Loe raamatut: «A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 1», lehekülg 32

The Yellow-Throat appears shy and retiring because it prefers to move back and forth among low shrubs and brambles, where it most readily procures its food, but it is not a timid bird. They are unsuspecting, and will as readily permit as fly from the near presence of man. I have frequently had them approach within a few feet, especially when at rest; and even when in motion they will continue their lively song, as they move about from twig to twig. Though able to capture an insect on the wing, they are not expert fly-catchers, and chiefly take their prey when it is at rest.

Their song is a very lively and agreeable refrain, easily recognized, though exhibiting at times marked differences, and occasionally closely resembling the song of the Summer Yellow-Bird. The same brief series of notes, usually sounding like whi-ti-tēē-tēē, is constantly repeated at short intervals, while the singer continues his perpetual hunt for insects.

The male is very affectionate and devoted to both mate and offspring. The pair are never far apart, and during incubation the male is assiduous in the collection of food, feeding its mate, and afterwards assisting in collecting for their young. They rely upon concealment for the protection of their nest, and rarely show any open solicitude until it is discovered. Then they will make the most vehement demonstrations of alarm and distress, flying about the intruder and fearlessly approaching him to within a few feet. In Massachusetts they rarely, if ever, have more than one brood in a season. The young are able to take care of themselves early in July. At that time the song of the male ceases, or is abbreviated to a single whit, and parents and young form a family group and together hunt in the more secluded thickets, the edges of woods, and other retired places, for their food. Early in September they take their departure.

The Yellow-Throat is distributed, in suitable localities, over a large area, and wherever found is apparently equally common. Dr. Gerhardt found it quite abundant in Northern Georgia. Wilson and Audubon thought it more common in the Middle States than farther north, but I have found it quite as numerous about Halifax and Eastport as I have at Washington. Dr. Cooper speaks of it as “very common” in Washington Territory, though not so abundant as MacGillivray’s Warbler. The same writer also states it to be a “very common bird” in California. Their earliest arrival at San Diego was on the 17th of April, about the time they reach Pennsylvania. They appear in New England early in May.

Their nest is almost invariably upon the ground, usually in a thick bed of fallen leaves, a clump of grass or weeds, at the roots of low bushes or briers, or under the shelter of a brush-pile. Occasionally it has been found among high weeds, built in a matted cluster of branches, four or five feet from the ground. Sometimes it is sunk in a depression in the ground, and often its top is covered by loose overlying leaves. I have never found this top interwoven with or forming any part of the nest itself.

The nest is usually both large and deep for the size of the bird, its loose periphery of leaves and dry sedges adding to its size, and it often has a depth of from five to six inches from its rim to its base. The cavity is usually three inches deep and two and a quarter wide. Generally these nests are constructed on a base of dry leaves. An external framework, rudely put together, of dry grasses, sedge leaves, strips of dry bark, twigs, and decaying vegetables, covers an inner nest, or lining, of finer materials, and more carefully woven. At the rim of the nest these materials sometimes project like a rude palisade or hedge. Usually the lining is of fine grasses, without hair or feathers of any kind.

In some nests the outer portion and base are composed almost entirely of fine dry strips of the inner bark of the wild grape.

The eggs vary from four to six in number, and also differ greatly in their size, so much so that the question has arisen if there are not two species, closely resembling, but differing chiefly in their size. Of this, however, there is no evidence other than in these marked variations in the eggs.

In the Great Basin, Mr. Ridgway found this bird abundant in all the bushy localities in the vicinity of water, but it was confined to the lower portions, never being seen high up on the mountains, nor even in the lower portions of the mountain cañons.

Their eggs exhibit a variation in length of from .55 to .72 of an inch, and in breadth from .48 to .58 of an inch; the smallest being from Georgia, and the largest from Kansas. They are of a beautiful clear crystalline-white ground, and are dotted, blotched, and marbled around the larger end with purple, reddish-brown, and dark umber.

Geothlypis philadelphia, Baird

MOURNING WARBLER

Sylvia philadelphia, Wils. Am. Orn. II, 1810, 101, pl. xiv; Aud.; Nutt. Trichas philadelphia, Jard.—Reinhardt, Vidensk. Meddel. for 1853, and Ibis, 1861, 6 (Greenland). Geothlypis phila. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 243, pl. lxxix, fig. 3; Rev. 226.—Sclater, Catal. 1861, 27 (Orizaba).—Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 322 (Panama).—Samuels, 207.—Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 476.

Figures: Wils. Am. Orn. II, pl. xiv.—Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. ci.

Sp. Char. Wings but little longer than the tail, reaching but little beyond its base. Adult male. Head and neck all round, with throat and forepart of breast, ash-gray, paler beneath. The feathers of the chin, throat, and fore breast in reality black, but with narrow ashy margins more or less concealing the black, except on the breast. Lores and region round the eye dusky, without any trace of a pale ring. Upper parts and sides of the body clear olive-green; the under parts bright yellow. Tail-feathers uniform olive; first primary, with the outer half of the outer web, nearly white. Female with the gray of the crown glossed with olive; the chin and throat paler centrally, and tinged with fulvous; a dull whitish ring round the eye. Length, 5.50; wing, 2.45; tail, 2.25. Young not seen.

Hab. Eastern Province of United States to British America; Greenland; Southeastern Mexico, Panama R. R., and Colombia. Not recorded from West Indies or Guatemala. Costa Rica (Lawr.).

Specimens vary in the amount of black on the jugulum, and the purity of the ash of the throat. The species is often confounded with Oporornis agilis, to which the resemblance is quite close. They may, however, be distinguished by the much longer and more pointed wings, and more even tail, shorter legs, etc., of agilis. The white ring round the eye in the female philadelphia increases the difficulty of separation.

The adult male in autumn is scarcely different from the spring bird, there being merely a faint olive-tinge to the ash on top of the head, and the black jugular patch more restricted, being more concealed by the ashy borders to the feathers; the yellow beneath somewhat deeper.

Habits. The Mourning Warbler was first discovered and described by Wilson, who captured it in the early part of June, on the borders of a marsh, within a few miles of Philadelphia. This was the only specimen he ever met with. He found it flitting from one low bush to another in search of insects. It had a sprightly and pleasant warbling song, the novelty of which first attracted his attention. For a long while Wilson’s single bird remained unique, and from its excessive rarity Bonaparte conjectured that it might be an accidental variety of the Yellow-Throat. At present, though still of unfrequent occurrence, it is by no means a doubtful, though generally a comparatively rare species. Audubon mentions having received several specimens of this Warbler, procured in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, New York, and Vermont, all of which were obtained in the spring or summer months. He met with a single specimen in Louisiana, and thinks its habits closely resemble those of the Maryland Yellow-Throat.

Nuttall met with what he presumes to have been one of these birds in the Botanical Garden at Cambridge. It had all the manners of the Yellow-Throat, was busy in the search of insects in the low bushes, and, at intervals, warbled out some very pleasant notes, which partly resembled the lively chant of the Trichas, and in some degree the song of the Summer Yellow-Bird.

Professor Reinhardt states that two individuals of this species have been taken in Greenland,—one in Fiskenæsset, in 1846, and the other at Julianhaab, in 1853.

Mr. Turnbull gives it as still quite rare in Eastern Pennsylvania, arriving there in the middle of May on its way farther north. Mr. Lawrence includes it in his list of the birds of New York. Mr. Dresser obtained five specimens early in May, in Southern Texas.

It has been met with as far to the north as Greenland by Reinhardt, and in Selkirk Settlement by Donald Gunn. It has been procured in Eastern Mexico, in Panama, in Carlisle, Penn., Southern Illinois, Missouri, Nova Scotia, and various other places. It has been known to breed in Waterville, Me., and is not uncommon in Northwestern and Northern New York. A single specimen of this bird was obtained at Ocana, in Colombia, South America, by Mr. C. W. Wyatt.

Late in May, 1838, I have a note of having met with this species in Mount Auburn. The bird was fearless and unsuspecting, busily engaged, among some low shrubbery, in search of insects. It suffered our near presence, was often within a few feet, and was so readily distinguishable that my companion, with no acquaintance with birds, at once recognized it from Audubon’s plates. Its habits were the exact counterpart of those of the Yellow-Throat. We did not notice its song.

Mr. Maynard states that, May 21, 1866, Mr. William Brewster shot a male of this species in Cambridge, on the top of a tall tree. Another specimen was taken at Franconia Mountains, New Hampshire, August 3, 1867. It was in company with four fully fledged young, which it was feeding. The young were shy, and could not be procured. The old bird was catching flies, after the manner of Flycatchers. Mr. Maynard has met this species but once in Massachusetts, and then in May, among low bushes and in a swampy place. He has since found it rather common at Lake Umbagog, Maine, in June, where it breeds. He states that it frequents the bushes along fences, stone walls, and the edges of woods. The male often perches and sings in the early morning on the top rail of a fence, or the dead branch of a tree. Its song he speaks of as loud and clear, somewhat resembling that of the Seiurus noveboracensis.

Mr. Paine considers this Warbler to be very rare in Vermont. He once observed a pair, with their young, at Randolph. The male was singing a quite pleasing, though somewhat monotonous song.

Mr. George Welch met with these birds in the Adirondack region, New York, in June, 1870. They seemed rather abundant, and were evidently breeding there. He obtained a single specimen.

Mr. John Burroughs, of Washington, was so fortunate as to obtain the nest and eggs of this Warbler near the head-waters of the Delaware River, in Roxbury, Delaware County, N. Y. “The nest,” he writes me, “was in the edge of an old bark-peeling, in a hemlock wood, and was placed in some ferns about one foot from the ground. The nest was quite massive, its outer portions being composed of small dry stalks and leaves. The cavity was very deep, and was lined with fine black roots. I have frequently observed this Warbler in that section. About the head of the Neversink and Esopus, in the northwest part of Ulster County, New York, they are the prevailing Warbler, and their song may be heard all day long. Their song suggests that of the Kentucky Ground Warbler, but is not so loud and fine.” Mr. Burroughs states elsewhere that “the eggs, three in number, were of light flesh-color, uniformly speckled with fine brown specks. The cavity of the nest was so deep that the back of the sitting bird sank below the edge.”

Their eggs are of an oblong-oval shape, pointed at one end. They measure .75 by .55 of an inch. Their ground-color is a pinkish-white, and they are marked with dots and blotches, of varying size, of dark purplish-brown.

Geothlypis macgillivrayi, Baird

MACGILLIVRAY’S GROUND WARBLER

Sylvia macgillivrayi, Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 75, pl. cccxcix. Trichas macg. Aud. Geothlypis macg. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 244, pl. lxxix, fig. 4; Rev. 227.—Sclater, Catal. 1861, 27 (Jalapa and Guat.).—Ib. P. Z. S. 1859, 363, 373 (Xalapa, Oaxaca).—Cab. Jour. 1861, 84 (Costa Rica).—Cooper & Suckley, P. R. R. Rep. XII, II, 1859, 177.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 96. Sylvicola macg. Max. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 118. Sylvia tolmiæi, Towns. J. A. N. Sc. 1839. Trichas tolmiæi, Nutt. Man. I. Trichas vegeta (Licht.), Bp. Consp. 1850, 310; fide Cab. Jour. 1861, 84 (Mexico).

Sp. Char. Adult male. Head and neck all round, throat and forepart of the breast, dark ash-color; a narrow frontlet, loral region, and space round the eye (scarcely complete behind), black. The eyelids above and below the eye (not in a continuous ring) white. The feathers of the chin, throat, and fore breast really black, with ashy-gray tips more or less concealing the black. Rest of upper parts dark olive-green (sides under the wings paler); of lower, bright yellow. Female with the throat paler and without any black. Length of male, 5 inches; wing, 2.45; tail, 2.45. Young not seen.

Hab. Western and Middle Provinces of United States, to northern boundary; east to Fort Laramie; south to Costa Rica.

The white eyelids of this species distinguish its males from those of G. philadelphia, in which there is a black jugular patch not seen in the present species. The females can only be known by the slenderer bill and more rounded wing, the first quill being intermediate between the fifth and sixth, instead of being considerably longer than the fifth.

The autumnal adult male is as described above, except that there is a faint tinge of green on the crown, and the ashy borders to feathers of throat and jugulum broader, concealing more the black. The adult female in autumn is considerably more dully colored than in spring.

Habits. This comparatively new Warbler was first met with by Townsend, and described by Audubon in the last volume of his Ornithological Biography. It has since been found to have a wide range throughout the western portion of North America, from Cape St. Lucas to British America, and from the Plains to the Pacific. It has also been obtained at Choapan in the State of Orizaba, Mexico, by Mr. Boucard, and in Guatemala by Mr. Salvin, who states that throughout the district between the volcanoes of Agua and Fuego this was a common species, frequenting the outskirts of the forests and the edges of the clearings. It breeds in abundance in Utah, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington Territory, and probably also in Northern California.

Townsend first met with it on the banks of the Columbia. He states that it was mostly solitary and extremely wary, keeping chiefly in the most impenetrable thickets, and gliding through them in a cautious and suspicious manner. Sometimes it might be seen, at midday, perched upon a dead twig, over its favorite places of concealment, at such times warbling a very sprightly and pleasant little song, raising its head until its bill is nearly vertical.

Mr. Nuttall informed Mr. Audubon that this Warbler is one of the most common summer residents of the woods and plains of the Columbia, where it appears early in May, and remains until the approach of winter. It keeps near the ground, and gleans its subsistence among the low bushes. It is shy, and when surprised or closely watched it immediately skulks off, often uttering a loud click. Its notes, he states, resemble those of the Seiurus aurocapillus. On the 12th of June a nest was brought to Mr. Nuttall, containing two young birds quite fledged, in the plumage of the mother. The nest was chiefly made of strips of the inner bark of the Thuja occidentalis, lined with slender wiry stalks. It was built near the ground in the dead, moss-covered limbs of a fallen oak, and was partly hidden by long tufts of usnea. It was less artificial than the Yellow-Throat’s nest, but was of the same general appearance. On his restoring the nest to its place, the parents immediately approached to feed their charge.

Dr. Suckley found this Warbler very abundant between the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific coast. Like all Ground Warblers it was entirely insectivorous, all the stomachs examined containing coleoptera and other insects. He did not find them shy, but as they frequented thick brush they were very difficult to procure.

Dr. Cooper found this species very common about Puget Sound, frequenting the underbrush in dry woods, occasionally singing a song from a low tree, similar to that of the Yellow-Throat. He found its nest built in a bush, a foot from the ground. It was of straw, loosely made, and without any soft lining. Dr. Cooper found this species as far east as Fort Laramie, in Wyoming. They reach the Columbia River by the 3d of May.

The same writer noticed the first of this species at Fort Mojave, April 24. He regarded their habits as varying in some respects from those of the Trichas, as they prefer dry localities, and hunt for insects not only in low bushes but also in trees, like the Dendroicæ. Dr. Cooper twice describes their eggs as white, which is inaccurate. He thinks that some of them winter in the warmer portions of California. He regards them as shy, if watched, seeking the densest thickets, but brought out again by their curiosity if a person waits for them, and the birds will approach within a few feet, keeping up a scolding chirp.

The nests of this species obtained by Dr. Kennerly from Puget Sound were all built on the ground, and were constructed almost exclusively of beautifully delicate mosses, peculiar to that country. They are shallow nests, with a diameter of four and a height of two inches, the cavity occupying a large proportion of the nest. Its walls and base are of uniform thickness, averaging about one inch. The nests are lined with finer mosses and a few slender stems and fibres.

Mr. Ridgway found these Warblers breeding in great numbers, June 23, 1869, at Parley’s Park, Utah, among the Wahsatch Mountains. One of these nests (S. I., 15,238) was in a bunch of weeds, among the underbrush of a willow-thicket along a cañon stream. It was situated about eight inches from the ground, is cuplike in shape, two inches in height, three in diameter, and somewhat loosely constructed of slender strips of bark, decayed stalks of plants, dry grasses, intermixed with a few fine roots, and lined with finer materials of the same. The cavity is one and a half inches in depth, and two in diameter at the rim.

The eggs, four in number, are .75 of an inch in length and .50 in breadth. Their ground-color is a pinkish-white, marbled and spotted with purple, lilac, reddish-brown, and dark brown, approaching black. The blotches of the last color vary much in size, in one instance having a length of .21 of an inch, and having the appearance of hieroglyphics. When these spots are large, they are very sparse.

“This species,” Mr. Ridgway writes, “inhabits exclusively the brushwood along the streams of the mountain cañons and ravines. Among the weeds in such localities numerous nests were found. In no case were they on the ground, though they were always near it; being fixed between upright stalks of herbs, occasionally, perhaps, in a brier, from about one to two feet above the ground. The note of the parent bird, when a nest was disturbed, was a strong chip, much like that of the Cyanospiza amæna or C. cyanea.” He also states that it was abundant in the East Humboldt Mountains in August and in September, and also throughout the summer. A pair of fully fledged young was caught on the 21st of July.

Subfamily ICTERIANÆ

Section ICTERIEÆ

In this section there are two American genera; one found in the United States, the other not. The diagnoses are as follows:—

Size large (about 8 inches). Lower jaw not deeper than upper anterior to nostrils. Tail moderate. Partly yellow beneath, olive-green above … Icteria.

Size smaller (about 6 inches). Lower jaw deeper than upper. Tail almost fan-shaped. Partly red beneath, plumbeous-blue above … Granatellus.⁵⁸

Genus ICTERIA, Vieill

Icteria, Vieillot, Ois. Am. Sept. I, 1807, iii and 85. (Type, Muscicapa viridis, Gm. Turdus virens, Linn.)

Icteria virens.

2260

Gen. Char. Bill broad at base, but contracting rapidly and becoming attenuated when viewed from above; high at the base (higher than broad opposite the nostrils); the culmen and commissure much curved from base; the gonys straight. Upper jaw deeper than the lower; bill without notch or rictal bristles. Nostrils circular, edged above with membrane, the feathers close to their borders. Wings shorter than tail, considerably rounded; first quill rather shorter than the sixth. Tail moderately graduated; the feathers rounded, but narrow. Middle toe without claw about two thirds the length of tarsus, which has the scutellæ fused externally in part into one plate.

The precise systematic position of the genus Icteria is a matter of much contrariety of opinion among ornithologists; but we have little hesitation in including it among the Sylvicolidæ. It has been most frequently assigned to the Vireonidæ, but differs essentially in the deeply cleft inner toe (not half united as in Vireo), the partially booted tarsi, the lengthened middle toe, the slightly curved claws, the entire absence of notch or hook in the bill, and the short, rounded wing with only nine primaries. The wing of Vireo, when much rounded, has ten primaries,—nine only being met with when the wing is very long and pointed.

Of this genus only one species is known, although two races are recognized by naturalists, differing in the length of the tail.

I. virens. Above olive-green; beneath gamboge-yellow for the anterior half, and white for the posterior. A white stripe over the eye.

Length of tail, 3.30 inches. Hab. Eastern United States to the Plains; in winter through Eastern Mexico to Guatemala … var. virens.

Length of tail, 3.70 inches. Hab. Western United States from the Plains to the Pacific; Western Mexico in winter … var. longicauda.

Icteria virens, Baird

YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT

Turdus virens, Linn. Syst. Nat. 10th ed. 1758, 171, No. 16.(based on Œnanthe americana, pectore luteo, Yellow-breasted Chat, Catesby, Carol. I, tab. 50). Icteria virens, Baird, Rev. Am. B. 1864, 228. Muscicapa viridis, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 936. Icteria viridis, Bon.; Aud. Orn. Biog. II, pl. cxxxvii.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 248. Icteria dumecola, Vieill. Pipra polyglotta, Wils. ? Icteria velasquezi, Bon. P. Z. S. 1837, 117 (Mexico).—Sclater & Salv. Ibis, I, 1859, 12 (Guatemala).

Localities quoted: Costa Rica, Caban., Orizaba (winter), Sum. Yucatan, Lawr.

Sp. Char. Third and fourth quills longest; second and fifth little shorter; first nearly equal to the sixth. Tail graduated. Upper parts uniform olive-green; under parts, including the inside of wing, gamboge-yellow as far as nearly half-way from the point of the bill to the tip of the tail; rest of under parts white, tinged with brown on the sides; the outer side of the tibiæ plumbeous; a slight tinge of orange across the breast. Forehead and sides of the head ash, the lores and region below the eye blackish. A white stripe from the nostrils over the eye and involving the upper eyelid; a patch on the lower lid, and a short stripe from the side of the lower mandible, and running to a point opposite the hinder border of the eye, white. Bill black; feet brown. Female like the male, but smaller; the markings indistinct; the lower mandible not pure black. Length, 7.40; wing, 3.25; tail, 3.30. Nest in thickets, near the ground. Eggs white, spotted with reddish.

Hab. Eastern United States, west to Arkansas; rare north of Pennsylvania; south to Eastern Mexico and Guatemala. Not noticed in West Indies.

Icteria virens.

Both sexes in winter apparently have the base of lower mandible light-colored, the olive more brown, the sides and crissum with a strong ochraceous tinge. It is this plumage that has been recognized as I. velasquezi.

Habits. The Yellow-breasted Chat is found throughout the Eastern United States, from Massachusetts to Florida, and as far to the west as Fort Riley and Eastern Kansas. Mr. Say met with it among the Rocky Mountains as far north as the sources of the Arkansas. It is not very rare in Massachusetts, but a few breed in that State as far north as Lynn. It has been found in Mexico and Guatemala, but not, so far as I am aware, in the West Indies.

Probably no one of our birds has more distinctly marked or greater peculiarities of voice, manners, and habits than this very singular bird. It is somewhat terrestrial in its life, frequenting tangled thickets of vines, briers, and brambles, and keeping itself very carefully concealed. It is noisy and vociferous, constantly changing its position and moving from place to place.

It is not abundant north of Pennsylvania, where it arrives early in May and leaves the last of August. The males are said always to arrive three or four days before their mates.

This species is described by Wilson as very much attached to certain localities where they have once taken up their residence, appearing very jealous, and offended at the least intrusion. They scold vehemently at every one who approaches or even passes by their places of retreat, giving utterance to a great variety of odd and uncouth sounds. Wilson states that these sounds may be easily imitated, so as to deceive the bird itself, and to draw it after one; the bird following repeating its cries, but never permitting itself to be seen. Such responses he describes as constant and rapid, and strongly expressive both of anger and anxiety, their voice, as it shifts, unseen, from place to place, seeming to be more like that of a spirit than a bird. These sounds Wilson compares to the whistling of the wings of a duck, being repetitions of short notes, beginning loud and rapid, and falling lower and lower. Again a succession of other notes, said to closely resemble the barking of young puppies, is followed by a variety of hollow, guttural sounds, each eight or ten times repeated, at times resembling the mewing of a cat, only hoarser,—all of these, as he states, uttered with great vehemence, in different keys and with peculiar modulations, now as if at a considerable distance, and the next moment as if close by your side; so that, by these tricks of ventriloquism, one is utterly at a loss to ascertain from what particular quarter they proceed. In mild weather this strange melody of sounds is kept up throughout the night during the first of the pairing-season, but ceases as soon as incubation commences.

They construct their nest about the middle of May. These are placed within a few feet of the ground, in the midst of low brambles, vines, and bushes, generally in a tangled thicket. They build a rude but strongly woven nest, the outer portions more loosely made of dry leaves; within these are interwoven thin strips of the bark of the wild grape, fibrous roots, and fine dry grasses.

The eggs, four or five in number, are usually hatched out within twelve days, and in about as many more the young are ready to leave their nest.

While the female is sitting, and still more after the young are hatched, the cries of the male are loud and incessant when his nest is approached. He no longer seeks to conceal himself, but rises in the air, his legs dangling in a peculiar manner, ascending and descending in sudden jerks that betray his great irritation.

The food of this bird consists chiefly of beetles and other insects, and of different kinds of berries and small fruit, and it said to be especially fond of wild strawberries.

Audubon states that in their migrations they move from bush to bush by day, and frequently continue their march by night. Their flight at all times is short and irregular. He also states that when on the ground they squat, jerk their tails, spring on their legs, and are ever in a state of great activity. Although the existence of this bird north of Pennsylvania is generally disputed, I have no doubt that it has always been, and still is, a constant visitor of Massachusetts, and has been found to within a score of miles of the New Hampshire line. Among my notes I find that a nest was found in Brookline, in 1852, by Mr. Theodore Lyman; in Danvers, by Mr. Byron Goodale; in Lynn, by Messrs. Vickary and Welch; and in many other parts of the State. It certainly breeds as far south as Georgia on the coast, and in Louisiana and Texas in the southwest. On the Pacific coast it is replaced by the long-tailed variety, longicauda.

A nest of this species from Concord, Mass., obtained by Mr. B. P. Mann, and now in the collection of the Boston Natural History Society, has a diameter of four inches and a height of three and a half. The cavity has a depth of two and a quarter inches, and is two and a half wide. This is built upon a base of coarse skeleton leaves, and is made of coarse sedges, dried grasses, and stems of plants, and lined with long, dry, and wiry stems of plants, resembling pine-needles. Another from Pomfret, Conn., obtained by Mr. Sessions, is a much larger nest, measuring five inches in diameter and three and three quarters in height. The cup is two and a half inches deep by three in width. It is made of an interweaving of leaves, bark of the grapevine, and stems of plants, and is lined with fine, long wiry stems and pine-needles.

Their eggs are of a slightly rounded oval shape, vary in length from .85 to .95 of an inch, and in breadth from .65 to .70. They have a white ground with a very slight tinge of yellow, and are marked with reddish-brown and a few fainter purplish and lilac spots.

Icteria virens, var. longicauda, Lawr

LONG-TAILED CHAT

Icteria longicauda, Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. VI, April, 1853, 4.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 249, pl. xxxiv, fig. 2; Rev. 230.—Sclater, Catal. 42, No. 253.—Finsch, Abh. Nat. Brem. 1870, 331 (Mazatlan).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 98. ? Icteria auricollis (Licht. Mus. Berl.), Bon. Consp. 1850, 331.

Sp. Char. Similar to var. virens. Fourth quill longest; third and fifth shorter; first shorter than the seventh. Above ash-color, tinged with olive on the back and neck; the outer surface of the wings and tail olive. The under parts as far as the middle of the belly bright gamboge-yellow, with a tinge of orange; the remaining portions white. The superciliary and maxillary white stripes extend some distance behind the eye. Outer edge of the first primary white. Length, 7 inches; wing, 3.20; tail, 3.70.