_Motacilla dominica_, L. Syst. Nat. 12th ed. 1766, 334 (_Ficedula
dominica cinerea_, BRISS. III, 520, pl. xxvii, fig. 3). _Dendroica
dominica_, BAIRD, Rev. Am. Birds, 209. _Motacilla superciliosa_,
BODDÆRT, Tableau Pl. enl. 686, fig. 1, 1783. _Dendroica
superciliosa_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 289.—SCLATER (Xalapa,
Oaxaca, Jamaica, Mexico).—SCLATER & SALVIN, Ibis, 1860, 274
(Duenas, Guat.; Sept.).—MARCH, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1863, 293
(Jamaica).—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; very common).
_Motacilla flavicollis_, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 959. _Sylvia
fl._ LATH.; WILS. II, pl. xii, fig. 6. _Motacilla pensilis_,
GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 960. _Sylvia p._ LATH.; VIEILL. (St.
Domingo).—BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lxxxv; NUTT. _Sylvicola
pens._ RICH; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxix.—GOSSE, Birds Jam.
1847, 156 (Jamaica). _Rhimanphus pens._ CAB. Jour. III, 474 (Cuba).
Other localities: _Cordova_, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1856, 291. _St.
Domingo_, SALLÉ, P. Z. S. 1857, 231. _Jamaica_, GOSSE, Birds Jam.
156.
SP. CHAR. Upper parts uniform grayish-blue. Chin and throat bright
yellow; under parts white. Forehead, and sometimes most of crown,
lores and cheeks, sides of throat, and numerous streaks on the sides
of the breast, black. A stripe from the nostrils over and behind the
eye, a crescent on the lower eyelid, the sides of the neck behind the
black cheekpatch, and two conspicuous bands on the wings, white.
Terminal half of the outer webs of the outer two, and terminal third
of the third tail-feathers, white. _Female_ almost precisely similar.
Length, 5.10; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.30. (3,322.)
HAB. Eastern Province of United States, north to Washington and
Cleveland; in winter abundant in Cuba; St. Domingo and Jamaica; Mexico
(Colima on west coast), and Guatemala. Resident in Jamaica?
An autumnal male (No. 1,098, Washington, D. C.) has the bluish-ash
above obscured by a wash of brown; the black “mask” less sharply
defined, the streaks on forehead wanting; the yellow paler and duller,
and the white beneath soiled with brownish.
In general pattern of coloration this species resembles two others;
one from Arizona, the other from Porto Rico. The diagnoses are as
follows:—
COMMON CHARACTERS. Upper parts ash-gray, the forehead and sides
of vertex black. A line from nostril to above eye (passing into
white behind), chin, and throat, yellow, margined laterally with
blackish; crissum, inside of wings, axillars; and two bands on
wings, white.
Superciliary line extending to the nape, and white, excepting
sometimes anterior to the eye. Cheeks black, separated from the
ash of the neck by a white patch. Eyelids and infra-ocular
crescent white. Back not streaked. Bill lengthened, gonys
almost concave.
Yellow confined to jugulum; rest of under parts white; the
sides streaked with black … _dominica_.
Superciliary line scarcely extending beyond the eye, and
yellow, excepting at extreme end. Cheeks ashy, like sides of
neck; dusky only near the eye, and not bordered on side of neck
behind by white. Eyelids and infra-ocular crescent yellow. Back
streaked. Bill short, gonys slightly convex.
Yellow of under parts confined to jugulum; rest of under
parts white; the sides streaked with black … _graciæ_.
Yellow of under parts extending to crissum. Sides scarcely
streaked … _adelaidæ._[51]
[Illustration: PLATE XIV.
1. Dendroica æstiva, _Gm._ ♂ Pa., 940.
2. “ maculosa, _Gm._ ♂ D. C., 20634.
3. “ montana. (From Audubon.)
4. “ olivacea, _Giraud_. ♂ Mex., 30692.
5. Dendroica kirtlandi, _Baird_. ♂ Ohio, 4363.
6. “ dominica, _Linn._ ♂ Ga., 3322.
7. “ “ , _var._ albilora, _Ridgw._ ♂ Ohio, 7701.
8. Dendroica palmarum, _Gm._ ♂ N. S., 26929.
9. “ discolor, _Vieill._ ♂ Pa., 1091.
10. “ graciæ, _Coues_. ♂ Ariz., 40680.
11. Seiurus aurocapillus, _Linn._ ♂ Pa., 1433.
12. “ noveboracensis, _Gm._ ♂ Pa., 2434.
13. “ ludovicianus, _Aud._ ♂ Pa., 964.]
In the Review (p. 209) several variations in this species are noted;
but at that time there was not a sufficient number of specimens to
warrant our coming to a conclusion as to their value. Now, however, we
have better material before us, and upon the examination of about
thirty specimens, including two series of nearly equal numbers,—one
from the Atlantic States and the West Indies, the other from the
Mississippi region and Middle America,—find that there are two
appreciably different races, to be distinguished from each other by
points of constant difference. All birds of the first series have the
bill longer than any of the latter, the difference in a majority of
the specimens being very considerable; they also have the superciliary
stripe bright yellow anteriorly, while among the latter there is never
more than a trace of yellow over the lores, and even this minimum
amount is discernible only in one or two individuals. The West Indian
form is, of course, the true _dominica_, and to be distinguished as
var. _dominica_; as none of the synonymes of this species were founded
upon the Mexican one, however, it will be necessary to propose a new
name; accordingly, the term var. _albilora_ is selected as being most
descriptive of its peculiar features.
The following synopsis, taken from typical specimens, shows the
differences between these two races:—
(No. 3,322, ♂, Liberty County, Georgia.) Bill (from nostril),
.45; tarsus, .60; wing, 2.60; tail, 2.00. Superciliary
stripe, anterior to eye, wholly bright yellow; yellow of chin
and maxillæ extending to the bill. _Hab._ In summer, Atlantic
States of United States, north to Washington. In winter, and
possibly all the year, in Cuba, Santo Domingo, and Jamaica …
var. _dominica_.
(No. 61,136, ♂, Belize, Honduras.) Bill (from nostril), .35;
tarsus, .60; wing, 2.70; tail, 2.20. Superciliary stripe
wholly white; yellow of chin and maxillæ bordered narrowly
next the bill with white. _Hab._ In summer, the Mississippi
region of United States, north to Lake Erie; common in South
Illinois. In winter, and possibly all the year, in Mexico,
south to Guatemala, Yucatan on the Atlantic, and Colima on
the Pacific side … var. _albilora_.
HABITS. The history of the Yellow-throated Warbler is very imperfectly
known. Its geographical distribution is irregular and apparently
eccentric. Found occasionally, rather than frequently, in the Southern
Atlantic and Gulf States, it occurs irregularly as far north as
Washington, New York City, Cleveland, O., Union County, Ill., and
Kansas. In the last place it is supposed also occasionally to breed.
West of this it has not been traced in any portion of the United
States. It was obtained in Tamaulipas, Mexico, by Lieutenant Couch,
and on the western coast Mr. Xantus found it at Colima. Mr. Sclater
has also procured it from other portions of Mexico, and M. Boucard
took it at Oaxaca. It has been obtained in Guatemala and Jamaica. In
the latter place it is found the entire season. In Cuba, in the
winter, it is quite common. It has also been found in St. Domingo, and
probably in the other West India Islands. Mr. Gosse states that these
birds do not appear in Jamaica before the 16th of August, and that
they leave by the first of April. On the other hand, Mr. March, in his
notes on the birds of that island, states that on the 8th of August he
obtained an old bird and two young, the latter of which he was
confident had been hatched on the island, and his son had met with the
birds all through the summer, and had procured a specimen on the 4th
of June.
Wilson states that the habits of this species partake more of those of
the Creeper than of the true Warbler. He met with it in Georgia in the
month of February. He speaks of its notes as loud, and as resembling
those of the Indigo-Bird. It remained some time creeping around the
branches of the same pine, in the manner of a _Parus_, uttering its
song every few minutes. When it flew to another tree, it would alight
on the trunk and run nimbly up and down in search of insects. They are
said to arrive in Georgia in February, after an absence of only three
months. Wilson states that they occur as far north as Pennsylvania,
but does not give his authority. The food of this species appears to
be larvæ and pupæ, rather than winged insects. Those dissected by Mr.
Gosse in Jamaica were found to have quite large stomachs, containing
caterpillars of various kinds.
Nuttall and Audubon are very contradictory in their statements
touching its nesting, and it is not probable that the accounts given
by either are founded upon any reliable authorities. The former
describes a nest remarkable both for structure and situation, said to
have been found in West Florida, suspended by a kind of rope from the
end of branches over a stream or a ravine. This nest, entirely
pensile, is impervious to rain, and with an entrance at the bottom. He
gives a very full and minute description of this nest, but gives no
authority and no data to establish its authenticity. We can therefore
only dismiss it as probably erroneous.
On the other hand, Mr. Audubon claims to have seen its nest, of which
he gives a very different account. He describes it as very prettily
constructed, like the nests of any other of this genus, its outer
parts made of dry lichens and soft mosses, the inner of silky
substances and fibres of the Spanish moss. The eggs are said to be
four in number, with a white ground-color and a few purple dots near
the larger end. He thinks they raise two broods in a season in
Louisiana. These nests are not pensile, but are placed on the
horizontal branch of the cypress, from twenty to fifty feet above the
ground. It closely resembles a knot or a tuft of moss, and therefore
is not easily discovered from below.
A nest containing a single egg, found by Mr. Gosse near Neosho Falls,
and supposed to belong to this species, but not fully identified, was
built in a low sapling a few feet from the ground, and is a very neat
structure, such as is described by Audubon. The egg is pure
crystal-white, oblong and pointed, and marked with purple and brown.
Mr. Ridgway informs me that in Southern Illinois, at least in the
valley of the Lower Wabash, the Yellow-throated Warbler may be said to
be at least a regular, though not common, summer sojourner. Though it
inhabits chiefly the swampy portions of the bottom-lands, it makes
frequent visits to the orchards and door-yards, less often, however,
in the breeding than in the migrating season. In its manners it is
almost as much of a Creeper as the _Mniotilta varia_, being frequently
seen creeping not only along the branches of trees, but over the eaves
and cornices of buildings, with all the facility of a Nuthatch.
Eggs supposed to be of this species, taken near Wilmington, N. C., by
Mr. Norwood Giles (16,199, Smith. Coll.), have a ground-color of dull
ashy-white, with a livid tinge. They are thickly speckled, chiefly
around the larger end, with irregular markings of rufous, and fainter
ones of lilac interspersed with a very few minute specks of black.
They are broadly ovate in form, and measure .70 by .55 of an inch.
Dendroica graciæ, COUES.