_Sylvia pinus_, WILS. Am. Orn. III, 1811, 25, pl. xix, fig. 4.—BON.;
NUTT.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxi. _Thryothorus pinus_, STEPH.
_Sylvicola pinus_, JARD.; RICH.; BON.; AUD. Birds Am. II, pl.
lxxxii.—JONES, Nat. Bermuda, 1859, 59 (abundant in Oct.).
_Rhimanphus pinus_, BON. _Dendroica pinus_, BAIRD, Birds N. Am.
1858, 277; Rev. 190.—SCLATER, Catal. 1861, 31, no. 189.—COUES, Pr.
A. N. Sc. 1861, 220 (Labrador coast).—SAMUELS, 229.—BRYANT, Pr.
Bost. Soc. 1867, 67 (Inagua). _Sylvia vigorsii_, AUD. Orn. Biog.
I, 1832, 153, pl. xxx. _Vireo vigorsii_. NUTT.
SP. CHAR. _Spring male._ Upper parts nearly uniform and clear
olive-green, the feathers of the crown with rather darker shafts.
Under parts generally, except the middle of the belly behind, and
under tail-coverts (which are white), bright gamboge-yellow, with
obsolete streaks of dusky on the sides of the breast and body. Sides
of head and neck olive-green like the back, with a broad superciliary
stripe; the eyelids and a spot beneath the eye very obscurely yellow;
wings and tail brown; the feathers edged with dirty white, and two
bands of the same across the coverts. Inner web of the first
tail-feather with nearly the terminal half, of the second with nearly
the terminal third, dull inconspicuous white. Length, 5.50; wing,
3.00; tail, 2.40. (1,356.)
_Spring female._ Similar, but more grayish above, and almost
grayish-white, with a tinge of yellow beneath, instead of bright
yellow. _Young._ Umber-brown above, and dingy pale ashy beneath, with
a slight yellowish tinge on the abdomen. Wing and tail much as in the
autumnal adult.
HAB. Eastern Province of United States, north to Massachusetts;
winters in United States. Not recorded in West Indies or Middle
America (except Bahamas and Bermuda?).
Autumnal males are much like spring individuals, but the yellow
beneath is softer and somewhat richer, and the olive above overlaid
with a reddish-umber tint.
HABITS. The Pine-creeping Warbler is found more or less abundantly
throughout the United States from the Atlantic to the Valley of the
Mississippi. Dr. Woodhouse states that it is common in Texas and New
Mexico. It was not, however, met with by any other of the government
exploring parties. Dr. Gerhardt found it quite common in Northern
Georgia, where it remains all the winter, and where it breeds very
early in the season. On the 19th of April he found a nest of these
birds with nearly full-grown young. It has not been found in Maine by
Professor Verrill nor by Mr. Boardman, nor in Nova Scotia by
Lieutenant Bland. Mr. Allen has found it breeding abundantly in the
western part of Massachusetts, where it is one of the earliest
Warblers to arrive, and where it remains until October. In 1861 they
were abundant in the pine woods near Springfield as early as April 4,
although the ground at that time was covered with snow. During the
last weeks of April and the early part of May they frequent the open
fields, obtaining much of their food from the ground in company with
_D. palmarum_, the habits of which, at this time, it closely follows.
Later in the season they retire to the pine forests, where they remain
almost exclusively throughout the summer, chiefly on the tops of the
tallest trees. For a few weeks preceding the first of October they
again come about the orchards and fields. In its winter migrations it
does not appear to leave this country, and has not been found in any
of the West India Islands, in Mexico, nor in South or Central America.
It breeds sparingly in Southern Illinois.
Mr. Jones found these birds numerous in Bermuda late in September, but
they all disappeared a few weeks later. Dr. Bryant found them at
Inagua, Bahamas.
Wilson first noticed this Warbler in the pine woods of the Southern
States, where he found it resident all the year. He describes it as
running along the bark of pine-trees, though occasionally alighting
and feeding on the ground. When disturbed, it always flies up and
clings to the trunks of trees. The farther south, the more numerous he
found it. Its principal food is the seeds of the Southern pitch-pine
and various kinds of insects. It was associated in flocks of thirty in
the depths of the pine barrens, easily recognized by their manner of
rising from the ground and alighting on the trunks of trees.
Audubon also speaks of this bird as the most abundant of its tribe. He
met with them on the sandy barrens of East Florida on the St. John’s
River early in February, at which period they already had nests. In
their habits he regarded them as quite closely allied to the Creepers,
ascending the trunks and larger branches of trees, hopping along the
bark searching for concealed larvæ. At one moment it moves sideways
along a branch a few steps, then stops and moves in another direction,
carefully examining each twig. It is active and restless, generally
searching for insects among the leaves and blossoms of the pine, or in
the crevices of the bark, but occasionally pursuing them on the wing.
It is found exclusively in low lands, never in mountainous districts,
and chiefly near the sea.
Its nest is usually placed at considerable height, sometimes fifty
feet or more from the ground, and is usually fastened to the twigs of
a small branch. In Massachusetts it has but a single brood in a
season, but at the South it is said to have three.
The flight of this Warbler is short, and exhibits undulating curves of
great elegance. Its song is described as monotonous, consisting merely
of continuous and tremulous sounds. Mr. Audubon found none beyond New
Brunswick, and it has never been found in Nova Scotia so far as I am
aware.
Both old and young birds remain in Massachusetts until late in
October, and occasionally birds are seen as far to the north as
Philadelphia in midwinter. At this season they abound in the pine
forests of the Southern States, where they are at that time the most
numerous of the Warblers, and where some are to be found throughout
the year.
In the summer their food consists of the larvæ and eggs of certain
kinds of insects. In the autumn they frequent the Southern gardens,
feeding on the berries of the cornel, the box grape, and other small
fruit. Mr. Nuttall states that their song is deficient both in
compass and in variety, though not disagreeable. At times, he states,
it approaches the simpler trills of the canary; but is usually
a reverberating, gently rising or murmuring sound like
_er-r´-r´r´r´r´r´-ah_, or in the springtime like _twe twe-tw tw tw-tw
tw_, and sometimes like _tsh-tsh-tsh-tw-tw-tw-tw_, exhibiting a
pleasing variety in its cadences. The note of the female is not unlike
that of the Black and White Creeper.
On the 7th of June, Mr. Nuttall discovered a nest of this Warbler in a
Virginia juniper-tree in Mount Auburn, some forty feet from the
ground, and firmly fixed in the upright twigs of a close branch. It
was a thin but very neat structure. Its principal material was the old
and wiry stems of the _Polygonum tenue_, or knot-weed. These were
circularly interlaced and inter-wound with rough linty fibres of
asclepias and caterpillars’ webs. It was lined with a few bristles,
slender root-fibres, a mat of the down of fern-stalks, and a few
feathers. Mr. Nuttall saw several of these nests, all made in a
similar manner. The eggs in the nest described were four, and far
advanced towards hatching. They were white, with a slight tinge of
green, and were freely sprinkled with small pale-brown spots, most
numerous at the larger end, where they were aggregated on a more
purplish ground. The female made some slight complaint, but
immediately returned to the nest, though two of the eggs had been
taken.
Mr. Nuttall kept a male of this species in confinement. It at once
became very tame, fed gratefully from the hand, from the moment it was
caught, on flies, small earthworms, and minced flesh, and would sit
contentedly on any hand, walking directly into a dish of water offered
for drink, without any precautions, or any signs of fear.
Mr. J. G. Shute found a nest of these Warblers in Woburn as early as
May 8. It contained four eggs, the incubation of which had commenced.
Three other nests were also found by him in the same locality, all of
them between the 8th and the 24th of May, and all built on branches of
the red pine and near the top. Several nests of this Warbler, found in
Lynn, Mass., by Mr. George O. Welch, are alike in their mode of
construction, and differ in their materials from other accounts. They
are all somewhat loosely put together, and are composed externally of
fine strips of the bark of the red cedar, fine inner bark of several
deciduous trees, dry stalks of plants, the exuviæ of insects, and fine
dry grasses. The cavities of these nests, which are comparatively
large and deep, were lined with the fur of the smaller mammals, the
silky down of plants, and feathers. A few fine wiry roots were also
intermingled. These nests are about two and a half inches in height
and three in diameter.
The eggs of this Warbler are of a rounded oval shape, have an average
length of .72 of an inch, and a breadth of .55. They resemble in size
and appearance the eggs of the _D. castanea_, but the spots are more
numerous, and the blotches larger and more generally distributed. The
ground-color is a bluish-white. Scattered over this are subdued
tintings of a fine delicate shade of purple, and upon this are
distributed dots and blotches of a dark purplish-brown, mingled with a
few lines almost black.
Dendroica montana, BAIRD.