_Sylvia peregrina_, WILS. Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 83, pl. xxv, fig. 2.—AUD.
Orn. Biog. II, pl. cliv. _Sylvicola per._ RICH. _Vermivora per._
BON. _Helinaia per._ AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. cx. _Helmitherus per._
BON. _Helminthophaga per._ CAB. Mus. Hein.—IB. Jour. Orn. 1861, 85
(Costa Rica).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 258; Rev. 178.—SCLATER &
SALVIN, Ibis, 1860, 31 (Guatemala).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 373
(Oaxaca); Catal. 1861, 29, no. 180.—LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc.
1861, 322 (Panama).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba, very
rare). _Sylvia tennessæi_, VIEILLOT, Encycl. Méth. II, 1823, 452.
_? Sylvia missuriensis_, MAX. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 117.
SP. CHAR. Top and sides of the head and neck ash-gray; rest of upper
parts olive-green, brightest on the rump. Beneath dull white, faintly
tinged in places, especially on the sides, with yellowish-olive.
Eyelids and a stripe over the eye whitish; a dusky line from the eye
to the bill. Outer tail-feather with a white spot along the inner edge
near the tip. _Female_ with the ash of the head less conspicuous; the
under parts more tinged with olive-yellow. Length, 4.50; wing, 2.75;
tail, 1.85.
HAB. Eastern Province of North America; Calais, Me.; north to Fort
Simpson, H. B. T.; Mexico; Oaxaca? Guatemala; Costa Rica; Panama R. R.
Very rare in Cuba. Veragua (SALVIN). Chiriqui (LAWRENCE).
Autumnal specimens and young birds are sometimes so strongly tinged
with greenish-yellow as to be scarcely distinguishable from _H.
celata_. The wing is, however, always longer, and the obscure whitish
patch on the inner edge of the exterior tail-feather, near its tip, is
almost always appreciable. In _celata_ this edge is very narrowly and
uniformly margined with whitish.
A young bird of the year, from Port Simpson (27,228), has two distinct
greenish-white bands on the wings, and the forehead and cheeks
greenish-yellow. A corresponding age of _H. celata_ has the wing-bands
more reddish-brown, the wings shorter, and no white patch on the outer
tail-feather.
HABITS. Like the Nashville Warbler the present species has received a
name inappropriate to one with so northern a distribution. It was
first obtained on the banks of the Cumberland River by Wilson, and has
since been known as the Tennessee Warbler. But two specimens were ever
obtained by him, and he regarded it as a very rare species. He found
them hunting nimbly among the young leaves, and thought they possessed
many of the habits of the Titmice. Their notes he described as few and
weak, and in their stomachs he found, upon dissection, small green
caterpillars and a few winged insects.
Mr. Audubon also regarded it as a rare species, and only three
specimens ever fell within his observations. These were obtained in
Louisiana and at Key West. He describes them as appearing to be
nimble, active birds, expert catchers of flies, and fond of hanging to
the extremities of branches, uttering a single mellow _tweet_ as they
fly from branch to branch in search of food, or while on the wing.
Mr. Nuttall appears not to have met with it. Dr. Richardson procured
only a single specimen at Cumberland House, in the latter part of May.
This was in a dense thicket of small trees, and was flying about among
the lower branches. He was unable to discover its nest, or to learn
anything in regard to its habits.
A little more light has since then been given both as to its
geographical distribution and its mode of nesting. Specimens of this
species have been obtained in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Oaxaca, Mexico,
and Panama. A specimen of this species was also taken in Colombia, S.
A., by Mr. C. W. Wyatt. Dr. Gundlach mentions it as occasionally found
in Cuba. Mr. Drexler secured specimens of it at Moose Factory and at
Fort George in the arctic regions. Specimens were taken by Mr. Bernard
R. Ross at Fort Simpson. Mr. Robert Kennicott met with it on the
northern shores of Lake Winnipeg, June 6. They were then abundant, and
had already mated. He again met with them at Fort Resolution, and Mr.
Clarke found them at Fort Rae, Mr. W. F. Hall in Maine, Mr. Bell on
the Upper Missouri, and Professor Baird in Pennsylvania. Mr. Ridgway
has obtained it both in spring and in fall in Southern Illinois, where
it is abundant in some seasons. It does not appear to occur on the
Pacific coast.
Mr. Boardman writes that the Tennessee Warbler is, in the summer time,
quite a common bird in St. Stephens and vicinity. Its notes, he adds,
resemble the low, subdued whistle of the common Summer Yellow-Bird.
Mr. Maynard found this Warbler very common near Lake Umbagog during
the breeding-season. It was found in all the wooded localities in the
regions north of the neighboring mountains. Its song, he states,
resembles that of _H. ruficapilla_, the notes of the first part being
more divided, while the latter part is shriller.
A nest of this Warbler (Smith. Coll., 3476), obtained on the northern
shore of Lake Superior by Mr. George Barnston, is but little more than
a nearly flat bed of dry, matted stems of grass, and is less than an
inch in thickness, with a diameter of about three inches. It is not
circular in shape, and its width is not uniform. Its position must
have been on some flat surface, probably the ground. The eggs resemble
those of all the family in having a white ground, over which are
profusely distributed numerous small dots and points of a
reddish-brown, and a few of a purplish-slate. They are of an
oblong-oval shape, and measure .68 by .50 of an inch.
A nest from near Springfield, Mass., obtained by Professor Horsford,
the parent bird having been secured, was built in a low clump of
bushes, just above the ground. It is well made, woven of fine hempen
fibres of vegetables, slender stems of grass, delicate mosses, and
other like materials, and very thoroughly lined with hair. It measures
two and three fourths inches in diameter and two in height. The cavity
is two inches wide and one and three fourths deep. The eggs measure
.60 by .50 of an inch, are oblong-oval in shape, their ground-color a
pearly white, marked in a corona, about the larger end, with brown and
purplish-brown spots.