Hab. Eastern Province of North America to Fort Simpson; Eastern Mexico to Guatemala and Panama; Bahamas; Cuba (very rare).
Habits. The Black and Yellow Warbler, one of the most beautiful of this attractive family, was supposed by our earlier writers to be exceedingly rare. Wilson never met with more than two specimens,—one in Ohio, the other on the Mississippi,—and spoke of it as a very scarce species. In regard to its song he was quite at fault, denying to it any notes deserving the name of song. Nuttall, who had only seen it occasionally in Massachusetts, in the middle of May, regarded it as rare, and was unacquainted with its notes. Its history is now much better known, and neither its great rarity nor its deficiency as to melody can any longer be admitted.
At certain seasons and in particular places it is a very common species. It may be found during the breeding-season throughout North America east of the Great Plains, between latitude 44° and Fort Simpson in the fur country. During its migrations it may be met with in most of the Eastern States, in Eastern Mexico, and the northern portions of South America. It has been found in the Bahamas, and also in Cuba, where it is not common. Specimens have been received from Mexico, Guatemala, and Panama, and from Fort Resolution, Rupert House, and Fort Simpson, in Arctic America, and as far to the west as the mouth of Vermilion River. Dr. Bryant met with it in the Bahamas as early as the 15th of March, where it was quite common. M. Boucard found it at Playa Vicente, in the hot portion of the State of Oaxaca, Mexico.
In Western Massachusetts, Mr. Allen found it a common spring and autumn visitor, occurring in its northern flights from the middle of May to the first of June, and in the autumn as late as September 20. Professor Verrill found it in Western Maine, but not common, both in spring and fall, but had no reason to believe that it bred there. Mr. Boardman does not include it in his list of Calais birds, and I did not find it among the islands in the Bay of Fundy. In the vicinity of Halifax, during the months of June and July, it is one of the most common of the Warblers, occurring in every direction.
Mr. Audubon observed these Warblers in Louisiana, in their migrations, as early as the middle of March; but its appearance there, as well as in Kentucky and Ohio, appeared to be occasional and accidental. In autumn he has met with them in large numbers among the mountains of Northern Pennsylvania, They were passing southward with their young. While on his way to Labrador he noticed them in Maine, near Eastport, in May, very abundant along the roads, the fields, and the low woods, as well as in the orchards and gardens. The season was then not advanced, the weather cold; and these birds sheltered themselves by night among the evergreens, and were often so chilled as to be readily taken by the hand. He also met them wherever he landed in the neighboring islands in the Bay of Fundy and at Labrador.
The song of this Warbler is clear and sweetly modulated, and surpasses that of most of this family. It seems to prefer the interior of low woods, where its notes may chiefly be heard during the early summer, as it sings
while it is searching for its food among the branches, in the manner of the Vireos.
Like nearly all the members of this family, in its search for food it blends the habits of the Creepers with those of the Flycatchers, feeding upon insects in their every form, running up and down the trunks for the ova, larvæ, and pupæ, expertly catching the insect on the wing, and equally skilful in hovering over the expanded bud and searching the opening leaves.
Mr. Audubon found its nest placed deep among the branches of low fir-trees, supported by horizontal twigs, constructed of moss and lichens, and lined with fibrous roots and feathers. One found in Labrador, in the beginning of July, contained five eggs, small and rather more elongated than is common in this genus. They were white, and sprinkled with reddish dots at the larger end. The female fluttered among the branches, spreading her wings and tail in great distress, and returning to her nest as soon as the intruders were a few yards off. In August he saw a number of their young already following their parents and moving southward. In his expedition to Texas, Mr. Audubon again met this bird, in considerable numbers, early in April. Their eggs, he states, measure three fourths of an inch in length by nine sixteenths in breadth. In some the ground-color, instead of pure white, is of a yellowish tinge.
The writer found this Warbler abundant near Halifax in the early summer of 1850, frequenting the thick hemlock woods, confiding in its habits, unsuspicious, and easily approached. The distress, as described by Audubon, manifested in behalf of its own young, it is as ready to exhibit when the nest of a feathered neighbor is disturbed. A pair of Hudson’s Bay Titmice, protesting against the invasion of their home, by their outcries brought a pair of these Warblers to their sympathetic assistance; and the latter manifested, in a more gentle way, quite as much distress and anxiety as the real parents. With expanded tail and half-extended wings they fluttered overhead among the branches, approaching us almost within reach, uttering the most piteous outcries.