The first well-identified nest of this bird that came to my knowledge was obtained in Lynn, Mass., by Mr. George O. Welch, in June, 1856. It was built in a tussock of grass, in swampy woods, concealed by the surrounding rank vegetation, in the midst of which it was placed. It was constructed entirely of pine-needles and a few fragments of decayed leaves, grapevine bark, fine stems, and rootlets. These were so loosely interwoven that the nest could not be removed without great care to keep its several portions together. Its diameter was three and a half inches, and it was very nearly flat. Its greatest depth, at the centre of its depression, was hardly half an inch. It contained four young, and an unhatched egg.
Another nest found in June, 1864, by the same observing naturalist, was also obtained in the neighborhood. This was built in a tussock of meadow-grass, in the midst of a small boggy piece of swamp, in which were a few scattered trees and bushes. The ground was so marshy that it could be crossed only with difficulty, and by stepping from one tussock of reedy herbage to another. In the centre of one of these bunches the nest was concealed. It measures six inches in its larger diameter, and has a height of two and a quarter inches. The cavity of this nest is two and three quarters inches wide, and one and three quarters deep. It is very strongly constructed of pine-needles, interwoven with fine strips of bark, dry deciduous leaves, stems of dry grasses, sedges, etc. The whole is firmly and compactly interwoven with and strengthened around the rim of the cavity by strong, wiry, and fibrous roots. The nest is very carefully and elaborately lined with the black fibrous roots of some plant. The eggs, which were five in number, measure .72 of an inch in length by .56 in breadth. Their ground-color is a clear and brilliant white, and this is beautifully marked with dots and small blotches of blended brown, purple, and violet, varying in shades and tints, and grouped in a wreath around the larger end.
Setophaga, Swainson, Zoöl. Jour. III, Dec. 1827, 360. (Type, Muscicapa ruticilla, L.)—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 297. Sylvania, Nuttall, Man. Orn. I, 1832. (Same type.)
Setophaga ruticilla, Sw.
984
Gen. Char. Bill much depressed, the lateral outlines straight towards tip. Bristles reach half-way from nostril to tip. Culmen almost straight to near the tip; commissure very slightly curved. Nostrils oval, with membrane above them. Wings rather longer than tail, pointed; second, third, and fourth quills nearly equal; first intermediate between fourth and fifth. Tail rather long, rather rounded; the feathers broad, and widening at ends, the outer web narrow. Tarsi with scutellar divisions indistinct externally. Legs slender; toes short, inner cleft nearly to base of first joint, outer with first joint adherent; middle toe without claw, not quite half the tarsus.
The genus Setophaga is very largely represented in America, although of the many species scarcely any agree exactly in form with the type. In the following diagnosis I give several species, referred to, perhaps erroneously, as occurring in Texas.
Belly white. End of lateral tail-feathers black. Sexes dissimilar.
Ground-color black, without vertex spot. Sides of breast and bases of quills and tail-feathers reddish-orange in male, yellowish in female … ruticilla.