Size small; bill rather wide at base, compressed towards the end, and
abruptly hooked; lower mandible shorter; nostril elevated, tubular;
wings long, pointed, second quill usually longest; tail moderate, rather
wide, usually emarginate or forked; legs long, slender; tibiæ more or
less naked above the joint with the tarsi; toes rather short, fully
webbed. A genus comprising about twelve species, all of which are
strictly marine, and inhabit the various oceans of the world.
Thalassidroma furcata. (Gmelin.)
Procellaria furcata. Gm. Syst. Nat. I., p. 561. (1788.)
Procellaria orientalis. Pallas. Zoog. Ross. As. II., p. 315. (1831.)
Thalassidroma cinerea. Gould.
Form. Wing long; second quill longest; tail forked; legs shorter than
usual in this genus; under coverts of the tail long.
Dimensions. Total length (of skin) about 8 inches; wing 6; tail 4
inches.
Colors. Entire plumage light cinereous or lead color; lighter, and in
some specimens, nearly white on the abdomen and under tail coverts;
lesser wing coverts darker; in some specimens nearly black; quills and
tail slightly tinged with brown; greater wing coverts and secondaries
pale on their outer edges; primaries nearly white on their inner edges;
bill and feet black.
Hab. Coasts of Oregon, Russian America, Northeastern Asia, and the
Pacific Ocean. Spec. in Nat. Mus., Washington, and Mus. Acad., Philad.
This bird belongs to a group of the genus _Thalassidroma_, of which _T.
marina_ is the best known species, an inhabitant of the Southern Pacific
Ocean, and figured by Mr. Gould as a bird of Australia.
All the species of this group are characterised by cinereous plumage, a
strong distinctive character from the greater part of the birds of this
genus, which are of dark colors, and in some species nearly black. The
present bird does not, in any considerable degree, resemble any other
American species, and may be easily recognised.
SYLVICOLA KIRTLANDII.—Baird.
Kirtland’s Warbler.
PLATE XLVII. Adult.
Of the smaller birds of North America, no group exceeds that of the
Warblers, in variety and richness of color. It is, too, one of the
largest of the groups of our birds, embracing not less than forty
species, besides several which are South American.
Migrating in the spring, and again in the autumn, these little birds are
known in the Middle and Southern States, for the greater part as
visitors only, though various species are residents during the summer,
which have been supposed to continue their journey much further north,
before undertaking the duties of incubation. The Blackburnian Warbler
(_Sylvicola Blackburniæ_), the Chestnut-sided (_S. icterocephala_), the
Yellow-backed (_S. Americana_), and several others, breed in the
mountains of Pennsylvania. The Prairie (_S. discolor_), the Blue-winged
(_Helinaia solitaria_), and two or three other species, are to be met
with every summer in the neighborhood of Philadelphia. The greater
number of species proceed further north, but much the majority of all
known as North American rear their young within the limits of the United
States, as well as in more northern countries; but by no means
exclusively in the latter, as is to be inferred from the representations
of various authors. The Black-poll (_S. striata_), raises its young in
the State of Maine.
These birds are great favorites with collectors. Coming northward, as
many species do in the months of April and May, when excursions to the
woods are attended with such agreeable accompaniments, the short period
of their stay is the most deeply interesting of the ornithological
season, whether the object be to study birds in the fields and woods, or
only to procure choice specimens for the cabinet. In either case, the
observer or collector will find himself greatly tempted by these
attractive little birds, to the exclusion, probably, of others, not so
gay, perhaps, in plumage, but equally interesting in other respects.
[Illustration: Plate 47
Kirtland’s Warbler
Sylvicola Kirtlandii (_Baird_)]
Bird-collecting is the ultimate refinement,—the _ne plus ultra_ of all
the sports of the field. It is attended with all the excitement, and
requires all the skill, of other shooting, with a much higher degree of
theoretical information and consequent gratification in its exercise.
Personal activity, not necessarily to be exerted over so great a space
as in game-bird shooting, but in a much greater diversity of locality,
coolness, steadiness of hand, quickness of eye and of ear, especially
the latter;—in fact, all the accomplishments of a first-rate shot, will
be of service; and some of them are indispensable to successful
collecting. The main reliance is, however, on the ear, for the detection
of birds by their notes, and involves a knowledge, the more accurate and
discriminating the better, which can only be acquired by experience, and
always characterizes the true woodsman, whether naturalist or hunter.
This ability is of incomparable value to the collector. Whether in the
tangled forest, the deep recesses of the swamp, on the sea-coast or in
the clear woodlands, on the mountain or in the prairie, it advises him
of whatever birds may be there, or affords him a higher gratification,
announcing the presence of a bird that he does not know. We recognise no
more exquisite pleasure than to hear a note that we are not acquainted
with in the woods. It is in the latter case, too, that the cultivated
quickness of eye of the experienced collector is especially important,
and his coolness and steadiness of nerve is fully tested. It will not do
to be flustered. But in fact all these qualities must be possessed for
the acquirement of the smaller species of birds found in the woodlands.
Some species of Warblers, for instance, are constantly in motion in the
pursuit of insects, and are most frequently met with in the tops of
trees, and are, moreover, only to be killed with the finest shot, or
they are spoiled for specimens. The obtaining of these little birds
often requires the most accurate and skilful shooting.
There are comparatively few superior ornithological woodsmen, though we
are inclined to believe more amongst the naturalists of this country,
than of any other. There are some who never learn, though shooting for
years; and passages constantly occur in the works of authors,
notwithstanding their professions, and however honestly such may have
been made, exciting immediate suspicion that they were really little
skilled in woodcraft. We know men who have long been bird-collectors,
but who have never acquired the ability to distinguish species by their
notes, nor in fact otherwise to any considerable extent. On the other
hand, we have gone repeatedly on excursions of several miles, in company
with naturalists and accomplished woodsmen, for the sole purpose of
hearing the note of a single species with which they had not before had
an opportunity of becoming acquainted. This has been especially the case
with reference to the Prairie Warbler (_Sylvicola discolor_), which is
always to be met with in the summer, in the sandy thickets and in
neglected fields in New Jersey, and has several notes very peculiar and
characteristic.
It is by no means desirable, however, to be exclusively a naturalist of
the woods, and in fact the greatest degree of accomplishment that can be
acquired in this line, entitles one to but a very humble rank as a
cultivator of Zoology. There must be a combination of theoretical and
practical acquirements, and the gratification of the practical
naturalist or the collector will be exactly in proportion to his
scientific or systematic information, to be obtained only in the museum
and the library. There is an indescribably pitiful display of ignorance
and meanness of idea in arrogating, as some writers have done, a
superior position for the “field-naturalist” over the
“closet-naturalist.” As well might he who navigates a ship presume on
being the greatest of astronomers, or the practical gauger pretend to be
the only mathematician. Great is life in the woods, say we, and the
greatest of all sports is bird-collecting; but, to become a scientific
ornithologist, is quite another business, and a very much more
considerable consummation. But we have digressed from the Warblers.
In the neighborhood of the cities, and in fact throughout the Middle and
Northern States, during the last of April and the whole of May of every
year, numerous species of Warblers are to be found in abundance. It
happens occasionally though, that a species, usually common, is scarcely
to be seen in the whole season, and sometimes is rare for several
seasons in succession. The Black-throated blue Warbler (_Sylvicola
canadensis_), for instance, is generally very abundant in Pennsylvania
in May, and so is the Chestnut-sided (_S. icterocephala_); but we have
noticed seasons in which all the collectors of Philadelphia would
scarcely obtain a specimen of either. It sometimes happens, too, that a
species makes its appearance in considerable numbers, and then is of
much less common occurrence for years. This was the case with the
Blackburnian Warbler in May, 1840. That beautiful little bird was so
abundant, that our early and intimate friend, the late Mr. William R.
Spackman, then anxious to collect for the purposes of general study and
for exchanges, shot upwards of twenty specimens during a morning’s
excursion in company with us near Kaighn’s Point, New Jersey; and had
they been wanted, could readily have obtained a much larger number in
the afternoon, or, as termed by bird-collectors in common with
sportsmen, during “the evening fly.” It continued very plentiful through
the entire spring migration, but we have not seen it so abundant more
than once since, though fifteen years have elapsed.
Very erroneous impressions relative to the rarity of several species of
Warblers, have been created by statements which have found their way
into the works of both Wilson and Audubon. For instance, the former of
these celebrated authors says of the Chestnut-sided Warbler:—“In a whole
day’s excursion it is rare to meet with more than one or two of these
birds;”—the latter, at the time of the publication of the first volume
of his Ornithological Biography (1831), had met with this bird once only
(Orn. Biog. I., p. 306), and so it stands printed in his octavo edition
of “The Birds of America,” (II., p. 35, 1840.) These rather
extraordinary statements have caused the useless destruction of very
many specimens of this little bird, particularly by young collectors,
under a false estimate of its scarcity in collections, or value for the
purposes of science. There have been few months of May in the last
twenty years, in which any person of moderate skill as a collector of
birds, could not have obtained, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, as many
specimens of the Chestnut-sided Warbler as would have supplied all the
Museums in the world.
Again, in the months of September and October, Warblers are abundant in
our woods, but the plumage of many species is materially altered from
that of Spring. The student of ornithology must by no means, however,
neglect to become acquainted with it, and will find this knowledge
exceedingly valuable and interesting, as he advances in this branch of
science.
The bird represented in the plate now before the reader, is one of the
rarest as yet of the North American species of Warblers. Like several
others that are well established as species, it has been obtained once
only, which was in the vicinity of Cleveland, Ohio, by Professor J. P.
Kirtland, of that city, who presented it to Professor Baird, by whom its
discovery was first announced in the Annals of the New York Lyceum, as
cited below.
This species is related to the Yellow-crowned Warbler, or Myrtle Bird,
as it is sometimes called (_Sylvicola coronata_), a common species of
the United States, and to Audubon’s Warbler (_S. Auduboni_), a Western
species, but differs from them in strong and unmistakable characters. It
is probably a species inhabiting the more Western regions of the
continent of North America.
We are informed by Prof. Kirtland, that the specimen alluded to was shot
in the woods near Cleveland, and, so far as observed, was not noticed to
differ in habits essentially from _S. coronata_, or other of our species
of Warblers usually found migrating in the Spring. Though it was
captured in the Spring of 1852, and the species has been carefully
looked for ever since at the same season, it has never again been
observed.
The figure in our plate is about two-thirds the size of life.
The plant represented is a species of _Penstemon_ from Texas, raised in
the Horticultural establishment of Mr. Robert Kilvington, of this city.