower levels, and hundreds may be seen at once hawking over the
townsite, or, better yet, over the surface of a lake, as Whatcom, or
Washington. But on brighter days, and ordinarily, the passing throng
occupies the whole heavens, and a bird seen darting across a distant
cloud may in another instant descend to the tree-tops. Altho not quite
so speedy as the White-throated Swift, there is no bird whose aerial
evolutions convey such a sense of power and unfettered freedom as do
those of this veritable sky-scraper.
[Illustration: BLACK SWIFTS.]
The extraordinary volitatorial powers possessed by the Cloud Swifts
permit a breadth of daily range unmatched in the case of any other
species. We suppose that the flocks which appear here and there at
sea-level thruout the summer nest only in the Cascade Mountains; and it
is easy to see that a hundred mile dash before breakfast would hardly
figure in the day’s work. On this account, we may fairly presume that
the Cloud Swifts are really less numerous than might be supposed from
the analogy of other birds. Perhaps half a dozen roving bands would
comprise the entire population of the State. A company nesting on
Glacier Peak might elect to spend one day hawking over Gray’s Harbor,
and the next in the Palouse country. Some such diurnal shifting does
exist, for at Chelan I have seen the Swifts in June passing down the
valley at early morning, and returning in the evening for several
successive days, after which they would absent themselves for a month.
Again, at early morning, we have seen them filing thru Cascade Pass from
west to east, hot-wing, as tho they had business in Idaho.
[Illustration: _Taken in Chelan County._ _Photo by the Author._
CASCADE PASS.
WHERE BLACK SWIFTS HAVE BEEN SEEN.]
These Black Swifts nest chiefly in the mountains upon the face of
inaccessible cliffs. This much we know, but the nest and eggs are still
unknown[67]. The closest call which these elusive fowls have had at
nesting time is thus reported by Major Bendire[68]: “The only locality
where I have observed this species was on the upper Columbia River,
opposite Lake Chelan, Washington, in July, 1879. Here quite a colony
nested in a high perpendicular cliff on the south side of and about a
mile back from the river, and numbers of them flew to and from the
valley below, where they were feeding. The day was a cloudy one, and the
slow drizzling rain was falling nearly the entire time I was there; this
caused the birds to fly low and they were easily identified. They
evidently had young, and the twitterings of the latter could readily be
heard as soon as a bird entered one of the numerous crevices in the
cliff above. This was utterly inaccessible, being fully 300 feet high
and almost perpendicular; and without suitable ropes to lower one from
above it was both useless and impracticable to make an attempt to reach
the nests. These were evidently placed well back in the fissures, as
nothing bearing a resemblance to one was visible from either above or
below. In this locality I believe fresh eggs may be looked for about
June 25.”
I had word of the nesting of these birds in the summer of 1906 upon a
majestic rock wall overlooking the Sahale Glacier in the Upper Horseshoe
Basin of Chelan County, but a visit paid to this scene the following
season failed to discover either nests or birds, altho local miners were
ready to confirm the report of their presence the previous season. Dr.
Edward Hasell, of Victoria, informs me that they have nested about a
certain cliff overlooking Cowichan Lake on Vancouver Island. The cliff
referred to is about 1,600 feet high, and access was, therefore, out of
the question. Mr. W. H. Wright, the well-known nature student and guide,
of Spokane, tells me that he once saw these birds nesting among some
cliffs called “The Chimneys,” which are five or six miles distant from
Priest, Idaho. He saw the Swifts carrying twigs to the cliffs, but did
not take further notice of their actions. He visited The Chimneys at the
same time of year on each of two succeeding seasons, but saw nothing of
the Swifts. From these reports, and from the fact that the country
referred to by Bendire has been ransacked in vain, I conclude that the
Black Swifts are continually shifting the scene of their annual
nestings, being, in fact, as erratic in this regard as they are in the
matter of their local appearances at the lower levels.
No. 160.
VAUX’S SWIFT.
A. O. U. No. 424. Chætura vauxi (Townsend).
Description.—_Adults_: Above, sooty brown, lightening, nearly
hair-brown, on rump and upper tail-coverts; below, light sooty gray,
lightening, nearly white, on chin and throat; lores velvety black;
shafts of tail-feathers denuded at tips a third of an inch. Length
about 4.50 (114.3); wing 4.50 (114.3); tail 1.59 (40).
Recognition Marks.—Strictly “pygmy size,” but comparison misleading—to
appearance, swallow size; rapid erratic flight and
bow-and-arrow-shaped position in flight distinctive. Altho this
species is only half the size of the preceding, careful discrimination
is necessary while the birds are a-wing.
Nesting.—_Nest_: a shallow half-saucer of short twigs, glued together
with the bird’s saliva and similarly cemented to the wood inside of a
hollow tree. _Eggs_: 4-6, pure white. Av. size, .77 × .50 (19.6 ×
12.7). _Season_: June; one brood.
General Range.—Pacific Coast States and British Columbia, breeding
thruout its range; south in winter to Central America.
Range in Washington.—Not common summer resident in timbered sections
and in mountain valleys; locally distributed.
Migrations.—_Spring_: Blaine, May 8, 1905. _Fall_: Seattle, September
20, 1907.
Authorities.—_Cypselus vauxi_ Townsend, “Narrative,” 1839, 348. T.
C&S. Rh. D¹. Ra. D². B. E.
Specimens.—Prov. C. E.
“The way of any bird in the air commands interest, but the way of the
Swift provokes both admiration and astonishment. With volitatorial
powers which are unequaled by any other land bird, this avian missile
goes hurtling across the sky without injury, or else minces along slowly
with pretended difficulty. Now it waddles to and fro in strange zigzags,
picking up a gnat at every angle, and again it “lights out” with sudden
access of energy and alternate wing strokes, intent on hawking in
heaven’s upper story. At favorite seasons the birds cross and recross
each other’s paths in lawless mazes and fill the air with their strident
creakings, while here and there couples and even trios sail about in
great stiff curves with wings held aloft. It is the only opportunity
afforded for personal attentions, and it is probable that the sexes have
no further acquaintance except as they pass and repass in ministering to
the young.
“In nesting the Chimney ’Sweeps’ seek out the smaller chimneys of
dwelling houses, and usually only one pair occupies a single shaft.
Short twigs are seized and snapped off by the bird’s beak in midflight,
and these, after being rolled about in the copious saliva, are made fast
to the bricks, a neat and homogeneous bracket being thus formed. This
will be sufficient to support the half dozen crystal white eggs and the
hissing squabs which follow, unless a premature fire or a long-continued
rain dissolves the glue and tumbles the fabric into the grate.
“Sitting birds, when discovered, oftenest drop below the nest and hide,
clinging easily with the tiny feet supported by the spiny tail. The male
bird seldom pays any attention unless there are young, in which case he
even brushes past the intruder and enters the nest in his eagerness to
share the hour of danger. The young are rather slow in development and
it requires, according to Mr. Otto Widmann, two months to rear a family
of them. Usually only one brood is raised, but a second nesting is
undertaken even as late as August if the first has proven unsuccessful”
(Birds of Ohio).
Save in the matter of nesting, the Vaux Swift does not differ
essentially in habit or appearance from the well-known Chimney Swift,
referred to in the preceding paragraphs. It is, however, very much less
common and is only of local distribution, chiefly in the lower mountain
valleys. Local attachments are doubtless largely determined by the
presence of large cottonwood timber, but the birds descend to the
lowlands, especially after the close of the nesting season, in small
roving parties, somewhat after the fashion of the Cloud Swifts, with
which indeed they frequently associate. They have thus been regularly
reported by West-side observers at Tacoma, Seattle, and Bellingham, and
I have seen them at Blaine, and in the valleys of the Nooksack (at
Glacier), Skagit, Nisqually (in Rainier National Park), and Quillayute
Rivers. The only East-side records appear to be those from the north
fork of the Ahtanum, in Yakima County, and the valley of the Stehekin,
in Chelan County.
Vaux’s Swift with us nests only in the hollow recesses of tall dead
cottonwood trees, where they glue a shallow bracket of broken twigs,
cemented with hardened saliva, to the curving inner wall. In California,
however, they are said to be adopting the ways of civilization, and are
beginning to nest in chimneys, after the fashion of _C. pelagica_.
No. 161.
WHITE-THROATED SWIFT.
A. O. U. No. 425. Aeronautes melanoleucus (Baird).
Synonyms.—Rock Swift. Mountain Swift. Rocky Mountain Swift.
White-throated Rock Swift.
Description.—_Adults_: Plumage black (variable, sooty brown to glossy
black); forehead and line over eye paler; lore velvety black; chin,
throat, breast, and belly, centrally, white—also outer edge of outer
primary, tips of secondaries, lateral tail-feathers, and a conspicuous
patch on flank, sometimes nearly meeting fellow across rump; bill
black. Length 7.00 (177.8) or under; wing 6.50-7.00 (165.1-177.8);
tail 2.65 (67.3).
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size but larger to appearance; exceedingly
rapid flight with flashing white underparts and flank patches
distinctive.
Nesting.—“The nest is securely placed far in holes or crevices of
rocks or indurated earths, usually at a great height; it is a
saucer-like structure, about 5 × 2 inches, with a shallow cavity, made
of various vegetable materials well glued together with saliva, and
lined with feathers. Eggs several, in one instance 5, narrowly
subelliptical, 0.87 × 0.52, white” (Coues). _Season_: May and June.
General Range.—Western United States from the Rocky Mountains to the
Pacific, north to Montana, Idaho, and southern British Columbia
(Okanagan Valley); south in winter to Guatemala.
Range in Washington.—Known only from the valley of the Columbia near
Chelan, the Grand Coulee (near Cold Spring Lake), and the Cascade
Pass.
Authorities.—Dawson, Auk, XIV., 1897, p. 175.
Specimens.—C.
[Illustration: _Photo by the Author._ _Taken in Douglas County._
COLD SPRING LAKE.
WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS NEST ON THE PRECIPITOUS WALLS OF THE BUTTE.]
Swift, swifter, swiftest, will best express the relations of our
Washington _Cypseli_, where the positive degree is represented by the
Vaux Swift, the comparative by the Black Cloud Swift, and the
superlative by the White-throat. No one who is troubled with acrophobia,
the fear of high places, should attempt to spy upon the nesting haunts
of these Swifts from above; for when to the ordinary terrors of a sheer
cliff, say a thousand feet in height, is added the hurtling passage of
resentful Swifts flashing about like hurled scimetars, the situation
will try the strongest nerve. Viewed from below, in the open air, the
evolutions of these birds may be regarded with some degree of
equanimity; but when a Swift dips toward the ground, or measures its
speed across the face of some frowning precipice, one sees what a really
frightful velocity is attained. There is no exact way of measuring this,
but an estimate of five miles per minute would be well within the mark,
and six not unreasonable. The bird, that is, would require only an hour
to flit from Spokane to Aberdeen; or, it might breakfast at Osooyoos on
the Forty-ninth Parallel, lunch in Chihuahua, and dine, a trifle late,
in Panama.
This Rock Swift nests only in crevices and caves of the most
inaccessible cliffs. Most of its hunting, however, is done in the upper
air, where its lighter colors soon render it indistinguishable. It
appears also to be less sociable than the other species upon the hunt,
so that almost the only opportunities for careful study of it are
afforded near the cliffs. Here there is much amorous pursuit, and the
frequent sound of thrilling notes. The characteristic notes constitute a
sort of war-cry, rather than song, and consist of a liquid descending
scale of musical chuckling, or rubbing tones. The noise produced is much
as if two pebbles were being fiercely rubbed together in a
rapidly-filling jar of water.
The birds exhibit a preternatural cunning in the selection of nesting
sites. Not only do they choose sheer walls, but those which, because of
the fissures so afforded, are crumbling and dangerous to a degree. The
butte shown in the illustration consists of a hard lava capping over a
disintegrating bed of tufa, impossible of ascent and impracticable of
descent. Here in some remotest crevice the birds affix a narrow shelf,
of straws, bits of weed-stalks, and miscellaneous trash, agglutinated
with saliva; and in this four or five narrowly elliptical white eggs are
deposited late in June or early in July.
These interesting birds are newcomers within our borders, and their
comings and goings are as yet little known. Bendire in 1895 remarked[69]
their utter absence from Oregon and Washington. In 1896 I saw a single
bird in the gorge of the Columbia near Chelan, and upon revisiting this
scene in May, 1906, found that quite a colony of them were haunting a
granite wall some 800 feet in height. Late in the same season, and in
each succeeding year I have found them in the vicinity of Cold Spring
Butte in Douglas County; and have every reason to suppose that other
such colonies exist in the Grand Couleé. In the summer of 1906 Mr.
Bowles and myself observed them crossing the Cascade Pass in company
with Black Swifts; while still more recently, Mr. Charles De Blois Green
announces[70] that they have extended their range up the valley of the
Okanogan into British Columbia.
_Picidæ_—The Woodpeckers
No. 162.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HAIRY WOODPECKER.
A. O. U. No. 393 e. Dryobates villosus monticola Anthony.
Description.—_Adult male_: Above, in general, black,—glossy, at least
on crown and cervix, dull on tail, fuscous on wings; a narrow scarlet
band across the nape; broad white superciliary and rictal stripes
separated by a black band thru eye (including lore), continuous with
nape; a black malar stripe broadening behind; white nasal tufts; a
lengthened white patch down middle of back; wing-coverts black, or
sometimes lightly spotted with white; primaries and outer secondaries
spotted with white on both webs (often very lightly on inner webs),
the spots on the outer webs confluent in bars on the closed wing; tail
black centrally, the two outer pairs of feathers white on exposed
portions, the third pair white-tipped; entire underparts clear white;
bill and feet light plumbeous. _Adult female_: Similar but without
scarlet band on hindneck. _Young birds_ have the crown chiefly red or
bronzy or, rarely, yellowish. Length of adult: 10.00-11.00
(254-279.4); wing 5.20 (132); tail 4.20 (106.7); bill 1.50 (38).
Recognition Marks.—Robin size; black-and-white pattern of head (11
alternating areas of black and white, viewed anteriorly), with size,
distinctive; lores black and underparts _clear white_, as compared
with _D. v. hyloscopus_.
Nesting.—_Nest_: A hole excavated in tree, usually in dead portion,
unlined. _Eggs:_ 4-6, white. Av. size, 1.08 × .77 (27.4 × 19.6).
_Season_: May 15-June 1; one brood.
General Range.—Rocky Mountain district of the United States from New
Mexico north to Montana, west to Utah and eastern Washington.
Range in Washington.—Mountain districts of eastern Washington,
intergrading with _D. v. harrisii_ along eastern slopes of Cascades,
especially northerly.
Authorities.—_Not previously published._ Based here on specimen taken
May 23rd, 1906, at Usk, Wash. (Ident. by Biol. Surv., Washington, D.
C.) J. (Open to question thru confessed lack of specimens).
Specimens.—B.
This form finally displaces Harris (_D. v. harrisii_, with which it
intergrades on the eastern slopes of the Cascades) only in the
northeastern corner of the State and in the Blue Mountains. It differs
in no essential respect from the western variety in habit; but because
of the more open character of the timber, is rather more in evidence
thruout its range.
On the 22nd of May, 1906, a male of this species was sighted at Usk, on
the banks of the Pend d’Oreille River, as he clung to the top of a
forty-foot pine stub and delivered, rather gently, his rolling tattoo,
or call-note. After repeating this several times he dropped down and
entered a hole a few feet lower. We returned the following morning and
found the male bird (distinguishable by his red nuchal patch) again on
the nest. When I rapped gently on the stub he emerged; and proceeding to
his drumming ground above, he rolled repeatedly. By and by the female
answered in the distance with the _plimp_ or _plick_ note. Soon she
arrived upon the nesting stub, whereupon Mr. Hairy took himself off
promptly, and Mrs. Hairy entered the nest and settled to her eggs. Or so
you would have supposed, wouldn’t you? By the aid of sixteen spikes,
“60’s,” and a rope, I climbed to the nest, thirty-five feet up. With a
small hand-axe I enlarged the entrance (sacrificing incidentally a
thumbnail, and giving sad evidence of the sway of “mortal mind”) to find
only _one_ fresh egg, fourteen inches down.
[Illustration: _Taken in Stevens County._ _Photo by J. H. Bowles._
NESTING SITE OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN HAIRY WOODPECKER.]
Of course it was disappointing, but the egg was a pearl, so transparent
that one could see the very outlines of the imprisoned yolk.
No. 163.
CABANIS’S WOODPECKER.
A. O. U. No. 393 d. Dryobates villosus hyloscopus (Cab.).
Synonym.—Rocky Mountain Hairy Woodpecker (name now restricted to
preceding form).
Description.—Similar to _D. v. monticola_ but averaging smaller; lores
chiefly or entirely white; underparts more or less soiled whitish;
some few white spots appearing on wing-coverts and upon inner
secondaries (thus shading into eastern forms of the _D. villosus_
group).
Recognition Marks.—As in preceding.
Nesting.—As in _D. v. monticola_.
General Range.—Imperfectly made out as regards that of _D. v.
monticola_—“Western United States from the Rocky Mountains to the
Pacific, excepting the special range of _D. v. harrisii_, and
southward into Mexico” (Coues).
Range in Washington.—Undetermined; perhaps resident in eastern
Washington between ranges of _monticola_ and _harrisii_, perhaps only
casual west of Cascades.
Authorities.—Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II. 1895, p. 53.
Puyallup, Wash., Dec. 25, 1895, by Geo. G. Cantwell (Ident. by Biol.
Surv. Washington, D. C.).
Specimens.—C.
Woodpeckers of the _Dryobates_ group are not migrants, but they are
inclined to experiment, and so not infrequently turn up in their
neighbors’ preserves. A specimen taken at Puyallup, December 25, 1895,
must be regarded as a wanderer from the North, altho Brooks
characterizes this form as regular at Sumas, B. C.
No. 164.
HARRIS’S WOODPECKER.
A. O. U. No. 393c. _Dryobates villosus harrisii_ (Aud.).
Description.—Similar to _D. v. hyloscopus_, but underparts light smoky
brown or smoke-gray; sometimes narrowly streaked with black on sides;
spotting on wing-quills still further reduced, that of wing-coverts
usually wanting. Length of adult: 9.00-10.50 (228.6-266.7); wing 5.00
(127); tail 3.35 (85.1); bill 1.25 (31.8).
Recognition Marks.—Robin size; black-and-white pattern of head (with
touch of scarlet on hind-neck of male); smoky below as compared with
_D. v. monticola_ or _D. v. hyloscopus_.
Nesting.—_Nest_: a hole about 25 feet up in a dead fir tree, lined
with chips. _Eggs_: usually 4, crystalline white. Av. size, 1.05 × .74
(26.7 × 18.8).
General Range.—Pacific coast district from northern California north
to southern Alaska.
Range in Washington.—West-side, resident, chiefly at lower levels;
east slopes of Cascades, where intergrading either with _D. v.
homorus_ southerly (?) or _D. v. monticola_ northerly.
Authorities.—_Picus harrisii, Audubon_, Orn. Biog. 1839, 191; pl. 417.
Townsend, Narrative, (1839), p. 347. T. C&S. L¹. Rh. D¹. Kb. Ra. Kk.
B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. BN.
Dr. Cooper judged the Harris to be the most abundant Woodpecker in
Western Washington; and this, with the possible exception of the Flicker
(_Colaptes cafer saturatior_), is still true. The bird ventures well out
upon the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, and is found sparingly
in the higher mountain valleys; but his favorite resorts are burns and
the edges of clearings, rather than the depths of the woods. Altho he is
resident the year around we are quite likely to overlook his presence
until cold weather appears to quicken his pulses, and to send him
careering noisily over the tree-tops. He has spent the night, it may be,
in the heart of a fir stub at the end of his winter tunnel, and now he
covers a half-wooded pasture with great bounds of flight, shouting,
_plick, plick_, from time to time; and he gives a loud rolling call—a
dozen of these notes in swift succession—as he pulls up in the top of a
dead tree to begin the day’s work.
[Illustration: _Taken in Oregon._ _Photo by Bohlman and Finley._
HARRIS WOODPECKER.]
He is an active fellow, hitching up or dropping down the tree trunk with
brusque ease, and publishing his progress now and then in cheerful
tones. But he knows how to be patient too. In the search for hidden
worms and burrowing larvæ it seems not improbable that the Woodpecker
depends largely upon the sense of hearing—that he practices
auscultation, in fact. A meditative tap, tap, is followed by a pause,
during which the bird apparently marks the effect of his strokes, noting
the rustle of apprehension or attempted escape on the part of the hidden
morsel. It is not unusual for the bird to spend a half hour tunneling
for a single taste, and even then the wary game may withdraw along some
tunnel of its own, even beyond the reach of the bird’s extensible
tongue. But besides that which must be secured from the bowels of the
wood, there is much to be gleaned from the surface and in the crannies
of the bark. The winter fare is also supplemented by cornel berries and
the fruit of certain hardy shrubs.
It is a fair question whether the Harris Woodpecker did not get his
dingy breast thru long association with his grimy grub cupboards. The
dead trees which he frequents, where not actually blackened by fire, are
often stained by decaying fungic growths and clinging spores, so that
the snowy shirt-front of the eastern Hairy Woodpecker would be small
satisfaction to him here. Or if this grimy condition of tree-trunk be
not the _terminus a quo_ the smoky front of the Woodpecker started, it
is certainly the _terminus ad quem_ its color is accurately tending.
And, of course, it is easy to see how these conditions are due exactly
to the humidity which prevails on the Pacific Coast, and to a lesser
degree thruout the Cascades. The dry dirt of the Rocky Mountain pines is
by comparison clean dirt, and so _Dryobates villosus_ is able to take
some decent pride in his linen as he proceeds eastward.
The Harris Woodpecker visits the winter troupes only in a patronizing
way. He is far too restless and independent to be counted a constant
member of any little gossip club, and, except briefly during the mating
season and in the family circle, he is rarely to be seen in the company
of his own kind.
The nest of this bird is usually placed well up in a small dead fir tree
in some burn or slashing on dry ground. It is about ten inches deep and
has no lining save fine chips, among which the crystal white eggs, four
or five in number, lie partially imbedded. Incubation is begun from the
last week in April to the last week in May, according to altitude, and
but one brood is raised in a season. These Woodpeckers are exceptionally
valiant in defense of their young, the male in particular becoming
almost beside himself with rage at the appearance of an enemy near the
home nest.
No. 165.
DOWNY WOODPECKER.
A. O. U. No. 394 c. Dryobates pubescens medianus (Swains.).
Description.—Similar to _D. v. monticola_, but much smaller;
wing-coverts heavily spotted with white,—a round blotch on tip of each
feather; wing-quills and primary-coverts heavily spotted with white on
both webs, the blotches on outer webs forming bars on the closed wing;
tertials barred and tipped with white; the outer tail-feathers barred
with black; underparts white or slightly soiled. Length of adult
6.25-7.00 (158.8-177.8); wing 3.75 (95.3); tail 2.60 (66.1); bill .66
(16.8).
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; black-and-white color pattern with
small size distinctive; red nape of male; heavily white-spotted on
wings as compared with D. p. homorus; white below as compared with _D.
p. gairdnerii_.