A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 1 of 3

by Spencer Fullerton Baird; T. M. Brewer; Robert Ridgway

Other localities quoted: Bogota, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1855, 143. Bahamas, Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. VII, 1839.

Sp. Char. Male. Crown, nape, and upper half of the head black; the lower half, including the ear-coverts, white, the separating line passing through the middle of the eye. Rest of upper parts grayish-ash, tinged with brown, and conspicuously streaked with black. Wing and tail-feathers brown, edged externally (except the inner tail-feathers) with dull olive-green. Two conspicuous bars of white on the wing-coverts, the tertials edged with the same. Under parts white, with a narrow line on each side of the throat from the chin to the sides of the neck, where it runs into a close patch of black streaks continued along the breast and sides to the root of the tail. Outer two tail-feathers with an oblique patch on the inner web near the end; the others edged internally with white. Female similar, except that the upper parts are olivaceous, and, even on the crown, streaked with black; the white on the sides and across the breast tinged with yellowish; a ring of the same round the eye cut by a dusky line through it. Length of male, 5.75; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.25.

Hab. Eastern Province of all North America to Arctic Ocean; Alaska; Greenland; Cuba, in winter (rare); Bahamas; Bogota. Chile? Not recorded from intermediate localities.

The autumnal dress of young birds is very different from that of spring. The upper parts are light olive-green, obsoletely streaked with brown; beneath greenish-yellow, obsoletely streaked on the breast and sides, the under tail-coverts pure white, a yellowish ring round the eye, and a superciliary one of the same color. In this dress it is scarcely possible to distinguish it from the immature D. castanea. The differences, as far as tangible, will be found detailed under the head of the latter species.

The young bird in its first dress is also quite different, again, from the autumnal-plumaged birds. The upper parts are hoary-grayish, the lower white; each feather of the whole body, except lower tail-coverts, with a terminal bar or transverse spot of blackish, those on the upper parts approaching

the base of the feathers along the shaft. Wings and tail much as in the autumnal plumage.

Habits. The appearance of this beautiful and familiar Warbler in New England is the sure harbinger of the summer. The last of the migrants that do not tarry, it brings up the rear of the hosts of hyperborean visitors. This species ranges over the whole extent of eastern North America, from Mexico to the Arctic seas. It has not been found farther west than the Great Plains and the Rio Grande. Wherever found it is abundant, and its lively and attractive manners and appearance render it a pleasing feature. It is not known to stop to breed in Massachusetts, but it lingers with us till the last blossom of the apple falls, and until the Bluebird and the Robin have already well-fledged broods, sometimes as late as the 10th of June, and then suddenly disappears.

Dr. Woodhouse found it abundant in Texas and the Indian Territory, and individuals have been procured in Missouri and Nebraska. It has been found abundant in the Arctic regions, around Fort Anderson, Fort Yukon, and Fort Good Hope. A single specimen was taken near Godhaab, Greenland, in 1853, as recorded by Professor Reinhardt. Dr. Bryant met with it in the Bahamas, in the spring of 1859, where it was abundant from the 1st to the 10th of May. He describes its habits as similar to those of the Mniotilta varia, climbing around the trunks of trees in search of insects with the same facility. Single specimens have been procured from Greenland on the northeast, and from Bogota and Cuba. Dr. Coues found it abundant in Labrador in all well-wooded situations, and describes it as a most expert flycatcher, taking insects on the wing in the manner of the Contopus virens.

Mr. Allen has never noted the arrival of this bird in Western Massachusetts before the 20th of May, nor later than the 1st of June. They again become abundant the last of September, and remain into October. In Eastern Maine Mr. Boardman reports them abundant, and as remaining to breed. They are there more numerous about open pastures than most Warblers. They nest in low trees, about swampy places.

In Central Vermont, Mr. Paine states, the Black-Poll is the last of all the migrant birds that come from the South, and is seen only a few days in the first of June. It seldom stays more than a day or two, and then passes north. It appears singular that a bird coming so late should go yet farther north to breed. He states that its song consists only of a few low, lisping peeps. It may usually be seen wandering over fields in which there are a few scattered trees, and seems to be a very active, restless bird.