_Sylvia cærulea_, WILS. Am. Orn. II, 1810, 141, pl. xvii, fig. 5.
_Sylvicola c._ SWAINS.; JARD.; RICH.; BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl.
xlix; NUTT. _Dendroica c._ BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 280; Rev.
191.—GUNDL. Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very rare).—SAMUELS, 579.
_Sylvia rara_, WILSON, II, pl. xxvii, fig. 2.—BON.; AUD. Orn.
Biog. I, pl. xlix. _Sylvia azurea_, STEPH. Shaw, Zoöl. X,
1817.—BON. Am. Orn. II, 1828, pl. xxvii (♀).—AUD. Orn. Biog. I,
pl. xlviii, xlix; NUTT. _Sylvia bifasciata_, SAY, Long’s Exped. I,
1823, 170. _Sylvia populorum_, VIEILL. Encyc. Méth. II, 1823, 449
(from Wilson).
Other localities: _Bogota_, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1857, 18. _Panama R.
R._, LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322. _Yucatan_, LAWR.
_Veragua_, SALV.
SP. CHAR. _Male._ Above bright blue, darkest on the crown, tinged with
ash on the rump; middle of back, scapulars, upper tail-coverts, and
sides of the crown, streaked with black. Beneath white; a collar
across the breast, and streaks on the sides, dusky-blue. Lores, and a
line through and behind the eye (where it is bordered above by
whitish), dusky-blue; paler on the cheeks. Two white bands on the
wings. All the tail-feathers except the innermost with a white patch
on the inner web near the end. _Female_, greenish-blue above,
brightest on the crown; beneath white, tinged with greenish-yellow,
and obsoletely streaked on the sides; eyelids and a superciliary line
greenish-white. Length, 4.25; wing, 2.65; tail, 1.90.
HAB. Eastern United States, north to Niagara Falls; Cuba (very rare);
Guatemala; Veragua, Panama, and Bogota. Not recorded from Mexico
(except Yucatan), or West Indies (except Cuba).
The autumnal adult plumage of both sexes is, in every respect, exactly
like the spring dress. Young males in late summer are very similar to
adult females, but are purer white below, and less uniform
greenish-blue above, the dark stripes on sides of the crown and black
centres to scapulars being quite conspicuous; the young female, at the
same season, is similar in pattern to the adult, but is dull green
above, without any tinge of blue, and light buffy-yellow below.
There is considerable variation in adult males, especially in the
width of the pectoral collar; one (No. 60,877, Mt. Carmel, Wabash Co.,
Ill., Aug. 9) has this entirely interrupted. In this individual there
is no trace of a whitish supra-auricular streak; while others from the
same locality, and obtained at the same date, have the band across the
jugulum continuous, and a quite distinct white streak over the
ear-coverts.
HABITS. Of this somewhat rare Warbler very little is as yet well
known. Its habits and distribution during the breeding-season need
more light than we now possess to enable us to give its story with any
degree of exactness. Its appearance in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois,
and Missouri early in May, when Warblers that go north to breed are on
their way, at first suggested its belonging to that class. It is not
known to proceed any farther north, except in accidental instances;
though the writer has been assured, and has no reason to doubt the
fact, that it abounds and breeds in the neighborhood of Niagara Falls.
I can find no good evidence that it ever occurs in Massachusetts.
Individuals have been obtained in northern South America, Panama, and
Cuba. Dr. Woodhouse describes it as quite common in Texas and in the
Indian Territory, where it breeds, as he obtained both the old and the
young birds. It was also abundant among the timbered lands of the
Arkansas and its tributaries. It was not obtained in any other of the
government expeditions, nor was it found in Arizona by Dr. Coues. Mr.
T. M. Trippe noticed a single individual near Orange, N. Y. Wilson
supposed them to breed in Pennsylvania, though he was never able to
find their nests. He usually met with these birds in marshes or on the
borders of streams among the branches of poplars. Their habits were
those of the Flycatchers. He saw none later than the 20th of August.
Describing this species as the Blue-green Warbler, as met with by him
on the banks of the Cumberland early in April, he mentions its
gleaning for food among the upper branches of the tallest trees,
rendering it difficult to be procured. Its resemblance, in habits, to
Flycatchers, he again remarks. Its only note was a feeble _cheep_.
According to Audubon, this Warbler appears in Louisiana, where it also
breeds early in spring, and leaves the first of October. Like all its
family, it is quite lively, has a similar flight, moves sideways up
and down the branches, and hangs from the ends of the twigs in its
search for insects.
Mr. Audubon also states that the liveliness of the notes of this
Warbler renders it conspicuous in the forests, the skirts of which it
frequents. Its song, though neither loud nor of long continuance, he
speaks of as extremely sweet and mellow. He found it as numerous in
the State of Louisiana as any other Warbler, so that he could
sometimes obtain five or six in a single walk.
The nest he describes as placed in the forks of a low tree or bush,
partly pensile, projecting a little above the twigs to which it is
attached, and extending below them nearly two inches. The outer part
is composed of the fibres of vines and the stalks of herbaceous
plants, with slender roots arranged in a circular manner. The nest is
lined with fine dry fibres of the Spanish moss. The eggs are five in
number, of a pure white with a few reddish spots about the larger end.
When disturbed during incubation, the female is said to trail along
the branches with drooping wings and plaintive notes, in the manner of
_D. æstiva_. After the young have left the nest, they move and hunt
together, in company with their parents, evincing great activity in
the pursuit of insects. They are also said to have a great partiality
for trees the tops of which are thickly covered with grapevines, and
to occasionally alight on tall weeds, feeding upon their seeds.
In his visit to Texas, Mr. Audubon met a large number of these birds
apparently coming from Mexico. On one occasion he encountered a large
flock on a small island.
Mr. Nuttall mentions finding these birds very abundant in Tennessee
and also in West Florida.
In only a single instance has the writer met with this Warbler. This
was about the middle of June, at the Fairmount Water Works in the city
of Philadelphia, where, among the tops of the trees, a single
individual was busily engaged in hunting insects, undisturbed by the
large numbers and vicinity of visitors to the grounds. It kept in the
tops of the trees, moving about with great agility.
Mr. Ridgway gives the Cærulean Warbler as the most abundant species of
its genus in the Lower Wabash Valley, not only during the spring and
fall migrations, but also in the summer, when it breeds more
plentifully even than the _D. æstiva_. It inhabits, however, only the
deep woods of the bottom lands, where it is seldom seen, and only to
be distinguished by the naturalist. Inhabiting, mostly, the tree-tops,
it is an inconspicuous bird, and thus one that easily escapes notice.
In its habits it is perhaps less interesting than others of its genus,
being so retired, and possessing only the most feeble notes.
Dendroica blackburniæ, BAIRD.