The only note Dr. Coues ever heard it utter was a quick and often repeated tsip, as slender and as wiry as that of a Gnatcatcher. Dr. Cooper, however, has described its song as rich and pleasing, the little performer being mounted on the top of some mezquite or other bush. Dr. Cooper supposes this species to breed, not in the Colorado Valley, but in the more mountainous regions.
Dr. Coues hazards the conjecture that this bird builds in low bushes. Should it prove so, it would in this respect differ from all the other members of this well-marked group, and from the other Ground Warblers, which, in its general habits, it so much resembles.
Helminthophaga celata, var. celata, Baird.
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER.
Sylvia celata, Say, Long’s Exp. R. Mts. I, 1823, 169.—Bon. Am. Orn. I, pl. v, fig. 2.—Aud. Orn. Biog. II, pl. clxxviii. Sylvicola cel. Rich. Vermivora cel. Jard. Helinaia cel. Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. cxii. Helmitherus cel. Bon.—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1857, 212 (Orizaba). Helminthophaga cel. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 257; Rev. Am. Birds, I, 1865, 176 (in part).—Dall & Bannister (Alaska).—Sclater, P. Z. S. 1858, 298 (Oaxaca, December); 1859, 373; 1862, 19 (La Parada). H. celata, var. celata, Ridgw. Rept. U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Par.
Sp. Char. Above grayish olive-green, rather brighter on the rump. Beneath entirely greenish yellowish-white, except a little whitish about the anus; the sides tinged with grayish-olivaceous. A concealed patch of pale orange-rufous on the crown, hidden by the grayish tips to the feathers. Eyelids and an obscure superciliary line yellowish-white, a dusky obscure streak through the eye. Inner webs of tail-feathers broadly edged with white. Female with little or none of the orange on the crown, and the white edgings to inner webs of tail-feathers. Young lacking the orange entirely, and with two fulvous-whitish bands on the wing. Length, 4.70; wing, 2.25; tail, 2.00.
Hab. Middle Province of North America; Yukon and McKenzie River district. Very rare in the Eastern Province of United States; Mexico in winter; Oaxaca, La Parada, (Sclater); Orizaba, winter (Sumichrast).
This variety inhabits the interior regions of North America, from the Yukon southward into Mexico; westward, its range meets that of the var. lutescens at about the meridian of 116°, while eastward it extends beyond the Mississippi, though rare east of the latter region. Specimens from Southern Illinois (where it is abundant in its migrations) and from Wisconsin are precisely like Rocky Mountain examples; but several in the collection before us from the South Atlantic States (Florida, Georgia, etc.) are so different as almost to warrant their separation as a different variety. These individuals are most like the style of the interior,—var. celata,—but are even less yellowish, and the whole plumage is very dark and dingy; all of them, too, lack any trace whatever of orange on the crown. Should all specimens from this region agree in the latter respect, the series from the Southeastern States is certainly entitled to recognition as a variety, for which we propose the name obscura.
Habits. The geographical distribution of H. celata is involved in some doubt, owing probably to its irregularity of migration. In a few occasional instances this species has been observed in the Atlantic States. Several have been obtained near Philadelphia. Mr. Audubon affirms to having seen it in the Middle States about the 10th of May, and in Maine later in the month. Beyond that he did not trace it. Mr. J. A. Allen procured one specimen of this bird in Springfield, Mass., May 15, 1863. There were quite a number among the fruit-trees of the garden and orchard, then in bloom, and, mistaking them for Helminthophaga ruficapilla, he at first neglected to shoot any, until, being in doubt, he procured one, and found it the Orange-Crown. The group passed on, and one was all he obtained. It is not given by Mr. Turnbull as one of the birds of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, nor by Mr. Boardman or Professor Verrill as occurring in Maine. I am informed by Mr. Ridgway that it is a regular spring and autumn migrant in Southern Illinois, and in some seasons is quite common.
It was taken as a migratory species at Oaxaca, Mexico, during the winter months, by M. A. Boucard.