_Motacilla aurocapilla_, LINN. S. N. I, 1766, 334. _Turdus aur._
LATH.; WILS. Am. Orn. II, pl. xiv, fig. 2.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, pl.
cxliii. _Sylvia aur._ BON. _Seiurus aur._ SWAINSON, Zoöl. Jour.
III, 1827, 171.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 260; Rev. 214.—MOORE, P.
Z. S. 1859, 55 (Honduras).—MAX. Cab. Jour. 1858, 177.—JONES, Nat.
Bermuda, 27. _Henicocichla aur._ SCLATER, Catal. 1861, 25, no.
159.—GUNDLACH, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba). _Seiurus aur._ D’ORB.
Sagra’s Cuba, 1840, 55.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Chic. Ac. I, 1869,
278 (Alaska).—SAMUELS, 218. _Turdus coronatus_, VIEILL. Ois. II.
1807, 8.
Other localities quoted: _Cordova_, SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1856, 293. _St.
Domingo_, SALLÉ, P. Z. S. 1857, 231. _Guatemala_, SCLATER &
SALVIN, Ibis, I, 1859, 10. _Santa Cruz_ (winter), NEWTON, Ibis,
1859, 142. _Cuba_ (winter), Cab. Jour. III, 471. _Jamaica_, GOSSE,
Birds, 152.—SCLATER, P. Z. S. 1861, 70. _Costa Rica_, CAB. Jour.
1861, 84. _Orizaba_ (winter), SUMICHRAST. _Yucatan_, LAWR.
_Chiriqui_, SALV.
SP. CHAR. Above uniform olive-green, with a tinge of yellow. Crown
with two narrow streaks of black from the bill, enclosing a median and
much broader one of brownish-orange. Beneath white; the breast, sides
of the body, and a maxillary line, streaked with black. The female and
young of the year are not appreciably different. Length, 6.00; wing,
3.00; tail, 2.40.
HAB. Eastern Province of North America, north to English River, H. B.
T., and Alaska; west to mouth of Platte, and Denver City, Colorado;
Mazatlan; whole West Indies; Eastern Mexico; Honduras, Guatemala, and
Costa Rica; Bermuda in autumn and winter (JONES).
[Illustration: _Seiurus aurocapillus._]
HABITS. The Golden-crowned Thrush, or Oven-Bird, as in some portions
of the country it is exclusively called, inhabits the whole of eastern
North America, as far to the west as the Great Plains, and to the
north at least as far as English River. In the winter season it has
been found in Mexico, St. Domingo, Jamaica, Cuba, and other West India
islands, and in Central America is also very common. Mr. Sumichrast
also speaks of it as common at Orizaba during the same season, and it
has been found in the Bermudas and the Bahamas. In all these places it
usually appears early in the autumn and remains until the ensuing
spring. It breeds as far to the north as it has been known to go.
Richardson met with its nest on the banks of the Saskatchewan, and was
convinced that it bred at even still higher latitudes. Among some
memoranda I received from the late Mr. Kennicott is one stating that
he met with this Thrush breeding near English River, July 15. These
birds arrive in the fur country about the first of May. How far to the
south they breed we have no positive information. I have never
received its eggs from any point south of Philadelphia, nor did I ever
meet with it or hear its notes in summer in the vicinity of
Washington. Audubon was of the opinion that a few remain to breed even
in Louisiana, and states that he found them abundant in Texas in the
middle of May, but he may have confounded this species with the
Louisiana Thrush.
In Jamaica, where its habits have been carefully studied by Mr. Gosse,
it arrives in September and leaves about the 20th of April. Mr.
Würdemann obtained specimens at Cape Florida, September 24 and 25. Mr.
Audubon mentions their appearing in Louisiana as early as the first of
March. Wilson never noticed it in Louisiana before the last of April,
nor after September. The Smithsonian possesses no specimen obtained
earlier than May 1, except some procured April 25 from the mouth of
Platte River. Mr. Allen notes its arrival in Western Massachusetts May
10. Mr. Verrill gives the early part of May as the time of its
reaching Western Maine, and Mr. Boardman May 1 for the vicinity of
Calais.
Though not found on the California coast, specimens of this bird have
been taken in winter near Mazatlan, Mexico, showing probably that in
their migrations they cross the mountains of Northern Mexico, as do
the _Mniotilta varia_ and a few other of our Eastern species.
In Eastern Massachusetts it usually appears from the 1st to the 10th
of May, just as the first leaves of the trees are expanding, and is to
be found only in thick woods, often near their edges. Occasionally
found perched on the low limbs of trees, it is quite terrestrial in
its habits, keeps a good deal on the ground, running about among the
fallen leaves, more in the manner of a small quadruped than a bird.
Mr. Audubon speaks of its frequenting shady woods, watered by creeks
and rivulets. I have found them rather more abundant in woods upon
high and dry ground, usually upon slopes of wooded hillsides. In this
respect it appears to differ in a marked manner from its near of kin,
the Water Thrush (_S. noveboracensis_).
This bird, and indeed all of this genus, have the peculiar vibratory
motions of the tail noticed in the Wagtail of Europe, and also
observed in our own Red-poll Warbler, and in the Titlarks. In
consequence of these peculiarities this species is known, in Jamaica,
as _Land Kickup_, and the _noveboracensis_ as the _Water Kickup_. Mr.
Gosse found in its stomach gravel, various seeds, mud-insects,
caterpillars, and small turbinate shells.
The usual and more common song of this species is a very peculiar and
striking one, unlike that of any other of our birds. It is said to
somewhat resemble the song of the _Accentor modularis_ of Europe. It
is loud and clear, enunciated with great rapidity, and uttered with
great emphasis at its close. It is characterized by energy and power,
rather than variety or sweetness, yet it is not unpleasing. Audubon
calls it a “simple lay,” and again “a short succession of simple
notes,”—expressions that would give one who had never heard its song
an altogether incorrect idea of its true character. Wilson is still
more in error when he states that this bird has no song, but an
energetic twitter, when, in fact, it has two very distinct songs, each
in its way remarkable. Nuttall describes its song as “a simple, long,
reiterated note, rising from low to high, and shrill”; Richardson
speaks of it as “a loud, clear, and remarkably pleasing ditty”; and
Mr. Allen calls it “a loud, echoing song, heard everywhere in the deep
woods.” In reference to the songs of this bird, and the injustice that
has been done by writers to this and other species of our birds, Mr.
Boardman of St. Stephen has written me the following just
observations.
“Many of our common Warblers, Thrushes, and other birds,
have rare songs they reserve for some extra occasions, and
many of our common birds do not get credit for half their
real power of song. Once last spring, as I was watching for
some birds, I heard a new and very pretty warble, something
like the trill of a Winter Wren, and found that it came from
our common slate-colored Snowbird (_Junco hyemalis_), a bird
that I see every day that I go to the woods, and yet these
notes I had never heard before. It is the same with the
Golden-crowned Thrush. When it gets into the top of a tall
tree, its strain is so rare and beautiful that but few know
it as from that bird. The same is true of the Water Thrush,
and also of both _Turdus pallasi_ and _Turdus swainsoni_.”
The Oven-Bird always nests on the ground, and generally constructs
nests with arched or domed roofs, with an entrance on one side, like
the mouth of an oven, and hence its common name. This arched covering
is not, however, universal. For a site this species usually selects
the wooded slope of a hill, and the nests are usually sunk in the
ground. When placed under the shelter of a projecting root, or in a
thick clump of bushes, the nest has no other cover than a few loose
leaves resting on, but forming no part of it.
A nest from Racine, Wis., obtained by Dr. Hoy, is a fine typical
specimen of the domed nests of this species. The roof is very perfect,
and the whole presents the appearance of two shallow nests united at
the rim, and leaving only a small opening at one side. This nest was
five inches in diameter from front to back, six inches from side to
side, and four inches high. The opening was two and a quarter inches
wide, one and three quarters high. The cavity was two inches deep,
below the brim. At the entrance the roof recedes about an inch,
obviously to allow of a freer entrance and exit from the nest.
Externally this nest is made of wood, mosses, lichens, and dry leaves,
with a few stems and broken fragments of plants. The entrance is
strongly built of stout twigs, and its upper portion is composed of a
strong framework of fine twigs, roots, stems, mosses, dry plants,
etc., all firmly interwoven, and lined with finer materials of the
same.
On the 7th of June, 1858, I came accidentally upon a nest of this bird
of a very different style of structure. It was in a thick wood in
Hingham. The nest was built in a depression in the ground at the foot
of some low bushes, and its top was completely covered by surrounding
vines and wild flowers. It would probably have escaped notice had not
my daughter, then a child of four years, attempted to gather some wild
flowers growing directly over its entrance. This flushed the mother,
who until then had remained quiet, although we were standing with our
feet almost upon the nest, and the bird fluttered and tumbled about at
our feet with well-feigned manœuvres to distract our attention. The
child in great glee sought to catch it, but it eluded her grasp, and,
running off like a mouse, disappeared. The nest contained six eggs,
was entirely open, and with no other cover than the wild plants that
clustered above it. As to its identity there was no doubt, as the
parent was afterwards snared upon its nest. This nest was somewhat
loosely constructed of skeleton leaves, dry slender stalks, grasses,
and pine-needles, and was lined with a few slender grasses and leaves.
It had a diameter of six inches, and was two and a half inches deep.
The cup had a diameter of three and a half inches and a depth of two,
being very large for the size of the bird, probably owing to the shape
of the cavity in which it was sunk.
The nest of this bird seems to be a favorite place of resort for the
Cow Blackbird to deposit its egg. In one nest, found by Mr. Vickary in
Lynn, no less than three eggs of these parasites had been placed.
The eggs of the Golden-crowned Thrush are subject to considerable
variations. Their markings differ in their colors and shades, and yet
more in number, size, and manner of distribution. The eggs are oval in
shape, one end being but very slightly smaller than the other. Their
average length is .82 of an inch, and their breadth is .55 of an inch.
Their ground-color is a beautiful creamy-white. They are marked,
usually principally about the larger end, with dots and blotches,
intermingled, of red, reddish-brown, lilac, darker purple, and
ferruginous. Occasionally these make a beautiful crown around the
larger end, leaving the rest of the surface nearly free from spots.
Seiurus noveboracensis, NUTT.