Mr. Townsend, who was one of the same party, shot a pair of these birds near Fort Vancouver, May 28, 1835. They were flitting among the tops of the pine-trees in the depths of the forest, where he frequently saw them hanging from the twigs, in the manner of Titmice. Their notes, uttered at different intervals, he describes as very similar to those of the Black-throated Blue Warbler (D. cærulescens).
Dr. Suckley obtained, June, 1856, two specimens at Fort Steilacoom. He also describes them as very shy, feeding and spending most of their time in the tops of the highest firs, so high up as to be almost out of the reach of fine shot. The species he regards as not at all rare on the Pacific coast, but only difficult of procuring, on account of the almost inaccessible nature of its haunts.
Dr. Coues procured a single specimen of this species in Arizona early in September. It was taken in thick scrub-oak bushes. He thinks it may be a summer resident of that Territory, but, if so, very rare.
A single specimen was also obtained at Petuluma, Cal., by Mr. Emanuel Samuels, May 1, 1856.
It was also observed, August 29, by Mr. Ridgway, among the bushes of a cañon among the East Humboldt Mountains. He describes its single note as a lisped pzeet.
Three individuals of this species were collected by Mr. Boucard in Southern Mexico in 1862, and were referred by Dr. Sclater to D. chrysopœia (P. Z. S., 1862, p. 19). Subsequently Mr. Salvin described as a new species, under the name of D. niveiventris, other individuals of the D. occidentalis obtained by him in Guatemala. The true specific relations of the specimens both from Southern Mexico and Central America have since been made clear by Dr. Sclater, Ibis, 1865, p. 87, enabling us to give this species as a winter visitant of the countries above named. Mr. Salvin states (Ibis, 1866, p. 191) that these birds were found in most of the elevated districts where pines abound. He procured specimens in the Volcan de Fuego, in the hills above the Plain of Salama, and near the mines of Alotepeque.
Dendroica pinus, Baird.
PINE-CREEPING WARBLER.
Sylvia pinus, Wils. Am. Orn. III, 1811, 25, pl. xix, fig. 4.—Bon.; Nutt.—Aud. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxi. Thryothorus pinus, Steph. Sylvicola pinus, Jard.; Rich.; Bon.; Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxii.—Jones, Nat. Bermuda, 1859, 59 (abundant in Oct.). Rhimanphus pinus, Bon. Dendroica pinus, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 277; Rev. 190.—Sclater, Catal. 1861, 31, No. 189.—Coues, Pr. A. N. Sc. 1861, 220 (Labrador coast).—Samuels, 229.—Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1867, 67 (Inagua). Sylvia vigorsii, Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1832, 153, pl. xxx. Vireo vigorsii. Nutt.
Sp. Char. Spring male. Upper parts nearly uniform and clear olive-green, the feathers of the crown with rather darker shafts. Under parts generally, except the middle of the belly behind, and under tail-coverts (which are white), bright gamboge-yellow, with obsolete streaks of dusky on the sides of the breast and body. Sides of head and neck olive-green like the back, with a broad superciliary stripe; the eyelids and a spot beneath the eye very obscurely yellow; wings and tail brown; the feathers edged with dirty white, and two bands of the same across the coverts. Inner web of the first tail-feather with nearly the terminal half, of the second with nearly the terminal third, dull inconspicuous white. Length, 5.50; wing, 3.00; tail, 2.40. (1,356.)