_Motacilla blackburniæ_, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 977. _Sylvia
bl._ LATH.; WILSON, III, pl. xxiii.—NUTT.; AUD. Orn. Biog. II, V,
pl. cxxxv, cccxcix. _Sylvicola bl._ JARD.; RICH.; AUD. Birds Am.
II, pl. lxxxvii. _Rhimanphus bl._ CAB. Mus. Hein. 1850, 19.
_Dendroica bl._ BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 274; Rev. 189.—SCLATER &
SALVIN, Ibis, 1859, 11 (Guatemala).—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1859, 363
(Xalapa); IB. 1860, 64 (Ecuador).—IB. Catal. 1861, 30, no. 187
(Pallatanga and Nanegal, Ecuador).—SAMUELS, 227.—SUNDEVALL, Ofv.
1869, 611.—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 478. _? Motacilla chrysocephala_,
GMELIN, I, 1788, 971 (_Figuier orangé et F. étranger_, BUFF. V,
313, pl. lviii, fig. 3, Guiana). _Sylvia parus_, WILS. V, pl.
xliv, fig. 3.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxxxiv. _Sylvicola parus_,
AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxiii. _Sylvia lateralis_, STEPH. _?
Motacilla incana_, GMEL. I, 1788, 976. _Sylvia incana_, LATH.;
VIEILL. _? Sylvia melanorhoa_, VIEILL. Nouv. Dict. XI, 1817, 180
(Martinique).—IB. Encycl. Méth. II, 444.
Localities quoted: _Bogota_, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1855, 143. _Panama_,
LAWR. Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VII, 62. _Costa Rica_, CAB. Jour. 1860, 328.
_Bahamas_, BRYANT, Bost. Pr. VII, 1859. _Veragua_, SALVIN.
_Orizaba_ (winter; rare), SUMICHRAST.
SP. CHAR. Upper parts nearly uniform black, with a whitish scapular
stripe and a large white patch in the middle of the wing-coverts. An
oblong patch in the middle of the crown, and the entire side of the
head and neck (including a superciliary stripe from the nostrils), the
chin, throat, and forepart of the breast, bright orange-red. A black
stripe from the commissure passing around the lower half of the eye,
and including the ear-coverts; with, however, an orange crescent in
it, just below the eye, the extreme lid being black. Rest of under
parts white, strongly tinged with yellowish-orange on the breast and
belly, and streaked with black on the sides. Outer three tail-feathers
white, the shafts and tips dark brown; the fourth and fifth spotted
much with white; the other tail-feathers and quills almost black.
_Female_ similar; the colors duller; the feathers of the upper parts
with olivaceous edges. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.83; tail, 2.25.
HAB. Eastern Province of United States; Eastern Mexico, and south to
Bogota and Ecuador; Bahamas alone of West Indies with certainty.
Autumnal males resemble the females. They have two white bands instead
of one; the black stripes on the sides are larger; under parts
yellowish; the throat yellowish, passing into purer yellow behind.
Autumnal young birds have the same pattern of coloration, but the dark
portions are dull grayish-umber, with the streaks very obsolete, and
the light parts dull buffy-white, tinged with yellow on the jugulum;
there is neither clear black, bright yellow, nor pure white on the
plumage, except the latter on the wing-bands and tail-patches.
HABITS. This somewhat rare and very beautiful Warbler requires
additional investigation into its habits before its history can be
regarded as satisfactorily known. Save in reference to its wider
distribution during its southern migrations, little more is known as
to its habits than where Audubon left its history nearly thirty years
since. The Smithsonian collection has specimens from Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois, and from Central America. Mr.
Sclater has received specimens from Mexico, and from Ecuador in South
America. Other writers mention having specimens from Guiana,
Martinique, and Panama, and Dr. Bryant found it in the Bahamas. It is
thus known to have a wide distribution from the Atlantic to the
Mississippi River, as far to the north probably as Labrador. Its area
of reproduction is not known with exactness, but the southern limit is
supposed to be the high wooded districts of Pennsylvania, New York,
and New England. A young bird was taken by Holböll, October 16, 1845,
at Frederikshaab, Greenland. In 1837 an egg was sent me from Coventry,
Vt., which purported to belong to this bird; and in the following
summer its nest and eggs were procured in a wild, secluded part of
Roxbury, Mass. In neither case was the identification entirely free
from doubt.
Dr. Bachman states that when a resident of Lansingburg, N. Y., in
1833, he saw a pair of these birds in the act of constructing their
nest. Mr. Allen has no doubt that a few breed in the vicinity of
Springfield, Mass., as he has obtained them as late as June 24. He
found it most common in mixed or hard-wood forests. It arrives about
the middle of May. Professor Verrill gives it as a summer resident of
Western Maine, though rarely seen on account of its habit of keeping
concealed among the dense foliage. Mr. Boardman gives the same account
of its residence in summer in the neighborhood of Calais.
Mr. Audubon did not regard this bird and his “Hemlock Warbler” as the
same species, but gave distinct and different accounts of their
habits. We have therefore to receive with caution these records of
peculiarities. He found the Blackburnian Warbler breeding in
Northeastern Maine, in New Brunswick, in the Magdaleine Islands, and
in Labrador and Newfoundland. He states, correctly, that it has a very
sweet song of five or six notes, much louder than seemed possible from
the size of the bird. It pursues its insect prey among the branches of
the fir-trees, moving along after the manner of the common Redstart.
Mr. McCulloch, of Halifax, gave Mr. Audubon a nest of this bird with
three eggs. The nest was formed externally of different textures,
lined with fine delicate strips of bark and a thick bed of feathers
and horse-hair. The eggs were small, conical, with a white ground
spotted with light red at the larger end. The nest was in the small
fork of a tree five feet from the ground, and near a brook.
The nest obtained in Roxbury was in a bush, a few feet from the
ground, in a very wild region of forest and rocks. Externally, except
in its length, which was less, it resembled a nest of the _G.
trichas_, being made of coarse, dry grasses. Internally it was much
more warmly lined with feathers and soft fur than is the case in nests
of the Yellow-Throat. The eggs were of a crystal whiteness, marked at
their larger end with dark purple, and but for their smaller size
might have been mistaken for those of _G. trichas_. The position of
the nest, however, was conclusive in regard to this point. The egg
from Coventry was substantially similar, except that reddish-brown
dots were mingled with the purple markings, in the form of a wreath
around the larger end.
Wilson describes this Warbler as songless, but attributes to its
counterpart, the Hemlock Warbler, a very sweet song of a few low
notes,—a very different account from that given by Audubon of the song
of the Blackburnian.
Mr. Paine states that this species is resident during the summer
months in Randolph, Vt. It is, he says, a very close companion of the
_D. virens_, arriving at the same time with it even to a day, or about
the 10th of May. Its dry chirping song may then be heard in striking
contrast with the sweet notes of the _virens_. He was not able to find
its nest.
Mr. C. W. Wyatt met with this species as a winter resident at Alto, in
Colombia, South America. Its upward range seemed to be terminated only
by the paramos. Among the oaks on the Pamplona road he found it very
common just under the paramo, the bright orange throat of the male
making it a very conspicuous bird. He was led to believe that they
were not found there at a lower elevation than five thousand feet.
Dendroica dominica, BAIRD.