_Phyllomanes barbatulus_, CAB. Jour. III, 1855, 467 (Cuba).—GUNDLACH,
Cab. Jour. 1861, 324 (Cuba).—IB. Repertorio, Cuba, 1865.
_Vireosylvia barbatula_, BAIRD, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 331. _Vireo
altiloquus_, GAMBEL, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1848, 127 (Florida).—BAIRD,
Birds N. Am. 1858, 354 (Florida). _Vireosylvia altiloqua_, CASSIN,
Pr. A. N. Sc. 1851, 152.—IB. Illust. 1854, 8, and 221, pl. xxxvii
(Florida).—BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. V, 1859, 113
(Bahamas).—LAWRENCE, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1860 (Cuba).
SP. CHAR. (No. 25,958 ♂, Cuba.) Proportion of quills as in var.
_calidris_, 2 = 3, 4, 1, 5, but the tips of the quills closer
together, and the first quill about half or a little less than half
the distance between fifth and fourth; the quills narrower.
[Line drawing: _Vireosylvia barbatulus._
25958]
Colors similar to those of var. _calidris_, but of a purer and paler
olive above; the back tinged with ash; the cap purer ash, and better
defined, without olivaceous wash, its dusky edge more distinct. The
superciliary stripe whitish or grayish, with the cheeks paler, and
both, as well as the chin, without the buff tinge. Under parts nearly
pure white, very faintly tinged across the breast with ashy; the sides
olivaceous; the crissum and axillars pale sulphur-yellow. Total
length, 5.50; wing, 3.15; tail, 2.50; difference of first and second
quills, .18; of fifth and second, .22; length of bill from forehead,
.82, from nostril, .46, along gape, .89; tarsus, .72; middle toe and
claw, .60; claw alone, .21; hind toe and claw, .50; claw alone, .23.
HAB. Cuba; the Bahamas; and Charlotte Harbor, Florida. (Western
Coast.)
[Illustration: PLATE XVII.
1. Vireosylvia barbatula, _Caban._ ♂ Fla., 24282.
2. “ olivacea, _Linn._ ♂ Pa., 1440.
3. “ gilvus, _Vieill._ ♂ Pa., 988.
4. “ philadelphica, _Cass._
5. Lanivireo flavifrons, _Vieill._ ♂ Pa., 2217.
6. Vireo atricapillus, _Woodh._ ♂ Tex., 6818
7. “ vicinior, _Coues_. ♂ Ariz., 40697.
8. Lanivireo solitaria, _Wils._ ♂ D. C., 37497.
9. “ cassini, _Xantus_. ♂.
10. “ plumbea, _Coues_. ♂ Ariz., 37011.
11. Vireo noveboracensis, _Gm._ ♂ D. C., 29248.
12. “ huttoni, _Cass._ ♂ Cal., 3725.
13. “ belli, _Aud._ ♂ Neb., 1296.
14. “ pusillus, _Coues_. ♂ Cape St. Lucas, 16354.]
This _Vireo_ has been taken several times at Charlotte Harbor, in
Florida, and is thus entitled to a place in our fauna. Its distinction
from a closely allied race in Jamaica, Hayti, etc., var. _calidris_,
is shown on page 359.
A specimen belonging to Mr. Salvin (“No. 187”), from “Isthmus of
Panama,” we cannot distinguish satisfactorily from typical examples of
the present race, with which it is to be compared, and not with
_calidris_. The colors are quite identical with those of _barbatulus_.
In size it is slightly larger, the wing measuring 3.25 instead of
3.15; the tail 2.50, instead of 2.35 (from exposed base of feathers);
the bill is thicker, being .20 instead of .18 deep; the third quill is
longest, the second intermediate between it and the fourth; the first
intermediate between the fourth and fifth. In _barbatulus_ the second
is longest, the third and fourth successively a little shorter. It is
not improbable that other specimens from that locality may show
greater differences, as the specimen under examination is in rather
worn plumage, and has the tip of the bill broken off.
HABITS. This species only claims a place in our avifauna on the ground
of its presence in Florida. How abundant it is there is not
determined, further than it has been observed within a restricted
locality by Dr. Heermann. This was at Charlotte Harbor, on the
southwestern coast. They appeared to be visitors only, from a more
southern clime. They reached Florida in their northern migrations,
remaining only for a short season, but evidently staying long enough
to breed. Dr. Heermann states that this species resembles, in manners
and in appearance, the common Red-eyed Vireo of the more northern
States. He describes its song as clear and musical, and very
distinctly uttered. It was constantly on the search for insects, and
appeared even more active than any of the northern species, darting
among the foliage, peering into crevices and cobwebs, suspended from
branches with its back downward, and occasionally chasing a flying
insect in the manner of a true Flycatcher. These movements were
usually accompanied by a song. This species was not abundant, though
Dr. Heermann saw it frequently, and obtained several specimens.
Dr. Bryant found this species very abundant at the Bahamas, arriving
there about the first of May. All the specimens he obtained were
males, the females not arriving there until after the 13th of May. The
notes of these birds, he states, vary, though the most common one
resembles _whīp tom kĕllȳ pheūū_, pronouncing the first word
distinctly.
This bird,[76] in Brown’s History of Jamaica, is called
“Whip-tom-kelly,” from the supposed resemblance of its notes to these
articulate sounds, and this popular appellation has been given it by
various other writers. Mr. Gosse, however, in his Birds of Jamaica,
calls this bird “John-to-whit,” and can find no resemblance in its
notes to the words referred to. He describes its song as uttered with
incessant iteration and untiring energy, and as resembling
_Sweet-John! John to whit! sweet John to whit!_ After July the notes
change to _to-whit-to-whoo_, and sometimes to a soft, simple chirp,
whispered so gently as scarcely to be audible. The name of
Whip-tom-kelly Mr. Gosse never heard applied to it in Jamaica. Yet it
is a bird often heard, and one whose notes have a similarity to
articulate sounds, and naturally suggest a common appellation. It is
very vociferous and pertinacious in its calls, repeating them with
energy every two or three seconds.
This species, he states, does not ordinarily sit on a prominent twig,
or dart out after insects, though it has been seen in eager pursuit of
a butterfly. It seems to live in the centre of thick woods. It does
not pass the winter in Jamaica, but leaves at the beginning of
October, returning as early as the 20th of March. Its food he states
to be both animal and vegetable, as he found in its stomach the seeds
of the tropical plants and berries. In April, Mr. Gosse observed it
hunting insects by the borders of the Bluefields River, and so intent
upon its occupation as to allow of a very near approach. It sought
insects among the grass and low herbage, perching on the stalks of
weeds, and darting out after both vagrant and stationary prey. They
incubate in June and July.
Like all this genus the Long-billed Vireo builds a pensile nest of
great architectural ingenuity and beauty. It is a deep cup, usually
about two thirds of a sphere in shape, truncated at the top. The
materials of which it is made are often somewhat coarse. Mr. Gosse
describes it as about as large as an ordinary teacup, narrowed at the
mouth, composed of dry grasses, silk, cotton, lichens, and
spiders’-web. It is usually suspended from the fork of two twigs, the
margin very neatly overwoven to embrace them. The materials are well
interwoven, and the walls firm and close, though not very thick. The
whole is smoothly lined with slender vegetable fibres resembling human
hair. One nest had its cavity nearly filled with a mass of white
cotton, interwoven with the other materials, which, being picked
cotton, had evidently been taken from some yard or building.
The eggs of this species are three in number, of a brilliant white,
delicately tinted with pink, and marked with a few fine red and
red-brown spots, usually about the larger end.
An egg of the variety from Cuba is of an oblong-oval shape, slightly
pointed at one end, and the markings of faint purple and of dark
purplish-brown, in bold dashes, are all about the larger end. Another
from the same locality is more distinctly rounded at one and pointed
at the other end, and is marked with fine brown dots distributed over
the whole egg. These eggs measure, one .825 by .55 of an inch, and the
other .78 by .55. An egg from Jamaica is of an extremely oblong-oval,
measuring .88 by .55 of an inch, and is boldly marked more or less
over the entire egg with large blotches of purplish-brown.
The Messrs. Newton describe the nest of the _calidris_ of St. Croix as
a beautiful structure, shaped like an inverted cone, composed
outwardly of dried blades of grass, dried leaves, and wool, woven
round the twigs, to which it was attached with spiders’-webs, lined
inside with finer blades of grass, and about three inches and a half
in diameter, and five in height. The eggs, three in number, were
white, with a few black spots, chiefly disposed about the larger end.
Vireosylvia olivaceus, BONAP.