_Motacilla pennsylvanica_, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 333, no. 19;
GMELIN. _Sylvia p._ LATH.; WILSON, I, pl. xiv, fig. 5. _Dendroica
p._ BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 279; Rev. 191.—SCLATER & SALVIN,
Ibis, 1859, 11; 1860, 273 (Coban, Guat.; November).—SAMUELS, 231.
_Sylvia icterocephala_, LATH. Ind. Orn. II, 1790, 538.—VIEILL.;
BON.; AUD. Orn. Biog. I, pl. lix. _Sylvicola ict._ SWAINS.; JARD.;
AUD. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxi. _Dendroica ict._ SCLATER, P. Z. S.
1859, 363 (Xalapa), 373 (Oaxaca).
Other localities: _Bahamas_, BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1859. _Costa
Rica_, CAB. Jour. 1860, 328. _Panama_, winter, LAWR., Ann. N. Y.
Lyc. 1861, 322. _Yucatan_, LAWR. _Veragua_, SALV.
SP. CHAR. _Male._ Upper parts streaked with black and pale
bluish-gray, which becomes nearly white on the forepart of the back;
the middle of the back glossed with greenish-yellow. The crown is
continuous yellow, bordered by a frontal and superciliary band, and
behind by a square spot of white. Loral region black, sending off a
line over the eye, and another below it. Ear-coverts and lower eyelid
and entire under parts pure white, a purplish-chestnut stripe starting
on each side in a line with the black mustache, and extending back to
the thighs. Wing and tail-feathers dark brown, edged with bluish-gray,
except the secondaries and tertials, which are bordered with light
yellowish-green. The shoulders with two greenish-white bands. Three
outer tail-feathers with white patches near the end of the inner webs.
_Female_ like the male, except that the upper parts are
yellowish-green, streaked with black; the black mustache scarcely
appreciable. Length, 5.00; wing, 2.50; tail, 2.20.
HAB. Eastern Province of the United States; Bahamas; Guatemala to
Costa Rica and Panama R. R. Not recorded from Mexico proper or West
Indies, except Bahamas.
The young in autumn is very different from either male or female in
spring. The entire upper parts are of a continuous light olive-green;
the under parts white; the sides of the head, neck, and breast
ash-gray, shading insensibly into and tingeing the white of the chin
and throat. No black streaks are visible above or on the cheeks, and
the eye is surrounded by a continuous ring of white not seen in
spring. In this plumage it has frequently been considered as a
distinct species.
The male in this plumage may usually be distinguished from the female
by possessing a trace, or a distinct stripe, of chestnut on the
flanks, the young female at least lacking it.
HABITS. The geographical distribution of this common species during
its season of reproduction is inferred rather than positively known.
So far as I am aware, it is not known to breed farther south than
Massachusetts. Yet it is probable that, when we know its history more
exactly, it will be found during the breeding-season in different
suitable localities from Pennsylvania to Canada. Mr. H. W. Parker, of
Grinnell, Iowa, mentions this bird as common in that neighborhood.
Until recently it was regarded as a rather rare species, and to a
large extent it had escaped the notice of our older ornithological
writers. Wilson could give but little account of its habits. It passed
rapidly by him in its spring migrations. He did not regard it as
common, presumed that it has no song, and nearly all that he says in
regard to it is conjectural. Mr. Audubon met with this species but
once, and knew nothing as to its habits or distribution. Mr. Nuttall,
who observed it in Massachusetts, where it is now known to be not
uncommon in certain localities, also regarded it as very rare. His
account of it is somewhat hypothetical and inexact. Its song he very
accurately describes as similar to that of the _D. æstiva_, only less
of a whistle and somewhat louder. He represents it as expressed by
_tsh-tsh-tsh-tshyia_, given at intervals of half a minute, and often
answered by its mate from her nest. Its lay is characterized as simple
and lively. Late in June, 1831, he observed a pair collecting food for
their young on the margin of the Fresh Pond swamps in Cambridge.
Mr. Allen has found this species quite common in Western
Massachusetts, arriving there about the 9th of May, and remaining
through the summer to breed. He states—and his observations in this
respect correspond with my own—that during the breeding-season they
frequent low woods and swampy thickets, nesting in bushes, and adds
that they are rarely found among high trees. They leave there early in
September.
Professor Verrill found this Warbler a common summer visitant in
Western Maine, arriving about the second week in May, and remaining
there to breed. Mr. Boardman thinks it reaches Eastern Maine about the
middle of May, and is a common summer resident. I did not meet this
species either in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia, nor was Dr. Bryant
more fortunate, but Lieutenant Bland gives it in his manuscript list
of the birds found in the neighborhood of Halifax.
Mr. Ridgway informs me that this species breeds in the oak openings
and among the prairie thickets of Southern Illinois.
During the eight months that are not included in their season of
reproduction, this species is scattered over a wide extent of
territory. Their earliest appearance in the Northern States (at
Plattesmouth) is April 26, and they all disappear early in September.
At other times they have been met with in the Bahamas, in Mexico,
Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama. It has not yet been detected in the
West Indies. M. Boucard obtained specimens at Playa Vicente, in the
hot country of Oaxaca, Mexico.
In the neighborhood of Calais, Mr. Boardman informs me that this
Warbler is common, and that its habits resemble those of the
Black-poll Warbler more than those of any other of the genus. It
always nests in bushes or in low trees, and in the vicinity of swamps.
Among the memoranda furnished to the late Mr. Kennicott by Mr. Ross is
one to the effect that the Chestnut-sided Warbler was observed at Lake
of the Woods, May 29. How common it is at this point is not stated.
Mr. C. S. Paine regards the Chestnut-sided Warbler as one of the
sweetest singers that visit Vermont. He describes it as very confiding
and gentle in its habits. It is chiefly found inhabiting low bushes,
in the neighborhood of taller trees, and it always builds its nest in
the fork of a low bush, not more than from three to five feet from the
ground. He has seen many of their nests, and they have all been in
similar situations. They will permit a very near approach without
leaving their nests. These are constructed about the last of May.
Their song continues until about the last of June. After this they are
seldom heard.
J. Elliot Cabot, Esq., had the good fortune to be the first of our
naturalists to discover in June, 1839, the nest and eggs of this
Warbler. It was fixed on the horizontal forked branch of an oak
sapling, in Brookline, Mass. The female remained sitting on her nest
until so closely approached as to be distinctly seen. The nest was of
strips of red-cedar bark, and well lined with coarse hair, and was
compact, elastic, and shallow. It contained four eggs, the
ground-color of which was white, over which were distributed numerous
distinct spots of umber-brown. These were of different sizes, more
numerous towards the larger end.
In regard to their breeding in Pennsylvania, Mr. Nuttall mentions in
the second edition of his work that he met them among the Alleghanies
at Farranville in full song, and had no doubt that they were nesting
there at the time.
The Chestnut-sided Warbler usually constructs its nest in localities
apart from cultivated grounds, on the edges of low and swampy woods,
but in places more or less open. Quite a number of their nests have
been met with by Mr. George O. Welch, of Lynn, Mass. Their more common
situation has been barberry-bushes. The nests vary from about two and
a half to three and a half inches in external height, and have a
diameter of from three to four inches. The cavity is about two inches
deep. They are usually composed externally of loosely intertwined
strips of the bark of the smaller vegetables, strengthened by a few
stems and bits of dry grasses, and lined with woolly vegetable fibres
and a few soft hairs of the smaller animals. They are usually very
firmly bound to the smaller branches by silky fibres from the cocoons
of various insects. These nests were all found in open places, in low,
wild marshy localities, but none far from a cultivated neighborhood,
and the situations chosen for the nests do not differ materially from
those usually selected by the common _D. æstiva_.
The eggs of this Warbler are of an oblong-oval shape, have a
ground-color of a rich creamy-white, and are beautifully spotted,
chiefly about the larger end, with two shades of purple and
purplish-brown. They measure .65 by .49 of an inch.
Dendroica striata, BAIRD.