In the neighborhood of the cities, and in fact throughout the Middle and Northern States, during the last of April and the whole of May of every year, numerous species of Warblers are to be found in abundance. It happens occasionally though, that a species, usually common, is scarcely to be seen in the whole season, and sometimes is rare for several seasons in succession. The Black-throated blue Warbler (Sylvicola canadensis), for instance, is generally very abundant in Pennsylvania in May, and so is the Chestnut-sided (S. icterocephala); but we have noticed seasons in which all the collectors of Philadelphia would scarcely obtain a specimen of either. It sometimes happens, too, that a species makes its appearance in considerable numbers, and then is of much less common occurrence for years. This was the case with the Blackburnian Warbler in May, 1840. That beautiful little bird was so abundant, that our early and intimate friend, the late Mr. William R. Spackman, then anxious to collect for the purposes of general study and for exchanges, shot upwards of twenty specimens during a morning’s excursion in company with us near Kaighn’s Point, New Jersey; and had they been wanted, could readily have obtained a much larger number in the afternoon, or, as termed by bird-collectors in common with sportsmen, during “the evening fly.” It continued very plentiful through the entire spring migration, but we have not seen it so abundant more than once since, though fifteen years have elapsed.
Very erroneous impressions relative to the rarity of several species of Warblers, have been created by statements which have found their way into the works of both Wilson and Audubon. For instance, the former of these celebrated authors says of the Chestnut-sided Warbler:—“In a whole day’s excursion it is rare to meet with more than one or two of these birds;”—the latter, at the time of the publication of the first volume of his Ornithological Biography (1831), had met with this bird once only (Orn. Biog. I., p. 306), and so it stands printed in his octavo edition of “The Birds of America,” (II., p. 35, 1840.) These rather extraordinary statements have caused the useless destruction of very many specimens of this little bird, particularly by young collectors, under a false estimate of its scarcity in collections, or value for the purposes of science. There have been few months of May in the last twenty years, in which any person of moderate skill as a collector of birds, could not have obtained, in the vicinity of Philadelphia, as many specimens of the Chestnut-sided Warbler as would have supplied all the Museums in the world.
Again, in the months of September and October, Warblers are abundant in our woods, but the plumage of many species is materially altered from that of Spring. The student of ornithology must by no means, however, neglect to become acquainted with it, and will find this knowledge exceedingly valuable and interesting, as he advances in this branch of science.
The bird represented in the plate now before the reader, is one of the rarest as yet of the North American species of Warblers. Like several others that are well established as species, it has been obtained once only, which was in the vicinity of Cleveland, Ohio, by Professor J. P. Kirtland, of that city, who presented it to Professor Baird, by whom its discovery was first announced in the Annals of the New York Lyceum, as cited below.
This species is related to the Yellow-crowned Warbler, or Myrtle Bird, as it is sometimes called (Sylvicola coronata), a common species of the United States, and to Audubon’s Warbler (S. Auduboni), a Western species, but differs from them in strong and unmistakable characters. It is probably a species inhabiting the more Western regions of the continent of North America.
We are informed by Prof. Kirtland, that the specimen alluded to was shot in the woods near Cleveland, and, so far as observed, was not noticed to differ in habits essentially from S. coronata, or other of our species of Warblers usually found migrating in the Spring. Though it was captured in the Spring of 1852, and the species has been carefully looked for ever since at the same season, it has never again been observed.
The figure in our plate is about two-thirds the size of life.
The plant represented is a species of Penstemon from Texas, raised in the Horticultural establishment of Mr. Robert Kilvington, of this city.
DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.
Genus Sylvicola. Swainson. Faun. Bor. Am. Birds, p. 204. (1831.)