In very brightly colored spring males, there is frequently (as in 58,335, Philadelphia) a well-defined, broad blackish band across the jugulum, anterior to an equally distinct and rather broader one across the breast, of a brown tint, spotted with black, while the sides are much spotted with chestnut-brown; the blue above is very pure, and the green patch on the back very sharply defined.

Habits. The Blue Yellow-Back is one of our most interesting and attractive Warblers. Nowhere very abundant, it has a well-marked and restricted area within which it is sparingly distributed. It is found from the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic, and from Canada southward. In its winter migrations it visits the West Indies, the Bahamas, and Central and South America. Halifax on the east, and Platte River on the west, appear to be the northern limit of its distribution. Dr. Woodhouse met with it in the Indian Territory during the breeding-season. Mr. Alfred Newton found this species, apparently only a winter visitant, in the island of St. Croix. Most of the birds left about the middle of March, though a few remained until early in May.

A single specimen of this species was taken at South Greenland in 1857.

This Warbler has been found breeding as far to the south as Tuckertown, N. J., by Mr. W. S. Wood; and at Cape May, in the same State, by Mr. John Krider. At Washington, Dr. Coues found it only a spring and autumn visitant, exceedingly abundant from April 25 to May 15. Possibly a few remained to breed, as he met with them in the first week of August. In the fall they were again abundant from August 25 to the second week in October. He found them inhabiting exclusively high open woods, and usually seen in the tops of the trees, or at the extremities of the branches, in the tufts of leaves and blossoms.

Even where most common it is not an abundant species, and is to be found only in certain localities, somewhat open and swampy thickets, usually not of great extent, and prefers those well covered with the long gray lichens known as Spanish moss. In such localities only, so far as I know, do they breed.

This Warbler has also been ascertained to breed in Southern Illinois, where Mr. Ridgway found it in July, engaged in feeding fully fledged young birds. It is there most common in spring and fall.

The song of this species is said by Mr. Trippe, of Orange, N. Y., to be a somewhat sharp and lisping, yet quite varied and pleasing, series of notes.

Mr. Audubon speaks of this species as breeding in Louisiana, but his description of the nest differs so entirely from such as are met with in Massachusetts as to suggest doubts as to the correctness of the identification. He describes them as flitting over damp places, the edges of ponds and streams, and pursuing their prey with great activity. They resort to the woods as soon as the foliage appears on the forest trees, and glean among the leaves for the smaller winged insects.

The nests of this Warbler, so far as has fallen under my observation, have always been made of long gray lichens still attached to the trees on which they grow. With great skill do these tiny architects gather up, fasten together, and interweave, one with the other, the hanging ends and longer branches. By an elaborate intertwining of these long fibres they form the principal part, sometimes the whole, of their nests. These structures are at once simple, beautiful, ingenious, and skilfully wrought. When first made, they are somewhat rude and unfinished, but as their family are gathered, the eggs deposited, incubated, and hatched, a change has been going on. Little by little has the male bird busied himself, when not procuring food for his mate, in improving, strengthening, and enlarging the nest. These same acts of improvement upon the original nests are noticed with Humming-Birds, Vireos, and a few other birds.

The nests are sometimes constructed on the sides of trunks of trees, when covered with the long gray lichens, but are more frequently found hanging from branches usually not more than six or eight feet from the ground. Thus surrounded by long hanging mosses in clumps not distinguishable from the nests themselves, they would not be readily recognized were it not that those familiar with the habits of the bird may be readily guided to the spot by the artless movements of the unsuspecting parents.

These birds are confiding, easily approached, and rarely exhibit any signs of alarm. Even when their nest is disturbed they make but little complaint, and do not manifest any very great signs of emotion. When built against a trunk these nests consist only of an interweaving of the moss above and below a very small opening, within which a small cup-shaped flooring has been made of the same material, and usually cannot be removed without destroying all semblance of a nest. When pensile they are imperfectly circular in shape, with an entrance on one side, and rarely with any lining. Occasionally they are models of symmetry and beauty.

Section SYLVICOLEÆ.

This section has been already characterized as having a distinctly notched bill, well provided with bristles. Of the two genera one, Perissoglossa, has the bill slender, acute, something like Helminthophaga, and with the tongue lengthened and much lacerated at end; the other, Dendroica, with less acute bill and tongue shorter, merely notched at tip, and a little fringed only.

Genus PERISSOGLOSSA, Baird.

Perissoglossa, Baird, Rev. Am. Birds, 1864, 181. (Type, Motacilla tigrina, Gm.)

Gen. Char. Form of Dendroica, but bill slender, acute, with very obsolete notch; the commissure gently arched or curved from the base; the gonys also straight, or even slightly concave. Tongue lengthened, narrow, deeply bifid (for one third), and deeply lacerated or fringed externally at the end; the edge along the median portion folded over on the upper surface, but not adherent.

The curvature of the bill in Perissoglossa tigrina is quite peculiar among the Sylvicolidæ with notched bills. Some Helminthophagas (without notch) approximate this character, though in none, excepting H. bachmani, is it in equal amount,—all the others having the gonys very slightly convex, instead of straight, or even slightly concave.

It is most probable that the Helinaia carbonata of Audubon belongs here, as it appears very closely allied to the type of this genus. The two species may be distinguished as follows:—

Common Characters. Male. Top of head black. Above olive, becoming yellowish on rump. Head, neck, and lower parts bright yellow, becoming whitish posteriorly. Dorsal feathers with black centres; breast and sides streaked with black. A black streak through the eye.

P. tigrina. Large white patches on inner webs of tail-feathers.

Sides of head and middle of throat tinged with chestnut. One large white patch on wing, covering both rows of coverts. Outer web of lateral tail-feather blackish.

No chestnut about head. Two bands on the wing, the anterior one white, the posterior yellow. Outer web of lateral tail-feather whitish.

Perissoglossa tigrina, Baird.

CAPE MAY WARBLER.

Motacilla tigrina, Gmelin, Syn. Nat. I, 1788, 985. Sylvia tig. Lath. Dendroica tig. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 286.—Sclater, Catal. 1861, 33, No. 198. P. Z. S. 1861, 71 (Jamaica, April).—March, Pr. An. Sc. 1863, 293 (Jamaica; breeds).—A. & E. Newton, Ibis, 1859, 144 (St. Croix. Notes on anatomy of tongue).—Gundlach, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; not rare).—Samuels, 240. Perissoglossa tigrina, Baird, Rev. Am. Birds, 1864, 181. Sylvia maritima, Wilson, Am. Orn. VI, 1812, 99, pl. liv, fig. 3.—Bon.; Nutt.; Aud. Orn. Biog. V, pl. ccccxiv.—D’Orb. La Sagra’s Cub. 1840, 70, pl. x. Sylvicola mar. Jard., Bon., Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxv. Certhiola mar. Gosse, Birds Jam. 1847, 81.—Ib. Illust. Rhimamphus mar. Cab. Jour. III, 1855, 474 (Cuba.)

Sp. Char. Bill very acute, conical, and decidedly curved. Bill and feet black. Upper part of head dull black, some of the feathers faintly margined with light yellowish-brown. Collar scarcely meeting behind; rump and under parts generally rich yellow. Throat, forepart of breast, and sides, streaked with black. Abdomen and lower tail-coverts pale yellow, brighter about the vent. Ear-coverts light reddish-chestnut. Back part of a yellow line from nostrils over the eye of this same color; chin and throat tinged also with it. A black line from commissure through the eye, and running into the chestnut of the ear-coverts. Back, shoulder, edges of the wing and tail, yellowish-olive; the former spotted with dusky. One row of small coverts, and outer bases of the secondary coverts, form a large patch of white, tinged with pale yellow. Tertials rather broadly edged with brownish-white. Quills and tail dark brown, the three outer feathers of the latter largely marked with white on the inner web; edge of the outer web of the outer feathers white, more perceptible towards the base. Length, 5.25; wing, 2.84; tail, 2.15.

Female. Above olivaceous-ash, most yellowish on rump; no black nor chestnut on head. Wing-coverts inconspicuously edged with whitish. Tail-spots very inconspicuous. Beneath dull white tinged with yellowish on the breast, and streaked as in the male, but with dusky grayish instead of black.

Hab. Eastern Province of United States, north to Lake Winnipeg and Moose Factory; all the West Indies to St. Croix. Breeds in Jamaica. Not recorded from Mexico or Central America.

The chestnut about the head in adult males varies in amount with the individual; sometimes (as in 20,633, May, Moose Factory, Hudson’s Bay Territory) there is an oblong spot of chestnut in the middle of the crown, but generally this is absent. Very frequently the chestnut tinges the throat. All variations in these respects appear, however, to be individual, and not dependent at all on locality. West Indian specimens appear to be absolutely identical with those from North America.

Autumnal specimens are browner, the chestnut markings much obscured.

Mr. J. A. Allen obtained a specimen near Springfield, Mass., May 15, 1863, and specimens have also been procured at East Windsor Hill, Conn., by Dr. Wood. It was not met with in Western Maine by Mr. Verrill, but in Eastern Maine and in New Brunswick Mr. Boardman has found it a not uncommon summer visitant, though of irregular frequency. He has no doubt that they remain there to breed. They reach Calais as early as the second week in May, or as early as their appearance usually in the neighborhood of Philadelphia has been noticed. Mr. Kumlien has also obtained specimens from year to year, about the middle of May, in Southern Wisconsin, where they do not remain to breed, and Mr. Ridgway has taken them in the beginning of May in Southern Illinois.

It is also by no means uncommon in Cuba; was met by the Newtons as a migrant in St. Croix, and is not only one of the birds of Jamaica, but is resident and breeds in the highlands of that island. It is not known to occur in Central America, Mexico, or west of the Mississippi River. Specimens were procured at Moose Factory about May 28.

Its nests and eggs have not been, with certainty, obtained in the United States, though an egg obtained in Coventry, Vt., in 1836, and attributed at the time to this bird, closely resembles its identified eggs from Jamaica. Specimens of the bird, as well as its nests and eggs, have also been received from St. Domingo by Mr. Turnbull of Philadelphia. In the summer of 1871 a nest of this species was found by Mr. H. B. Bailey on the Richardson Lakes, in the extreme northwestern part of Maine. The nest was in a low spruce-tree, less than five feet from the ground, and when found contained only a single egg. Unfortunately it was left until more eggs were deposited, and in the mean while the tree was cut, and the nest and eggs were destroyed.

The eggs measure .70 by .55 of an inch, have a pinkish-white ground, blotched with purple and brown of various shades and tints. They are disposed chiefly about the larger end, usually in a ring. The eggs are oval in shape and slightly pointed at one end.

Perissoglossa carbonata, Baird.

CARBONATED WARBLER.

Sylvia carbonata, Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 308, pl. lx (Kentucky).—Nutt. Helinaia carbonata, Aud. Syn.—Ib. Birds Am. II, 1841, 95, pl. cix. Dendroica carbonata, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 287; Rev. Am. Birds, 207.

Sp. Char. Bill brownish-black above, light blue beneath. Iris hazel. Feet light flesh-color. Upper part of the head black. Forepart of the back, lesser wing-coverts, and sides dusky, spotted with black. Lower back dull yellowish-green, as is the tail, of which the outer web of the outer feather is whitish. Tip of the second row of coverts white, of the first row yellow; quills dusky, their outer webs tinged with yellow. A line from the lore over the eye; sides of the neck and the throat bright yellow. A dusky line behind the eye. The rest of the under parts dull yellow, excepting the sides. Length, 4.75 inches; bill above, 4.42; tarsus, .75. (Audubon).

Hab. Kentucky.

This species continues to be known only by the description and figure of Audubon.

Judging from the description, this species is closely related to P. tigrina, but seems to be distinct in the pure black of the top of the head, the absence of orange-brown on the cheeks, the white of the wing being on the middle coverts instead of the greater, and the tail-feathers being yellowish-green; the outer web of outer feather white, instead of a large spot on the inner web, etc. The back appears more distinctly streaked.

Habits. Two specimens of this Warbler, obtained near Henderson, Ky., May, 1811, by Mr. Audubon, are all its claim to be recognized as a good species. None have since been seen. These birds are described as having been busily engaged in collecting insects among the branches of a dogwood tree. Their motions were like those of other Warblers. This is all we as yet know as to the history of this species, and its claims to be regarded as a good and distinct species are involved in doubt.

Sylvicola, Gray, Genera Birds, 2d ed. 1841, 32. (Not of Humphreys nor Swainson.)

Dendroica, Gray, Genera Birds, Appendix, 1842, 8.

Rhimamphus, Hartlaub, Rev. Zool. 1845, 342. (Not of Rafinesque, Am. Monthly Mag. 1818, and Jour. de Phys. 1819.)

Gen. Char. Bill conical, attenuated, depressed at the base, where it is, however, scarcely broader than high, compressed from the middle. Culmen straight for the basal half, then rather rapidly curving, the lower edge of upper mandible also concave. Gonys slightly convex and ascending. A distinct notch near the end of the bill. Bristles, though short, generally quite distinct at the base of the bill. Tarsi long; decidedly longer than middle toe, which is longer than the hinder one; the claws rather small and much curved; the hind claw nearly as long as its digit. The wings long and pointed; the second quill usually a very little longer than the first. The tail slightly rounded and emarginate.

Colors. Tail always with a white or yellow spot; its ground-color never clear olive-green. In D. æstiva edged internally with yellow.

Eggs usually with a white or a bluish-white ground, marked with purplish-brown and obscure lilac; in some, mingled with varying shades of sienna-brown. Nest, so far as known, in bushes and trees, except D. palmarum, which is on the ground.

The genus Dendroica is one of the most extensive as to species of any in North America, and scarcely admits of any subdivision. There is a little variation in the bill, wings, etc., the chief peculiarities being in D. castanea and pennsylvanica, in which the bill is broader, and more depressed, with longer bristles; in D. striata, where the bill is narrow with scarcely any bristles; and in D. palmarum and kirtlandi, where the wings are very short, scarcely longer than the tail. D. palmarum has the tarsus unusually long. The colors in all are strongly marked, and the species are among the most beautiful of all belonging to our fauna, and are the most conspicuous for their numbers and in their migrations.