Читать книгу Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers, Part One and Part Two - Arthur Cleveland Bent - Страница 7

The task of incubation falls on the female alone. It appears that an airing is taken in the early morning or a little before midday, and again in the early evening, though perhaps not regularly every day. I have not seen the male about the nest with food at this period. The female will allow a close approach, looking into one’s eyes with that hunted look so common in wild animals, and often flushing without a protesting note. The period of incubation in the one instance was exactly ten days.

On June 13, at 6.30 p. m., five young just hatched were blind, naked and prostrate from chin to sternum. The shells were disposed of immediately, in what manner I am unable to state; the female was reluctant to vacate.

On June 15, at 2.45 p. m., the young were able to raise their heads slightly and a fluffy bit of down had appeared about the head, also a dark stripe along the back bone. The female appeared, accompanied by the male, and fed the young with small green larvae—such as may be found on the under-side of oak and chestnut leaves—and then shielded the callow young from the hot rays of the sun.

On June 16, at 6.30 p. m., when the young were three days old, a downy puff appeared between the shoulders, wing quills being dark. The strongest bird had the eyes partly open and the mouth wide open for food.

On June 18, at 7 p. m., the heads and bodies were no longer flesh-colored but were well enough covered to appear dark. The eyes were open. At a cluck from me their mouths flew open. Both parents fed them with green-colored larvae. When the male rested a moment on a brier above the nest, the female flew down and drove him away, fed the young, re-appearing with excrement in her beak, which was carried in an opposite direction from the regular approach via maple bough and poplar sapling. The male fed the young from a mouthful of very minute larvae or eggs, which were gathered from the silken nests in the unfolding leaves of a nearby poplar; after this (7.30 p. m.) the female covered the young for the night.

On June 20, at from 6.50 to 7.35 p. m., the young had been seven days in the nest. They were well feathered and of a yellowish-green cast, the short tails being tipped with yellow. The parents were more suspicious. The female came to the maple bough with something in her beak and flew down to the briers and back again several times before she dropped to the edge of the nest and fed her young. The male appeared immediately but swallowed a green grub himself upon discovery of me twenty-five feet away. The female came again in five minutes with a brownish object in her bill, but appeared more timid and refused to drop to the nest until the male set her an example of courage.

On June 21, at 6.12 p. m., the young were fully fledged in green plumage above and dirty yellow beneath. They showed fear of me for the first time, eyeing me in the same manner as the parent bird when on the nest. They were evidently ready to vacate at a moment’s notice or hasty movement on my part. The parents appeared, scolding rapidly. The female fed the young as soon as I retired to my old stand under a bush, with a rather large green grub (6.20 p. m.) and flew out to the top of a blackberry bush, followed immediately by the topmost fledgling. It could do little more than run. The adults flew to within a yard of my head, making a great outcry, and in the midst of the excitement the remainder of the young vacated the nest with feeble chips. The male gave his attention to them, while the female followed me as I beat a hasty retreat to enable them to collect their little family before dark. Eight days had elapsed since incubation was completed, and it is not at all unusual for the young of this species to leave the nest while so tiny and ragged.

Plumages.—Dr. Dwight (1900) calls the natal down “mouse-gray,” and describes the juvenal plumage, in which the sexes are alike, as, “entire body plumage olive-yellow darkest on the back and throat. Wings and tail slate-gray largely edged with plumbeous gray, the tertiaries and coverts with olive-yellow; the greater and median coverts tipped with white, yellow tinged. Rectrices largely white. Lores dusky.”

A partial postjuvenal molt begins early in July, involving the contour plumage and the wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings or the tail. This molt produces the first winter plumage in which the sexes are very much alike, the female being duller in color, especially the streak through the eye, and having less yellow on the crown. Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the first winter male as “above, bright olive-green, lemon-yellow on the crown veiled by greenish tips. Below, bright lemon-yellow, the crissum white or merely tinged with yellow. Transocular streak black. Wing coverts plumbeous gray, edged with olive-green, the greater and median tipped with white, yellow tinged, forming two broad wing-bands.”

The birds are now practically adult in plumage. The first and subsequent nuptial plumages are acquired by wear, which produces little change beyond removal of the greenish tips. Subsequent winter plumages are acquired by a complete postnuptial molt each July.

The interesting hybrids between this and the golden-winged warbler are discussed on pages 3 and 4. Kumlien and Hollister (1903) mention a probable mating of this with the Nashville warbler.

Food.—Nothing seems to have been published on the food of the blue-winged warbler beyond that mentioned above as food given to the young, which is doubtless eaten by the adults as well. It is apparently wholly insectivorous, seeking its food near the ground in the weed patches and underbrush where it lives and among the lower branches of the trees in its haunts. Probably any small insects that it can find in such places, as well as their larvae and eggs, including many small caterpillars, are eaten. Small grasshoppers and spiders are probably included. Prof. Aughey (1878) observed it catching small locusts in Nebraska. It is evidently a harmless and a very useful bird in destroying insects that are injurious to foliage.

Behavior.—Dr. Chapman (1907) writes: “It is rather deliberate in movements for a Warbler, and is less of a flutterer than the average member of the genus Dendroica. Some of its motions suggest those of the tree-inhabiting Vireos, while at times, as the bird hangs downward from some cocoon it is investigating, one is reminded of a Chickadee.” And he quotes Burns as follows:

Perched inconspicuously near the top and well out on the branchlets of a tree or sapling, preferably facing an opening, if in a thicket; it is in itself so minute an object as to be passed unseen by many, more especially as it is much less active than most of our Warblers. With body feathers puffed out to a delightful plumpness, except for the backward sweep of the head while in the act of singing, it remains motionless for quite a while. When it moves it is with a combination of nervous haste and deliberation, and its song may be heard from quite another part of the landscape with no apparent reason for the change. While it has its favorite song perches, it is quite a wanderer and not infrequently sings beyond possible hearing of its brooding mate, but oftener within fifty to two hundred feet of the nest.

Voice.—Aretas A. Saunders contributes the following study of the songs of this warbler: “The territory song of the blue-winged warbler consists of two long, buzz-like notes, the second usually lower in pitch than the first and rougher in sound, bzzzzzzz-brrrrrrrr. The pitch interval between the two notes varies from one tone to four and a half tones, but the smaller intervals, one tone and one and a half tones, are much commoner. The second note is lower in pitch than the first in about 75 percent of my records, and higher in most of the others. In a few songs the second buzz is a double note, and one may hear both lower and higher notes from a medium distance, only the lower from a greater distance, and only the higher when very near the bird.

“The pitch is not high as compared to other warblers, ranging from C ‴ to D ‴′, one tone more than an octave. The territory song commonly begins on some note from A ‴ to C ‴′. It varies in time from 1¹⁄₅ to 1⁴⁄₅ seconds, the first note being either equal to or shorter than the second. The second note is often twice as long as the first. In some songs the second note is broken into two notes, and in one record it is in four short notes, so that the song is essentially like that of the golden-winged warbler.

“After the birds have been on the breeding grounds for a week or two, singing of the nesting song begins. This song has the same buzz-like quality as the other, but it is exceedingly variable, considerably longer, and hardly ever twice alike. The song often begins with a series of short notes, like tsit tsit tsit, or contains such notes somewhere in the middle. There are usually long buzzes that change pitch by slurring upward or downward. On one occasion, I found a bird that sang a territory song and four different nesting songs. Often the nesting song is sung in flight. By June this song is heard about as frequently as the territory song, and in late summer, after the molt, it is the one most commonly heard.

“The song of this bird is heard from its arrival in spring until early July, when it ceases for a time. It is usually revived in late July or early August, and from then on may be heard fairly frequently until the birds depart about the last of August.”

In his notes sent to Dr. Chapman, Burns describes the song as, “a drowsy, locust-like, swe-e-e-e-e ze-e-e-e-e, the first apparently inhaled and the last exhaled. * * * Another song heard on the first day of arrival, on one occasion, uttered by several males in company, possibly transients here, and may be the mating song, suggests the Chickadee’s che-de-de-e, che-dee-e, and che-de-de-dee, uttered repeatedly in one form or other in excitement, and while running out on the branchlets. The call and alarm note is a rather weak chip.” Dr. Chapman (1912) records a longer song, heard later in the season as “wēē-chĭ-chĭ-chĭ-chĭ, chūr, chēē-chūr.”

Francis H. Allen tells me that the final note, ze-e-e-e-e, as rendered by Burns, “is really a very rapid series of pips, as if the bird had lips like ours and vibrated them by forcing the air through them—in other words, giving a sort of avian Bronx cheer, but high in pitch. The individual pip notes are clear, but the effect of the rapid succession is somewhat buzzy.”

The songs of the hybrid forms may be like the song of either parent form, more often like that of the goldenwing, or a mixture of the two.

The flight song, as heard by Frank A. Pitelka, is recorded as follows:

tsee-

zweé- zweé

tzip- tzip-

zee-zee-zee-zee-zee-zee- zee-zee-zee-zee-zee-zee-

The song of the blue-winged warbler is one of the high-frequency songs; Albert E. Brand (1938) gives the approximate mean as 7,675, the highest note about 8,050 and the lowest note about 7,125 vibrations per second; this compares with an approximate mean for the black-poll warbler of 8,900 vibrations per second, the highest frequency of any of the wood warblers, and an average for all passerine birds of about 4,000 vibrations per second.

Field marks.—A small warbler with a greenish olive back, yellow forehead and under parts, with a black line through the eye and two white wing bars, is a blue-winged warbler. The female is merely more dull in coloration than the male, and the young even duller. The hybrids between this and the golden-winged warbler are more puzzling, but in a general way they can be recognized; a nearly typical blue-winged warbler with a black throat is probably a Lawrence’s warbler; and a golden-winged warbler without a black throat or cheek and with a variable amount of white and yellow on the under parts and in the wing-bars, is probably a Brewster’s warbler. But there is an immense amount of individual variation between the two species, due to frequent crossing.

Fall.—Most of the blue-winged warblers move southward during August and September, though a few may linger in the southern part of the breeding range into October. Professor Cooke (1904) says: “Most of the individuals of the species migrate across the Gulf of Mexico, apparently avoiding Florida on the east and Texas and Vera Cruz on the west, as there is no record of the occurrence of this warbler in fall in Texas, and but one in Florida—that of a bird taken at Key West August 30, 1887.” But this remains to be proved.

Alexander F. Skutch writes to me: “This is another very rare migrant in Central America. It has been recorded only a few times in Guatemala and apparently not at all in Costa Rica. I have seen it only once, on the Finca Mocá, Guatemala, on October 30, 1934.”

Very little seems to be known about its winter distribution and still less about its winter habits.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—Eastern United States to Panamá.

Breeding range.—The blue-winged warbler breeds north to southeastern Minnesota (Lanesboro); southern Wisconsin (Mazomanie, Prairie du Sac, and Glarus); northeastern Illinois (Rockford, Deerfield, and La Grange); southern Michigan (possibly Hastings, and Ann Arbor); northern Ohio (Toledo, Lakeside, Cleveland, and Austinburg); southern Pennsylvania (Carlisle); southern New York (Ossining and Whaley Lake); and Massachusetts (Springfield and Sudbury). East to eastern Massachusetts (Sudbury and Lexington); Connecticut (Westfield and Saybrook); Long Island (Mastic and Oyster Bay); New Jersey (Demarest, Morristown, and Elizabeth); southeastern Pennsylvania (Tinicum and Berwyn); probably occasionally in northern Maryland (Cecil County and Sabillasville); eastern and central Ohio (Canfield and Columbus); east-central Kentucky (Berea); central Tennessee (Nashville and Fall Creek); and central northern Georgia (Young Harris). South to northern Georgia (Young Harris, Margret, and Atlanta); northeastern Alabama (Long Island); central Tennessee (Wildersville); and northwestern Arkansas (Pettigrew and Winslow). West to northwestern Arkansas (Winslow and Fayetteville); west-central Iowa (Warrensburg); eastern Iowa (Lacey, Grinnell, Winthrop, and McGregor); and southeastern Minnesota (Lanesboro). The blue-winged warbler has occurred in summer west to eastern Kansas (Emporia and Leavenworth); central-southern and eastern Nebraska (Red Cloud, Plattsmouth, and Omaha); western Iowa (Sioux City); and north to Minnesota (Minneapolis); southern Ontario (Point Pelee, Strathroy, and West Lake); central New York (Penn Yan and Auburn); and southern New Hampshire (Manchester).

Winter range.—The principal winter home of the blue-winged warbler seems to be in Guatemala, though it has been recorded in winter from the Valley of Mexico; Puebla (Metlatoyuca); Veracruz (Tres Zapotes); to eastern Nicaragua (Río Escondido and Greytown). There is one winter record each from Costa Rica (Bonilla), Panamá (Port Antonio), and Colombia (Santa Marta Region).

On January 6, 1900, a dead blue-winged warbler (apparently dead from starvation) was picked up in Bronx Park, New York. It had only recently died and in all probability was the bird seen on December 10, in the same region.

Migration.—Late dates of spring departure are: Colombia—Santa Marta Region, March 21. Veracruz—Jalapa, April 7. Florida—Pensacola, April 25. Alabama—Guntersville, May 2. District of Columbia—Washington, May 30. Louisiana—Monroe, April 27. Texas—San Antonio, May 12.

Early dates of spring arrival are: Florida—Pensacola, April 4. Alabama—Shelby, April 4. Georgia—Atlanta, March 26. North Carolina—Arden, April 18. District of Columbia—Washington, April 23. West Virginia—Wheeling, April 23. Pennsylvania—Germantown, April 25. New York—Yonkers, April 26. Massachusetts—Lexington, May 6. Mississippi—Bay St. Louis, March 13. Louisiana—New Orleans, March 23. Arkansas—Winslow, April 2. Tennessee—Nashville, April 7. Kentucky—Eubank, April 10. Illinois—Springfield, April 29. Ohio—Columbus, April 22. Michigan—Ann Arbor, May 1. Missouri—St. Louis, April 17. Iowa—Grinnell, April 28. Wisconsin—Reedsburg, April 30. Minnesota—Lanesboro, May 7. Texas—Cove, March 27. Kansas—Onaga, April 26.

Late dates of fall departure are: Minnesota—Lanesboro, September 1. Wisconsin—Elkhorn, September 19. Iowa—Giard, September 20. Missouri—Monteer, September 17. Arkansas—Winslow, September 18. Louisiana—Monroe, October 7. Michigan—Jackson, September 13. Ohio—Oberlin, September 27. Indiana—Bloomington, September 28. Illinois—Chicago, September 29. Kentucky—Bowling Green, October 5. Tennessee—Memphis, September 11. Mississippi—Deer Island, October 13. Massachusetts—Belmont, September 6. New York—New York City, September 25. Pennsylvania—Jeffersonville, September 19. District of Columbia, Washington, September 14. West Virginia—French Creek, September 28. North Carolina—Reidsville, September 26. South Carolina—Huger, September 10. Georgia—Tifton, September 27. Florida—St. Marks, October 9.

Early dates of fall arrival are: District of Columbia—Washington, August 13. Georgia—Columbus, July 28. Alabama—Leighton, August 8. Florida—Key West, August 30. Mississippi—Gulfport, August 23. Texas—Cove, July 29. Tamaulipas—Matamoros, August 25. Costa Rica—Bonilla, September 8.

Banding.—Few blue-winged warblers have been banded and recovered. A bird banded at Elmhurst, Long Island, on August 17, 1935, flew into a screened porch at Westbury, Long Island, on May 7, 1937. The two places are about 15 miles apart.

Egg dates.—Connecticut: 30 records, May 25 to June 24; 20 records, May 29 to June 6, indicating the height of the season.

New Jersey: 40 records, May 16 to June 19; 29 records, May 22 to 30.

Pennsylvania: 27 records, May 28 to July 7; 14 records, May 28 to June 3 (Harris).

VERMIVORA BACHMANII (Audubon)

BACHMAN’S WARBLER

Contributed by Edward von Siebold Dingle

HABITS

Bachman’s warbler was discovered by Dr. John Bachman a few miles from Charleston, S. C., in July, 1833. According to Audubon (1841), who described and named in honor of his “amiable friend” the only two specimens taken, several other birds were seen soon after in the same locality.

More than half a century passed before the bird again appeared in America, this time in Louisiana. Charles S. Galbraith (1888), while securing specimens of warblers at Lake Pontchartrain for the millinery trade in the spring of 1886, took a single bird; in the two succeeding years he collected a number of additional specimens, 6 in 1887 and 31 in 1888. These birds were evidently migrating, for the 31 were all taken between March 2 and 20, and none could be found after the end of March. Chapman (1907) comments on Galbraith’s first specimen: “This specimen, now in the American Museum of Natural History, is prepared for a hat-piece. The feet are missing, the wings are stiffly distended, the head bent backward in typical bonnet pose, and, had it not been for an interest in ornithology which led Galbraith to take his unknown birds to Mr. Lawrence for identification, this rara avis might have become an unappreciated victim on Fashion’s altar.”

Since then the records have multiplied; but bachmanii has always been an extremely local species, even in migrations, and breeds in primeval swamps in small colonies, which are few and far between. At the present writing, the bird is one of the very rarest of North American warblers. It has been an unattained ideal to the writer; yet, having heard much about its habits from the late Arthur T. Wayne and having visited with him the former breeding grounds, he has some consolation for not having met it in life.

Wayne (1901) took a specimen of this species on May 15, 1901, near Mount Pleasant, which was the first record for South Carolina since Dr. Bachman collected the type, and says: “I am positive that I have heard this song nearly every summer in the same localities where the male was found, but I always keep out of such places after April 10 on account of the myriads of ticks and red bugs which infest them. Then, too, such places are simply impenetrable on account of the dense blackberry vines, matted with grape vines, fallen logs piled one upon another, and a dense growth of low bushes.”

Spring.—From its winter home in Cuba Bachman’s warbler enters the United States through Florida, and according to Howell (1932) the earliest date of arrival in that state is February 27. It has also been recorded from Louisiana on the same date (Chapman, 1907). The majority of individuals, however, cross to the United States mainland early in March; apparently the birds that summer in Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, and Kentucky reach their breeding grounds by skirting the Gulf coast and continuing up the Mississippi Valley. They reach the vicinity of Charleston, S. C., in March and nesting begins at once, for Wayne (1907) found a nest on March 27 containing one egg and another on April 3 with five well-incubated eggs. He calls attention to the fact that Bachman’s warbler therefore breeds earlier than the resident pine and yellow-throated warblers.

Nesting.—Dr. Bachman did not discover the breeding grounds of this warbler, and it was more than 60 years before the first nests and eggs became known to science; Widmann (1897) found the bird breeding in the St. Francis River country of Missouri and Arkansas on May 13, 1897. The nesting area extended “over two acres of blackberry brambles among a medley of half-decayed and lately-felled tree-tops, lying in pools of water, everything dripping wet with dew in the forenoon, and steaming under a broiling sun in the afternoon.” The first nest, which he describes as being 2 feet from the ground, “was made of leaves and grass blades, lined with a peculiar black rootlet; it was tied very slightly to a vertical blackberry vine of fresh growth and rested lightly on another, which crossed the former at a nearly right angle. From above it was entirely hidden by branchlets of latest growth, and the hand could not have been inserted without at first cutting several vines, overlying it in different directions.”

Ridgway (1897) describes this nest as, “a somewhat compressed compact mass composed externally of dried weed- and grass-stalks and dead leaves, many of the latter partially skeletonized; internally composed of rather fine weed- and grass-stalks, lined with black fibres, apparently dead threads of the black pendant lichens (Ramalina, species?) which hang in beard-like tufts from button-bushes (Cephalanthus) and other shrubs growing in wetter portions of the western bottom-lands. The height of the nest is about 3¹⁄₂ inches; its greatest breadth is about 4 inches, its width in the opposite direction being about 3 inches. The cavity is about 1¹⁄₂ inches deep and 1¹⁄₂ × 2 inches wide.”

In 1906, Wayne (1907) found six nests of Bachman’s warbler near Charleston, S. C., from two of which the young had flown. "The swamp in which this warbler breeds is heavily timbered and subjected to overflow from rains and reservoirs. The trees are chiefly of a deciduous character, such as the cypress, black gum, sweet gum, tupelo, hickory, dogwood, and red oak. In the higher parts of the swamp short-leaf pines, water oaks, live oaks, and magnolias abound. The undergrowth is chiefly cane, aquatic bushes, and swamp palmetto, while patches of blackberry brambles and thorny vines are met with at almost every step.” The first two nests, found on April 17, are described as follows:

The first nest was placed upon a dead palmetto leaf, being supported by a small aquatic bush, and was completely hidden by a living palmetto leaf which overhung the nest, like an umbrella. It was in a dense swamp, two feet above the ground, and contained four pure white eggs, almost ready to be hatched.

The second nest, which was within one hundred yards of the first one, was built in a bunch of canes (Arundinaria tecta), and supported by a palmetto leaf. This nest was three feet above the ground, in a comparatively dry situation, and contained four pure white eggs in an advanced stage of incubation. * * *

The two nests are similar, being constructed of fine grass, cane leaves, and other leaves, the latter skeletonized. The second nest, taken April 17, is 6¹⁄₂ inches high, 6 inches wide, 2 inches wide at rim, and 2 inches deep. It is composed almost entirely of dead cane leaves, a little Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides), and a few skeletonized leaves. * * *

The female is a very close sitter; indeed so close that I found it necessary to touch her before she would leave the nest. This habit was the same in both females.

The other nests were in low bushes, vines, or canes.

During that same year Embody (1907) discovered Bachman’s warbler breeding in Logan County, Ky., and later Holt (1920) found it nesting in Autauga County, Ala. The localities in which these birds were breeding and the locations of the nests were not very different from those described above by Wayne.

Eggs.—The egg of Bachman’s warbler is ovate and pure white, and usually glossy. The only spotted egg on record is one of a set described by Holt (1920) as follows: “The nest contained four eggs, three of them pure, glossy white, the other with a dozen minute dots of light brown, mostly about the large end; all were tinted faint salmon pink by the yolks.” Three to five eggs constitute a set; three seem the usual number, with four a close second, while five are unusual.

[Author’s Note: The measurements of 42 eggs average 15.8 by 12.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 16.6 by 12.9, 16.5 by 13.0, 14.9 by 12.2, and 15.8 by 11.6 millimeters.]

Plumages.—[Author’s Note: Two young birds, just able to fly from the nest and taken by Wayne on May 13, are thus described by Brewster (1905):

The male which is now before me may be described as follows:—Top and sides of head and fore part of back faded hair brown with a trace of ashy on the middle of crown; remainder of upper parts dull olive green; wings and tail (which are fully grown) as in the first winter plumage excepting that the greater and middle wing-coverts are rather more broadly tipped with light brown, forming two well-marked wing-bars; chin and throat brownish white tinged with yellow; sides of jugulum smoke gray, its center yellowish; sides of breast gamboge yellow shading into olive on the flanks; middle of breast, with most of abdomen, yellowish white; under tail-coverts ashy white. All the feathers on the under parts which are strongly yellow or olive, and those on the upper parts which are decidedly ashy or greenish, appear to belong to the autumnal plumage or, as it is now called, the first winter plumage, but all the other feathers on the head and body are evidently those of the first plumage. * * *

I have not seen the young female Bachman’s Warbler above referred to, but Mr. Wayne writes me that “It differs from the male only in these respects: The yellow on the sides of the breast is very much paler and more restricted and the back is not greenish, but brownish. The white on the tail-feathers is merely indicated on the margins of the inner webs of the tail-feathers.”

It would appear from the above that there is a sexual difference even in the juvenal plumage, and that the postjuvenal molt begins before the middle of May. This molt evidently involves all the contour plumage and the wing coverts but not the rest of the wings or the tail. The young male in first winter plumage is similar to the adult male at that season, but the crown is entirely gray, or with very little black; the feathers of the black patch on the throat, which is more restricted, are tipped with yellowish or buffy. There are no specimens available that indicate a prenuptial molt, which is probably very limited. Young males in the first nuptial plumage may be recognized by the worn and faded wings and tail.

The complete postnuptial molt of adults apparently occurs in July or earlier; I have seen no molting birds, but a large series of August birds are all in completely fresh winter plumage. In this plumage the male resembles the spring male, but the black of the crown is widely tipped with gray and the black of the breast is narrowly tipped with yellowish; these tips largely wear away before spring, although Wayne (1910) says that his “breeding males all show the olive yellow edging on the black feathers.” Similar molts and changes take place in the female, but she has no black in the crown and much less or none at all on the breast; her colors are duller and she has less white in the tail, as well as olive-green, instead of yellow, lesser wing coverts.

For a full description of individual variations in plumage, the reader is referred to Mr. Brewster’s (1891) excellent paper.]

Food.—Very little information is to be found concerning the food of this warbler, but insects undoubtedly constitute its diet. Howell (1924) says: “Five stomachs of this species from Alabama contained remains of caterpillars and a few fragments of Hymenoptera, probably ants.”

Behavior.—Wayne (1907), in writing of this bird on its breeding grounds, says: “Bachman’s Warbler is a high-ranging bird, like the Yellow-throated Warbler, and generally sings from the top of a sweet gum or cypress. It appears to have regular singing stations during the breeding season, and upon leaving a tree it flies a long distance before alighting. On this account it is impossible to follow the bird through the dark forest, and it can only be detected by its song. I have occasionally seen the males in low gall-berry bushes within six or eight inches of the ground, but their usual resorts are among the topmost branches of the tallest forest trees.”

Brewster (1891) had similar experience with migrating birds in Florida:

Nearly or quite all that has been hitherto written about this Warbler would lead one to infer that its favorite haunts are dense thickets, undergrowth, or low trees, and that it seldom ventures to any considerable height above the ground. Our experience, however, was directly contrary to this. * * * The bird, moreover, not only frequented the tops of the tallest trees, but at all times of the day and under every condition of weather kept at a greater average height than any other Warbler excepting Dendroica dominica. In its marked preference for cypresses it also resembled the species just named, but unlike it was never seen in pines. * * *

At the time of our visit the Suwanee bottoms were alive with small birds many of which were doubtless migrants. They banded together in mixed flocks often of large size and motley composition. * * * Such a gathering was nearly certain to contain from one or two to five or six Bachman’s Warblers.

These with the Parulas were most likely to be feeding in the upper branches of some gigantic cypress, at least one hundred feet above the earth, where they looked scarcely larger than bumble bees. * * *

The habits and movements of Bachman’s Warbler are in some respects peculiar and characteristic. It does not flit from twig to twig nor launch out after flying insects in the manner of most Warblers, and many of its motions are quite as deliberate as those of a Vireo. Alighting near the end of a branch it creeps or sidles outward along a twig, and bending forward until the head points nearly straight down, inserts the bill among the terminal leaflets with a peculiar, slow, listless motion, keeping it there a second or two, and repeating the leisurely thrust many times in succession without changing its foothold. The action is like that of several other members of the genus—notably H. pinus and H. chrysoptera—under similar conditions, and suggests the sucking in of liquid food, perhaps honey or dew. Not infrequently a bird would hang back downwards beneath a twig and feed from the under sides of the leaves in the manner of a Titmouse. * * *

Many of the hackberry trees along the banks of this stream contained compact bunches—nearly as large as a child’s head—of dead leaves blackened by exposure to wind and weather. These bunches probably sheltered insects or their larvae, for they attracted several species of birds, especially the Bachman’s Warblers which would work at them minutes at a time with loud rustling, sometimes burrowing in nearly out of sight and sending the loosened leaves floating down to the ground. Upon exhausting the supply of food or becoming tired of the spot—whether one of the leaf bunches or the extremity of a cypress branch—the bird almost invariably started on a long flight, often going hundreds of yards through the woods or crossing the river, instead of merely passing to the next branch or tree as almost any other Warbler would have done under similar circumstances. This habit seemed to us characteristic of the species.

Atkins wrote from Key West (Scott, 1890):

Bachman’s Warbler in its habits is very much like the Parula Warbler (Compsothlypis americana). The resemblance is more noticeable when feeding and in search of food. The birds will then penetrate a thick bunch of leaves and go through, over and all around in the most thorough manner in their exploration after insects that appeal to their taste. They are very active, and constantly in motion. They are also quarrelsome, and resent the intrusion of other species. Frequently I have noticed them fighting away the White-eyed Vireo, and where two or more Bachman’s Warblers are observed together, one is pretty sure to see them chasing and fighting among themselves. When disturbed or alarmed they are at once alert; a sharp alarm note, something like that of a Yellow-throated Warbler (D. dominica) is uttered, but more forcible and clear cut in its delivery. This is accompanied with a few jerks of the tail, and the bird is off to a neighboring tree. They are found alike in the trees, low bushes, and shrubbery, sometimes on or quite near the ground, and seem to prefer the heavy and more thickly grown woods to trees or bushes more in the open. Young birds are quite tame, but the adults as a rule were very shy and difficult to approach after having been once disturbed.

Voice.—The song of Bachman’s warbler is of a wiry or insect-like character, and has been widely compared by many observers to the music of the worm-eating and parula warblers and the chipping sparrow. It also resembles, according to Aretas A. Saunders (MS.), one of the songs of the blue-winged warbler. Brewster (1891) says:

The song is unlike that of any other species of Helminthophila with which I am acquainted and most resembles the song of the Parula Warbler. It is of the same length and of nearly the same quality or tone, but less guttural and without the upward run at the end, all of its six or eight notes being given in the same key and with equal emphasis. Despite these differences it would be possible to mistake the performance, especially at a distance, for that of a Parula singing listlessly. The voice, although neither loud nor musical, is penetrating and seems to carry as far as most Warblers'. Besides the song the only note which we certainly identified was a low hissing zee-e-eep, very like that of the Black-and-white Creeper.

Widmann (1897), observing a singing male for 8 hours, says that “the bird kept singing nearly all the time at the rate of ten times a minute with the regularity of clockwork, and its sharp, rattling notes reminded me strongly of an alarm-clock. In this regard it recalls one of the performances of Parula, whose rattle is of the same length and quality, except that it has a certain rise at the end, by which it is easily distinguished.”

Wayne (1910) heard one singing exactly like a prothonotary warbler, this song lasting for more than 20 minutes. And Howell (1924) mentions two Bachman’s warblers, observed in Alabama, that “had the habit of singing on the wing, the song being delivered just before the bird alighted on a perch after a short flight.”

Field marks.—[Author’s Note: Under certain circumstances Bachman’s warbler might be mistaken for a black-throated green warbler, but, fortunately, the two species do not frequent similar habitats at the same seasons. Mr. Brewster (1891) calls attention to the difficulty of distinguishing it from the parula warbler, when the two are seen against the sky in a lofty tree-top; at such times—

the chestnut throat-markings of the Parula showed quite as dark and distinct as the black cravat of the Bachman’s Warbler.

The latter bird, however, was the larger or rather plumper-looking of the two, and if the upper side of the wings could be seen the absence of the white bars which are so conspicuous on the wings of the Parula Warbler was quickly noticed. * * * Of course it is only the male Bachman’s Warbler which can be confounded with the Parula, for the female—setting aside occasional individuals which have black on the throat—is most like the Orange-crowned Warbler. * * * Both sexes of Bachman’s Warbler habitually carry the feathers of the crown a little raised, giving the head a fluffy appearance.]

Fall.—[Author’s Note: Wayne (1925) says: “The Bachman’s Warbler has left South Carolina before the advent of August; the latest date I have is a young male taken by me on July 16, 1919.” But he records a specimen which struck the lighthouse on Tybee Island, Ga., on September 23, 1924; he thought that this bird might have come from somewhere in the Mississippi Valley region, where the species breeds much later than in South Carolina. Atkins sent the following notes to W. E. D. Scott (1890):

Key West, Florida, 1889. First arrival from north, July 17, one adult male and one young female. Next observed July 23, three birds. Not seen again until July 31, though I was watching for them almost continually; three birds again on this date. August 4, found them more common perhaps a dozen birds in all were seen. From this time till August 25 inclusive, I found them regularly in small numbers. On August 8, 11, and 25 they were most abundant, particularly so on the first-named date, when as many as twenty-five or thirty birds were seen. After the 11th there was a decline in the numbers until the 25th, when they were again almost as numerous as on the 8th, but none were observed after the 25th.

Bachman’s warbler is said to spend the winter in western Cuba and the Isle of Pines, migrating through Florida and the Keys.]

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—Southeastern United States and Cuba.

Breeding range.—Although Bachman’s warbler was described more than a hundred years ago its range is still very imperfectly known. After its discovery near Charleston, S. C., in 1833, the bird remained unknown until rediscovered in 1886 near Lake Pontchartrain, La. The first nest was found in 1897 in southeastern Missouri, nearly the northwestern border of the range as now known. It was not until 1901 that the species was again found near Charleston and in 1905 the first young birds were collected in the same swamp where the type specimen was collected.

Bachman’s warbler breeds, locally north to northwestern Arkansas (possibly Winslow, Big Creek, and Bertig); southeastern Missouri (Grandin, Senath, and has occurred in Shannon County); central Kentucky (Russellville and Mammoth Cave); possibly occasionally in southern Indiana, since a pair was seen throughout the breeding season at Indianapolis; north-central Alabama (Irondale); and southern South Carolina (Charleston). East to the coastal swamps of South Carolina (Charleston), and Georgia (Savannah). South to Georgia (Savannah and possibly the Okefenokee Swamp); southern Alabama (Tensas River); and southern Louisiana (West Baton Rouge Parish). West to southeastern Louisiana (West Baton Rouge Parish) and northwestern Arkansas (Winslow, possibly). In addition, specimens have been recorded at Fayetteville, Ark.; Versailles, Ky.; Aylett, Va.; and Raleigh, N. C.

Winter range.—The only known wintering place for the Bachman’s warbler is the island of Cuba. It has occurred in the Bahamas in fall migration. Color is given to the theory that this species may occasionally spend the winter in the deep swamps of Georgia and Florida, by the collection of a specimen in Okefenokee Swamp on December 30, 1928, and the occurrence of several in December of 1932. A specimen was collected at Melbourne, Fla., on January 27, 1898.

Migration.—That Bachman’s warbler migrates through the Florida Keys is indicated by the large number seen at Key West in fall migration and by the many that have struck the light at Sombrero Key. On March 3, 1889, 21 birds of this species struck the light and five more were killed on April 3.

Early dates of spring arrival are: Florida—Lukens, February 27. Georgia—Atlanta, April 18. Alabama—Woodbine, March 20. Mississippi—Deer Island, March 21. Louisiana—Mandeville, February 27.

In spring the latest date at Dry Tortugas Island, Fla., is April 9 and the earliest fall arrival at Key West, Fla., July 17.

Fall departure dates are: Georgia—Savannah, September 24. Florida—Key West, September 5.

Egg dates.—Missouri: 4 records, May 13 to 17.

South Carolina: 19 records, March 27 to June 17; 10 records, March 27 to April 4.

VERMIVORA PEREGRINA (Wilson)

TENNESSEE WARBLER

Plate 14

HABITS

Alexander Wilson (1832) discovered this warbler on the banks of the Cumberland River in Tennessee and gave it the common name it has borne ever since, although it seems inappropriate to name a bird for a State so far from its main breeding range in Canada. Only two specimens were ever obtained by him, and he regarded it as a very rare species, possibly a mere wanderer from some other clime, hence the name peregrina. Audubon never saw more than three individuals, migrants in Louisiana and at Key West. And Nuttall, it seems, never saw it at all. Its apparent rarity in those early days was, perhaps, due to the fact that it is inconspicuously colored and might easily be overlooked or mistaken for a small plainly colored vireo or for the more common Nashville warbler; its fluctuation in numbers from year to year in different places may also have suggested its apparent rarity. Here in Massachusetts, we have found it very common in certain years and very scarce in others.

Spring.—Professor Cooke (1904) says: “In spring migration the Tennessee warbler is rarely found east of the Alleghenies, nor is it so common in the Mississippi Valley as during the fall migration.” And he makes the rather surprising statement that “the Biological Survey has received no notes from the South Atlantic States on the spring migration of the Tennessee warbler, nor from Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana, though two birds were seen in April in Cuba and some were taken on the island of Grand Cayman, and the species has been noted several times in spring at Pensacola, Fla.” Yet he gives April 26, 1885, as the date of its arrival at Rising Fawn, Ga. And H. H. Kopman (1905) writes:

In a small lot of warblers sent Andrew Allison, In the spring of 1902, from the lighthouse on Chandeleur Island, off the southeast coast of Louisiana, was a Tennessee Warbler that had struck the lighthouse April 13. While I had some dubious records of the occurrence of the Tennessee Warbler at New Orleans in the early part of April, it was not until 1903 that I saw the species, in spring, and then in some numbers, singing, and loitering to a degree that surprised me, for the first of these transients appeared April 26, and the last was noted May 9. They were restricted almost to one spot, a thicket of willows beside a pond in the suburbs of New Orleans. I observed others the latter part of April, 1905.

This warbler seems to be a rare spring migrant through Florida; A. H. Howell (1932) gives seven records, from Key West to Pensacola, in March and April. The few records available seem to indicate that the main migration route is along the eastern coasts of Central America (Dr. Skutch tells me that he sees it both spring and fall in Costa Rica), Mexico, and Texas to the Mississippi Valley, whence it spreads out to reach its wide breeding range. Some birds may reach Florida via Cuba, and we have some evidence that it migrates across the Gulf of Mexico. It is common on the coast of Texas in spring.

Gerald Thayer wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907) that about Monadnock, N. H., the Tennessee warbler is “very rare, and seemingly irregular. It haunts blossoming apple trees, big elms, and roadside copses of mixed deciduous second growth.”

At Buckeye Lake, Ohio, according to Milton B. Trautman (1940), “the daily and seasonal numbers of no warbler species fluctuated as greatly as did those of the Tennessee Warbler. During some spring migrations it was decidedly uncommon, and never more than 5 individuals were recorded in a day nor more than 35 for the spring. During other years as many as 250 individuals (May 16, 1929) were observed in a day, and more than 800 were noted during the migration. * * * The birds in spring chiefly inhabited the upper half of the taller trees of both upland and lowland wooded areas and also the upper parts of rows or groups of tall trees along the lake shore, streams, and about farmhouses.”

It must have been a very common migrant in Minnesota at one time, for Dr. Roberts (1936) writes:

Formerly, when all Warblers were more abundant than now, the little Tennessee flooded the tree-tops for a week or ten days in such numbers as to equal, if not excel, all other species put together, excepting only the Myrtle. Insignificant in size and inconspicuous in garb, it made up for these shortcomings by numbers and incessant vocal effort, indifferent performer though it is. It is still one of the commonest species. It keeps well up among the topmost branches and moves restlessly about in search of food, singing meanwhile with little apparent effort and announcing its passage from one tree-top to another by a succession of sharp little yeap-yeaps that are almost as characteristic to the trained ear as the song itself.

A. D. Henderson, of Belvedere, Alberta, tells me that the Tennessee warbler is probably the most numerous of the warblers which spend the summer in the territory around Belvedere and in the Fort Assiniboine District. It breeds mainly in poplar woods, but I have also found nests in dry muskeg.

Nesting.—Prior to the beginning of the present century very little authentic information on the nesting habits of the Tennessee warbler was available. Professor Cooke (1904) records two sets of eggs taken by one of the parties of the Biological Survey in 1901 at Fort Smith, Mackenzie, of which he says: “These eggs are among the first absolutely authentic specimens known to science.” And Dr. Chapman (1907) remarked: “The Tennessee Warbler awaits a biographer.” Since then, we have learned much about it, mainly through the writings of B. S. Bowdish and P. B. Philipp, who found it breeding abundantly in New Brunswick. In their first paper (1916) they describe the summer haunts and the nesting habits of this warbler as follows: