half tones. Single songs range from half a tone to three tones, the
majority covering one and a half or two tones. The length of the songs
is from 1-1/5 to 2 seconds. This indicates the slowness of the three or
four notes, for other warbler songs with twice as many notes are about
the same length. In the few songs of this bird that have more notes the
notes are shorter and faster, so that the songs are not longer.
"This species shows a greater tendency to sing unusual songs than most
warblers. On three occasions I have heard a warbler song that I could
not recognize, and when I located the bird, found it to be a
black-throated blue.
"Two of these songs were of rapid notes, in a clear, ringing quality,
not at all like the ordinary song of this bird. The third was two rather
long notes in a clear, sweet whistle, the second higher in pitch than
the first, so that it resembled the _phoebe_ whistle of the chickadee
reversed.
"The average date of the last song in 14 summers in Allegany State Park
is July 21. The earliest is July 14, 1927 and 1940, and the latest July
29, 1931. The song is rarely revived in August, after the molt."
Francis H. Allen (MS.) writes the two common songs as "_quee quee
quee-e-e´_" and "_que-que-que-que quee-ee´_," and says further, "in June
1907, I heard a bird in Shelburne, Vt., that sang persistently a short
song like _k[=u] quee-e-e´_ besides singing occasionally one of the
ordinary songs. In May, 1910, at Jaffrey, N. H., I heard a bird sing
over and over _qui-qui-qui-qui-qui-qui-qui-qui-quee´_, but most of the
birds of the region seemed to sing _zee zee zee-ee_, with a falling
inflection, while some sang the ordinary _quee quee quee-e-e´_, with
rising inflection. The _quee_ songs have a nasal tone. The call note is
a dry _chut_ or _chet_, resembling the _chip_ of the black-throated
green but not so thick."
Mrs. Nice (1930b) describes four different songs; and Gerald Thayer, in
Chapman (1907), gives four main songs, with variations, but the
versatility of this singer seems to be well enough shown in the previous
descriptions.
_Field marks._--The male black-throated blue warbler could hardly be
mistaken for anything else; there is no other American warbler that is
at all like it. The blue back, the extensive black throat, the white
patch near the bases of the primaries, the white under parts, and the
white spots on the inner webs of the three outer tail feathers are all
diagnostic. Fortunately, the fall plumage is essentially the same. But
the female is one of the most difficult of the warblers to recognize,
olive-green above and buffy below; the only distinctive marks are the
white patches in the wings and tail, similar to those of the male, but
smaller, duller, and sometimes obscure.
_Fall._--As soon as the molting season is over, late in August, old and
young birds begin to drift away from their summer haunts; most of them
depart from New England during September or even late August. Birds from
New England and farther north pass through the Atlantic Coast States to
Florida and the West Indies, while those from the interior migrate
slightly southeastward and across the lower Alleghenies to join them.
Professor Cooke (1904) writes:
Black-throated blue warblers strike the lighthouse at Sombrero Key in
greater numbers than any other kind of bird, particularly during the
fall migration. * * * In five years' time they struck the light on
seventy-seven nights, and as a result 450 dead birds were picked up on
the platform under the lantern. Probably a still larger number fell
into the sea. Adding to these those that were merely stunned and that
remained on the balcony under the light until able to resume their
journey, the keeper counted 2,000 birds that struck. There were two
nights, however, when the numbers of this species were so great that no
attempt was made to count them. The Fowey Rocks lighthouse was struck
on thirty different nights. It is certain, therefore, that the
black-throated blue warbler passes in enormous numbers along both coasts
of southern Florida.
_Winter._--Professor Cooke (1904) observes that "the winter home of the
black-throated blue warbler is better defined than that of any other
common warbler, and allows a very exact determination of the square
miles of territory occupied by it at this season. Cuba, Haiti, and
Jamaica, with a combined area of 74,000 square miles, are doubtless
occupied during the winter by the great majority of the individuals of
the species. The remaining birds do not probably cover enough territory
to bring the total to 80,000 square miles. This is a small area compared
with that occupied during the breeding season." In his Birds of Cuba,
Dr. Thomas Barbour (1923) writes:
The Black-throated Blue Warbler is excessively common, early to arrive
and late to leave. It is one of the tamest and most confiding species,
and one to be found in all sorts of situations. Early pleasant days in
Cuba spent at Edwin Atkins' plantation, Soledad, near Cienfuegos,
brought a great surprise, for I found it not uncommon to have these
little Warblers enter my room through the great ever open windows and
flit from couch to chair. This happened often, notably at Guabairo, not
far from Soledad. So inquisitive and confiding are they, that one can
hardly recognize the rather retiring dweller in woodland solitude which
we know in the North.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Eastern North America, from southern Canada to northern South
America.
_Breeding range._--The black-throated blue warbler breeds =north= to
southwestern and central Ontario (Lac Seul, Kapuskasing, and Lake
Timiskaming); and southern Quebec (Blue Sea Lake, Quebec, Godbout, and
Mingan). =East= to southern Quebec (Mingan, Grand Grève, and the
Magdalen Islands); eastern Nova Scotia (Cape Breton Island and Halifax);
southern Maine (Ellsworth and Auburn); southeastern Massachusetts
(Taunton); Connecticut (Hadlyme); northeastern Pennsylvania (Lords
Valley and Pocono Mountain); and southward through the Alleghanies to
Northwestern South Carolina (Mountain Rest); northeastern Georgia (Rabun
Bald, Brasstown Bald, and Young Harris). =South= to northern Georgia
(Young Harris); southeastern Tennessee (Beersheba Springs); southeastern
Kentucky (Log Mountain and Black Mountain); northeastern Ohio (Wayne
Township and Pymatuning Bog); northern Michigan (Douglas Lake and
Wequetonsing); northern Wisconsin (Fish Creek, Mamie Lake, and
Perkinstown); and northern Minnesota (Kingsdale, Cass Lake, and White
Earth; possibly sometimes near Minneapolis). =West= to northern
Minnesota (White Earth) and western Ontario (Lac Seul). The species very
probably breeds rarely in Manitoba or Saskatchewan where there are as
yet only a few records and it is a recent arrival. At Emma Lake,
Saskatchewan, 40 miles north of Prince Albert, 5 were observed June 27
to July 2, 1939. The first record for the Province was a specimen
collected on October 21, 1936, at Percival, 100 miles east of Regina. It
is a rare but tolerably regular migrant through eastern North and South
Dakota, suggesting that there is some as yet unknown breeding area. The
species has been recorded in migration, more often in fall, in Wyoming,
Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Observers at Aweme, Manitoba, in 38 years recorded it only twice.
Another observer at Eastend, southwestern Saskatchewan, recorded it for
the first time on September 21, 1937, after at least twenty years of
continuous observation.
On the basis of such information it seems probable that the species is
slowly spreading its breeding range westward.
_Winter range._--The principal winter home of the black-throated blue
warbler is in the West Indies where it is found =north= to the Bahamas
(Andros, Nassau, and Watling Islands). =East= to Puerto Rico (Río
Piedras) and the Virgin Islands (St. Croix). =South= to Puerto Rico
(Maricas); Hispaniola (Paraíso, Dominican Republic; and Jérémie, Haiti);
Jamaica (Spanishtown); and the Swan Islands. =West= to the Swan Islands;
Cozumel Island; Cuba (Habana); and the Bahamas (Andros). It is also
casual north to southern Florida (Sanibel Island, Key West, and Sombrero
Key); accidental in Guatemala (Cobán); and in northern South America;
Venezuela (Ocumare and Rancho Grande); and Colombia (Las Nubes, Santa
Marta region, and Pueblo Viejo).
The species as outlined is divided into two subspecies or geographic
races. The black-throated blue warbler (_D. c. caerulescens_) is found
in Canada and in the United States south to Pennsylvania; Cairns'
warbler (_D. c. cairnsi_) breeds in the Appalachian Mountains from
southwestern Pennsylvania southward.
_Migration._--Late dates of departure from the winter home are: Puerto
Rico--Consumo, April 3. Haiti--Morne à Cabrits, May 6. Cuba--Habana, May
11. Bahamas--Cay Lobos, May 14.
Early dates of spring arrival are: Florida--Fort Myers, March 4.
Georgia--Fitzgerald, April 11. South Carolina--Spartanburg, April 5.
North Carolina--Weaverville, April 19. Virginia--Lynchburg, April 21.
District of Columbia--Washington, April 19. Pennsylvania--Swarthmore,
April 25. New York--New York, April 28. Massachusetts--Amherst, May 2.
New Hampshire--East Westmoreland, April 29. Maine--Auburn, May 3.
Nova Scotia--Scotch Lake, May 7. Quebec--Quebec, May 7.
Louisiana--New Orleans, March 22. Tennessee--Chattanooga, April 14.
Kentucky--Lexington, April 24. Illinois--Urbana, April 26. Ohio--Canton,
April 22. Michigan--Battle Creek, April 28. Ontario--Reaboro, May 3.
Missouri--St. Louis, April 18. Iowa--Sigourney, April 21.
Wisconsin--Ripon, April 28. Minnesota--Hibbing, May 8.
Late dates of the departure of transients in spring are:
Florida--Daytona Beach, May 21. Georgia--Darien, May 20. South
Carolina--Clemson (College), May 15. North Carolina--Raleigh, May 19.
Virginia--Charlottesville, May 22. District of Columbia--Washington, May
30. Pennsylvania--Berwyn, June 3. Ohio--Ashtabula, May 29. Indiana--Fort
Wayne, June 2. Michigan--Detroit, June 2. Illinois--Lake Forest, June 8.
Wisconsin--Racine, June 4. Iowa--National, May 27.
Late dates of fall departure are: North Dakota--Fargo, October 21 (bird
banded). Minnesota--Minneapolis, October 3. Wisconsin--Milwaukee,
October 16. Iowa--Sigourney, October 20. Illinois--Chicago, October 25.
Michigan--Grand Rapids, November 1. Indiana--Indianapolis, October 14.
Ontario--Port Dover, October 27. Ohio--Medina, October 30.
Kentucky--Eubank, October 22. Tennessee--Athens, October 18.
Mississippi--Gulfport, October 12. Quebec--Montreal, October 15. New
Brunswick--Saint John, October 11. Maine--Portland, October 17. New
Hampshire--Water Village, October 8. Massachusetts--Cambridge, November
7. New York--Fire Island, October 24. Pennsylvania--Harrisburg, October
24. District of Columbia--Washington, October 29. Virginia--Lexington,
October 15. North Carolina--Highlands, November 14. South
Carolina--Clemson (College), October 17. Georgia--Athens, November 2.
Florida--Fernandina, November 15.
Early dates of fall arrival are: Wisconsin--New London, August 23.
Michigan--Grand Rapids, August 26. Ohio--Toledo, August 24. Illinois--La
Grange, August 24. District of Columbia--Washington, August 21.
Virginia--Charlottesville, September 12. North Carolina--Mount Mitchell,
September 1. South Carolina--Mount Pleasant, August 30.
Georgia--Savannah, August 28. Florida--Coconut Grove, August 29.
Cuba--Cienfuegos, September 2. Dominican Republic--El Río, October 5.
Puerto Rico--Las Marías, October 12.
_Casual records._--On the Farallon Islands, Calif., a specimen was found
dead on November 17, 1886; it had been previously observed for three
weeks. In New Mexico a specimen was taken at Gallinas Mountain on
October 8, 1904, and on October 9, 1938 another was collected in Milk
Ranch Canyon near Fort Wingate. In Bermuda a specimen was collected
October 2, 1902; and it is considered a rare winter visitor. An
individual spending the winter at a feeding stand in the suburbs of
Washington, D. C., was observed closely from December 22, 1930, to
January 16, 1931.
At sea the black-throated blue warbler has been observed on October 27,
1921, 12 hours run out from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, toward New York; and
on March 29, 1918, in the Gulf of Mexico, 125 miles from Sabine Pass,
La.
_Destruction at lighthouses._--Lighthouses with fixed white lights have
caused considerable destruction of bird life during migration and the
black-throated blue warbler seems to have been especially lured to those
in southern Florida. Records were received from several of these
lighthouses over a period of 5 or 6 years. Those from Sombrero Key are
most detailed and give an interesting picture of migration at that
point, since they include date, weather conditions, number of birds that
struck, number killed, and hours during which the birds struck the
light.
Comparatively fewer birds struck the light in spring than in fall. The
spring dates are from March 9 to May 29; but in 4 years birds are
reported to have struck the light only on 24 nights and 4 individuals is
the greatest number reported.
In the fall, the records extend from September 3 to December 5, the
heaviest nights being from the middle of September to late October. In
two different years birds struck the light on 19 nights in two months.
The greatest number in one night was 400 with 56 killed. In one of those
years 1146 birds struck the light; of these 193 were killed. It was not
only on stormy nights that the birds were attracted, as 130 struck and
15 were killed on a night described as calm and dark. Sometimes they
kept striking all night, but on others the flight seems to have been
concentrated, as when 300 birds struck in 3-1/2 hours. On a few
occasions the mortality was as high as one-third of the birds that
struck.
On the night of January 26, 1886, two birds struck the light. These were
either wintering birds or extremely early migrants.
_Egg dates._--Massachusetts: 6 records, May 28 to July 5; 3 records,
June 2 to 8.
New Hampshire: 17 records, June 3 to 22; 9 records, June 10 to 15.
New York: 51 records, May 29 to June 20; 37 records, June 3 to 12,
indicating the height of the season.
Pennsylvania: 57 records, May 25 to June 26; 32 records, May 30 to June
6.
North Carolina: 10 records, May 5 to June 22; 6 records, June 4 to 11.
Virginia: 19 records, May 26 to June 18; 14 records, May 27 to June 4
(Harris).
DENDROICA CAERULESCENS CAIRNSI Coues
CAIRNS' WARBLER
PLATE 31
HABITS
This local race of the black-throated blue warbler, breeding in the
southern Alleghenies, was named by Dr. Elliott Coues (1897) in honor of
its discoverer and original describer, John S. Cairns of Weaverville,
N.C. Dr. Coues, at that time, mentioned only the characters of the male,
but those of the female are fully as well, perhaps more satisfactorily,
marked than those of the male. Ridgway (1902) describes both very well
and concisely as follows:
"Similar to _D. c. caerulescens_, but adult male darker above,
especially the pileum, which is not lighter blue than the back, the
latter usually more or less spotted or clouded with black, sometimes
chiefly black, the pileum sometimes streaked with black; adult female
darker and duller olive above and less yellowish beneath, with the
olive of flanks darker and more strongly contrasted with the pale
olive-yellowish of abdomen." In discussing its distribution, he was
unable to define its breeding range with any degree of accuracy; and
adds in a footnote: "On the whole, the form is not a very satisfactory
one, one of the two characters on which it was based (smaller size)
failing altogether (_D. c. cairnsi_ averaging slightly larger, in fact,
than _D. c. caerulescens_), and the other only partially so, since many
specimens of _D. c. cairnsi_ have little if any black on the back, while
many of _D. c. caerulescens_ have quite as much as the average amount
shown in _D. c. cairnsi_."
The 1931 A. O. U. Check-List gives the breeding range of _cairnsi_ as
from Maryland to Georgia, but no definite line can be drawn; birds from
southern Pennsylvania and Maryland, and perhaps the Virginias, are
variably intermediate in their characters, and specimens can be found
that are referable to either one or the other form.
Before this race had been separated from the northern form, Cairns
(1896) wrote of its haunts:
High up on the heavily timbered mountain ranges of western North
Carolina is the summer home of the Black-throated Blue Warbler.
Here in precipitous ravines, amid tangled vines and moss-covered logs,
where the sun's rays never penetrate the rank vegetation and the air is
always cool, dwells the happy little creature, filling the woods from
dawn to twilight with its song. * * *
These birds are a local race; breeding from one generation to another.
They arrive from the south nearly ten days earlier than those that pass
through the valleys on their northward migration. It is common to
observe migrants through the valleys while breeders on the higher
mountains are already nest-building and rearing their young.
This statement agrees with Professor Cooke's (1904) later data, and
with his statement: "The species is one of the few that appear in the
mountains earlier than on the plains, and the case seems to sustain the
theory that the individuals of a species that breed farthest south are
the first to migrate in the spring."
_Nesting._--Cairns (1896) writes on this subject:
Nesting begins in May and continues until the end of June. The nests are
placed in various shrubs, such as laurel, wild gooseberry, and chestnut,
but the blue cohosh or papoose-root (_Caulophyllum thalictroides_) seems
to be the favorite. These thick weeds grow rapidly to a height of from
three to five feet, entirely hiding the ground, and thus afford the
birds considerable protection. * * * The nests are never placed over
three feet from the ground; usually about eighteen inches; one I
examined was only six inches. * * *
The nests show little variation in their construction, though some are
more substantially built than others. Exteriorly they are composed of
rhododendron or grapevine bark, interwoven with birch-bark, moss,
spider-webs, and occasionally bits of rotten wood. The interior is
neatly lined with hair-like moss, resembling fine black roots, mixed
with a few sprays of bright red moss, forming a strikingly beautiful
contrast to the pearly eggs. The female gathers all the materials, and
builds rapidly, usually completing a nest in from four to six days if
the weather is favorable. She is usually accompanied by the male, which,
however, does not assist her in any way.
Bruce P. Tyler of Johnson City, Tenn., has sent me some fine photographs
(pl. 31) of the nests of this warbler, and says in his notes: "The
Cairns warbler is found breeding in May, and later, on the southerly
slope of Beech Mountain, just across the Tennessee line in North
Carolina, at an elevation of 4,800 to 5,200 feet above sea level. The
nest is built in small upright saplings or sprouts, 3 to 4 feet above
the ground, and is constructed of shredded bark from the dying chestnut
trees, rotten wood, etc., bound together with spiders' webs, and lined
with fern rootlets and fine grass."
Thomas D. Burleigh (1927a) records four nests found, during May and
June, on the slopes of Brasstown Bald in the northeastern part of
Georgia: Two of these were in laurel bushes, 2 and 2-1/2 feet from the
ground; another was 2 feet up in the fork of a small viburnum; and the
fourth was 5 feet from the ground, "saddled near the end of a drooping
limb of a rhododendron at the base of a large yellow birch well up the
mountainside." A nest in my collection was taken by H. H. Bailey in
Giles County, Va., at an elevation of 4,000 feet, on May 22, 1914; it
was placed in a horsechestnut sprout alongside of a road, 1 foot above
the ground. This and another nest before me are very similar to those
described above.
_Eggs._--The 3 or 4 eggs laid by Cairn's warbler are practically
indistinguishable from those of the black-throated blue warbler. The
measurements of 30 eggs average 17.3 by 12.7 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =19.0= by 13.0, 17.9 by =13.4=, and
=16.0= by =12.0= millimeters (Harris).
DENDROICA CORONATA CORONATA (Linnaeus)
EASTERN MYRTLE WARBLER
PLATES 31-33
HABITS
We used to call this the yellow-rumped warbler, a none too distinctive
name, as other warblers have yellow rumps. Another early and slightly
better name, "yellow-crowned wood warbler," reflected the scientific
name _coronata_ and was based on the old Edwards name "golden-crowned
fly-catcher." The present name, Eastern myrtle warbler, comes from its
fondness for the berries of the waxmyrtle (_Myrica cerifera_); and in
the south, where it is common in winter, it is often called the
myrtlebird.
Next to the yellow warbler, this is probably the best known of the wood
warblers and is about the second one of the group that the novice learns
to recognize. All through the eastern United States this is by far the
most abundant warbler on both migrations, being about the first to
arrive in the spring and the last to leave in the fall, often remaining
all winter nearly up to the southern limits of its breeding range. It is
a large, conspicuous warbler, not at all shy, and is to be found almost
anywhere, often in enormous numbers. The breeding range of the species
is one of the most extensive, extending from the tree limit in Alaska
and northern Canada down through the coniferous forests into the
northern tier of States, and even farther south in the mountains. Its
winter range is still more extensive. It spends the winter farther
north than any other wood warbler, although more or less sparingly and
irregularly in the northern States, and its range extends through the
Bahamas, the northern West Indies, Mexico, and Central America to
Panamá. There is no wonder that it is well known. But neither Wilson,
Audubon, nor Nuttall ever found its nest.
_Spring._--Professor Cooke (1904) writes:
The myrtle warbler is one of the first migrants to move northward. A
large flight struck the Alligator Reef lighthouse February 23, 1892, and
some 60 birds struck the Sombrero Key lighthouse March 3, 1889. By the
middle of March migration is well under way over all the winter range,
and the foremost birds keep close behind the disappearance of frost.
* * * By the last of March all the myrtle warblers have departed from
Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, and the Bahamas. The latest recorded date of
striking of this species at any of the Florida lighthouses is April 3,
1889. By the middle of the month the latest northbound birds have left
southern Florida. * * * Most of the migrants cross the Rio Grande into
Texas about the middle of March, and it is the middle of April before
the last have passed north.
Charles L. Whittle (1922) witnessed a heavy migration of myrtle warblers
along the coastal islands of South Carolina on March 4, 1920, that
seemed to have been influenced largely by the presence of the waxmyrtle
(_Myrica cerifera_). He says: