_Parus americanus_, LINN. Syst. Nat. 10th ed. I, 1758, 190. _Motacilla
am._ GMELIN. _Sylvia am._ LATH., AUD. _Sylvicola am._ RICH.,
AUD.—JONES, Nat. in Bermuda, 1839, 59. _Parula am._ BON. List
Birds N. Am. 1838.—GOSSE, Birds Jam. 1847, 154 (Jamaica).—BAIRD,
Birds N. Am. 1858, 238; Rev. 169.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1857, 202
(Xalapa).—IB. Ibis, 1859, 10 (Guatemala).—IB. Catal. 1861, 26,
163.—NEWTON, Ibis, 1859, 143 (Santa Cruz; winter).—CASSIN, Pr. A.
N. S. 1860, 376 (St. Thomas).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326
(Cuba; very common). _Compsothlypis am._ CAB. Mus. Hein. 1850,
20.—IB. Jour. III, 1855, 476 (Cuba). _Ficedula ludoviciana_,
BRISSON. _Motacilla lud._ GM. _Motacilla eques_, BODD. _Sylvia
torquata_, VIEILL. _Thryothorus torq._ STEPHENS. _Sylvia pusilla_,
WILS. _Sylvicola pus._ SWAINS.
Figures: AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. xv.—IB. Birds Am. II, pl. xci.—VIEILL.
Ois. Am. II, pl. xcix.—WILS. Am. Orn. IV, pl. xxviii.—BUFFON, pl.
enl. dccxxxi, fig. 1; dccix, fig. 1.
SP. CHAR. Above blue, the middle of the back with a patch of
yellowish-green. Beneath yellow anteriorly, white behind. A
reddish-brown tinge across the breast. Lores and space round the eye
dusky; a small white spot on either eyelid; sides of head and neck
like the crown. Two conspicuous white bands on the wings. Outer two
tail-feathers with a conspicuous spot of white. _Female_ similar, with
less brown on the breast. Length, 4.75; wing, 2.34; tail, 1.90. Nest
of long moss.
HAB. Eastern Province of United States, north to the Lakes
(“Greenland”), west to the Missouri Valley; in winter, south to
Guatemala (not seen on the west coast of Mexico). West Indies;
Bahamas; Cuba; Jamaica; St. Croix; St. Thomas; Jalapa, Guatemala
(SCLATER); Orizaba, winter (SUMICHRAST); Yucatan (LAWRENCE); Porto
Rico and Inagua (BRYANT).
Autumnal males are browner on the chin, yellower on the throat and
jugulum. Head tinged with greenish; secondaries edged with
greenish-yellow. Autumnal females are light greenish-olive above,
dirty-white beneath.
[Illustration: _Parula americana._
2219]
In very brightly colored spring males, there is frequently (as in
58,335, Philadelphia) a well-defined, broad blackish band across the
jugulum, anterior to an equally distinct and rather broader one across
the breast, of a brown tint, spotted with black, while the sides are
much spotted with chestnut-brown; the blue above is very pure, and the
green patch on the back very sharply defined.
HABITS. The Blue Yellow-Back is one of our most interesting and
attractive Warblers. Nowhere very abundant, it has a well-marked and
restricted area within which it is sparingly distributed. It is found
from the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic, and from Canada
southward. In its winter migrations it visits the West Indies, the
Bahamas, and Central and South America. Halifax on the east, and
Platte River on the west, appear to be the northern limit of its
distribution. Dr. Woodhouse met with it in the Indian Territory during
the breeding-season. Mr. Alfred Newton found this species, apparently
only a winter visitant, in the island of St. Croix. Most of the birds
left about the middle of March, though a few remained until early in
May.
A single specimen of this species was taken at South Greenland in
1857.
This Warbler has been found breeding as far to the south as
Tuckertown, N. J., by Mr. W. S. Wood; and at Cape May, in the same
State, by Mr. John Krider. At Washington, Dr. Coues found it only a
spring and autumn visitant, exceedingly abundant from April 25 to May
15. Possibly a few remained to breed, as he met with them in the first
week of August. In the fall they were again abundant from August 25 to
the second week in October. He found them inhabiting exclusively high
open woods, and usually seen in the tops of the trees, or at the
extremities of the branches, in the tufts of leaves and blossoms.
Even where most common it is not an abundant species, and is to be
found only in certain localities, somewhat open and swampy thickets,
usually not of great extent, and prefers those well covered with the
long gray lichens known as Spanish moss. In such localities only, so
far as I know, do they breed.
This Warbler has also been ascertained to breed in Southern Illinois,
where Mr. Ridgway found it in July, engaged in feeding fully fledged
young birds. It is there most common in spring and fall.
A true Warbler in most of its attributes, this bird has many of the
habits of Titmice. Like these it frequents the tops of the taller
trees, feeding on the small winged insects and caterpillars that
abound among the young leaves and blossoms. It has no song, properly
so called, its notes are feeble and few, and can be heard only a short
distance.
The song of this species is said by Mr. Trippe, of Orange, N. Y., to
be a somewhat sharp and lisping, yet quite varied and pleasing, series
of notes.
Mr. Audubon speaks of this species as breeding in Louisiana, but his
description of the nest differs so entirely from such as are met with
in Massachusetts as to suggest doubts as to the correctness of the
identification. He describes them as flitting over damp places, the
edges of ponds and streams, and pursuing their prey with great
activity. They resort to the woods as soon as the foliage appears on
the forest trees, and glean among the leaves for the smaller winged
insects.
The nests of this Warbler, so far as has fallen under my observation,
have always been made of long gray lichens still attached to the trees
on which they grow. With great skill do these tiny architects gather
up, fasten together, and interweave, one with the other, the hanging
ends and longer branches. By an elaborate intertwining of these long
fibres they form the principal part, sometimes the whole, of their
nests. These structures are at once simple, beautiful, ingenious, and
skilfully wrought. When first made, they are somewhat rude and
unfinished, but as their family are gathered, the eggs deposited,
incubated, and hatched, a change has been going on. Little by little
has the male bird busied himself, when not procuring food for his
mate, in improving, strengthening, and enlarging the nest. These same
acts of improvement upon the original nests are noticed with
Humming-Birds, Vireos, and a few other birds.
The nests are sometimes constructed on the sides of trunks of trees,
when covered with the long gray lichens, but are more frequently found
hanging from branches usually not more than six or eight feet from the
ground. Thus surrounded by long hanging mosses in clumps not
distinguishable from the nests themselves, they would not be readily
recognized were it not that those familiar with the habits of the bird
may be readily guided to the spot by the artless movements of the
unsuspecting parents.
These birds are confiding, easily approached, and rarely exhibit any
signs of alarm. Even when their nest is disturbed they make but little
complaint, and do not manifest any very great signs of emotion. When
built against a trunk these nests consist only of an interweaving of
the moss above and below a very small opening, within which a small
cup-shaped flooring has been made of the same material, and usually
cannot be removed without destroying all semblance of a nest. When
pensile they are imperfectly circular in shape, with an entrance on
one side, and rarely with any lining. Occasionally they are models of
symmetry and beauty.
The eggs, four or five in number, have a clear white ground, and are
sparingly spotted with markings of reddish-brown, slate, purple, and
lilac. In some the first predominate, in other the last three shades
are more abundant, and usually form a confluent ring around the larger
end. They measure from .62 to .65 of an inch in length, and from .49
to .50 in breadth.