THE INDIAN REGION
completes the list. Broadly speaking, this region comprises that part of Asia which lies east of the Indus river south of the Himalaya mountains except the eastern half of the drainage basin of the Yang-tse-kiang river, reaching the coast just south of Shanghai, including the island of Formosa, the Philippines, Borneo, Java, Sumatra and Ceylon. This is the Oriental Region of Wallace. There are, apparently, but two families of birds peculiar to this region: the bulbuls and the broad-bills; but there are very many genera and species found nowhere else in the world. The king-crows, sun-birds, swallow-shrikes, argus pheasant, jungle fowl and the well-known peacocks belong here. Very many of the birds of this region are gaudily colored and striking in appearance.
Each of these great regions, except possibly New Zealand, are readily divisible into sub-regions, and these again into areas of lesser extent, until each fauna may be assigned its proper place. Thus in the Holarctic Region we recognize the Nearctic, which comprises about all of North America, and a Palearctic sub-region, the outlines of which have already been sketched. Within the Nearctic three minor regions are recognized. The Arctic “includes that part of the continent and its adjacent islands north of about the limit of forest vegetation” (Allen). That is, extreme northern and northwestern Alaska, sweeping southeasterly through British America to and including Hudson Bay, northern and northeastern Labrador and northern Newfoundland. The Cold Temperate, which lies next south, begins in the east near Quebec, then sweeps westward past the Great Lakes almost to Winnipeg, thence in a northwesterly direction just west of Lake Winnipeg; from there in a more westerly direction to the mountains, which it follows even into northern Mexico as a narrow line; from the west coast at the north end of Vancouver Island it runs east to the mountains. Maine and Nova Scotia are a part of the Allegheny belt which reaches to Alabama. Below this southern limit of the Cold Temperate lies the Warm Temperate, extending almost to Central America. But this is again subdivided into an eastern Humid Province which ends at the Plains, and a western Arid Province. These are again subdivided into an Appalachian Subprovince and an Austroriparian Subprovince for the Humid Province, and a Sonoran and Campestrian Subprovince for the Arid Province. But the boundaries of these minor subdivisions are not yet definitely settled, nor are the characteristic species in each finally decided upon, so it will not be profitable to carry our investigation further at this time.
We learn from this that when we find that one region, be it large or small, is unlike every other region in some particulars of climate or vegetation or temperature, or when it is not easily accessible from other regions, we may expect to find the animals somewhat different according to the conditions which prevail. From this it is a clear step to the truth that an animal’s environment exerts a considerable influence upon its life and through its life upon its form; changing the form in some particulars that make it different from all other animals. It is also true of plants. Since, then, there are different physical conditions in every country of any considerable size, these changes in plants and animals are going on now, but so slowly that we are not able to see them. At the end of another thousand years or longer, the species of birds which we now know may be so changed that we should not know them if we could see them. But that need not worry us!
Lynds Jones.
HOODED WARBLER.
(Silvania mitrata.)
Life-size.
FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES.
THE HOODED WARBLER
(Sylvania mitrata.)
“He was recognizable at once by the bright yellow hood he wore, bordered all around with deep black. A bright, flitting blossom of the bird world!”—Leander S. Keyser, in Bird Land.
This beautiful little warbler is a resident of the eastern United States. It is more common in the southern portion of this district and throughout the Mississippi Valley. Its breeding range extends from the Gulf of Mexico as far to the northward as southern Michigan. It winters in the West Indies, in Mexico, and in Central America. Though a wood warbler it prefers the shrubby growths in low and well-watered places rather than the forest. It is said to be abundant among the canes of the Southern States. Many other names have been given this warbler, all having reference to the arrangement of the black and yellow colors on the head. It is called the Black-headed Warbler, the Hooded Flycatching Warbler, the Mitred Warbler, and the Black-cap Warbler.
Activity seems to be the keynote of its life. It is in constant pursuit of insects, which it catches while they are on the wing. Unlike the flycatchers it seldom returns to the same perch from which it flew to catch its prey.
The words of Mr. Keyser most aptly describe the habits of the Hooded Warbler. He says, speaking of an hour spent in observing the bird’s behavior, “He was not in the least shy or nervous, but seemed rather to court my presence. Almost every moment was spent in capturing insects on the wing or in sitting on a perch watching for them to flash into view. Like a genuine flycatcher, as soon as a buzzing insect hove in sight, he would dart out after it, and never once failed to secure his prize. Sometimes he would plunge swiftly downward after a gnat or miller, and once, having caught a miller that was large and inclined to be refractory, he flew to the ground, beat it awhile on the clods, and then swallowed it with a consequential air which seemed to say, ‘That is my way of disposing of such cases!’ Several times he mounted almost straight up from his perch, and twice he almost turned a somersault in pursuit of an insect. Once he clung like a titmouse to the hole of a sapling.”
To some its notes, which are quite musical, lively, sweet and happy, seem to resemble twee, twee, twitchie. Mr. Chapman says the song “is subject to much variation, but as a rule consists of eight or nine notes. To my ear the bird seems to say, ‘You must come to the woods, or you won’t see me.’”
The nest of the Hooded Warbler is usually built in low shrubs, sometimes but a few inches from the ground and seldom higher than two feet. It is constructed of fine rootlets, and fibers of bark compactly interwoven with leaves, fine grass and hair. It is lined with grass, hair and feathers. The eggs, which are usually five in number, are white, or nearly white, in color, with red or brownish spots near the larger end. They are nearly three-fourths of an inch in length, and a little over one-half of an inch in their greatest diameter.
Three years or more are required for the development of the fully adult plumage. The throat of the female, though black, is not as pure a black as that of the male, and it is not so extensive or as well defined.