The Project Gutenberg eBook of Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers, by Arthur Bent This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers Part One Author: Arthur Bent Release Date: June 28, 2012 [eBook #40100] [Most recently updated: April 25, 2021] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 Produced by: Tom Cosmas, Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WOOD WARBLERS *** Note: In some quoted passages, the author uses three spaced asterisks to show a deleted section. These are displayed as * * *. DOVER BOOKS ON BIRDS Audubon’s Birds of America Coloring Book, John James Audubon. (23049-X) $2.25 Bird Study, Andrew J. Berger. (22699-9) $7.95 Bird Song and Bird Behavior, Donald J. Borror. (22779-0) Record and manual $4.95 Common Bird Songs, Donald J. Borror. (21829-5) Record and manual $4.95 Songs of Eastern Birds, Donald J. Borror. (22378-7) Record and album $4.95 Songs of Western Birds, Donald J. Borror. (22765-0) Record and album $4.95 Birds of the New York Area, John Bull. (23222-0) $7.50 What Bird Is This?, Henry H. Collins, Jr. (21490-7) $2.95 Hawks, Owls and Wildlife, John J. Craighead and Frank C. Craighead, Jr. (22123-7) $7.00 Cruickshank’s Photographs of Birds of America, Allan D. Cruickshank. (23497-5) $7.95 1001 Questions Answered about Birds, Allan Cruickshank and Helen Cruickshank. (23315-4) $4.50 Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World, James C. Greenway, Jr. (21869-4) $7.95 Bird Migration, Donald R. Griffin. (20529-0) $4.50 A Guide to Bird Watching, Joseph J. Hickey. (21596-2) $4.95 Life Histories of North American Wood Warblers by Arthur Cleveland Bent in two parts Part 1 Dover Publications, Inc. New York Published in the United Kingdom by Constable and Company, Limited, 10 Orange Street, London W. C. 2. This Dover edition, first published in 1963, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work first published in 1953 by the United States Government Printing Office, as Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum Bulletin 203. Standard Book Number: 486-21153-3 Manufactured in the United States of America Dover Publications, Inc. 180 Varick Street New York 14, N. Y. ADVERTISEMENT The scientific publications of the National Museum include two series, known, respectively, as Proceedings and Bulletins. The Proceedings series, begun in 1878, is intended primarily as a medium for the publication of original papers, based on the collections of the National Museum, that set forth newly acquired facts in biology, anthropology, and geology, with descriptions of new forms and revisions of limited groups. Copies of each paper, in pamphlet form, are distributed as published to libraries and scientific organizations and to specialists and others interested in the different subjects. The dates at which these separate papers are published are recorded in the table of contents of each of the volumes. The series of Bulletins, the first of which was issued in 1875, contains separate publications comprising monographs of large zoological groups and other general systematic treatises (occasionally in several volumes), faunal works, reports of expeditions, catalogs of type specimens, special collections, and other material of similar nature. The majority of the volumes are octavo in size, but a quarto size has been adopted in a few instances in which the larger page was regarded as indispensable. In the Bulletin series appear volumes under the heading Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, in octavo form, published by the National Museum since 1902, which contain papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum. The present work forms No. 203 of the Bulletin series. Remington Kellogg, Director, United States National Museum. CONTENTS Page Introduction ix Order PASSERIFORMES 1 Family Parulidae: Wood warblers 1 Mniotilta varia: Black-and-white warbler 5 Habits 5 Distribution 14 Protonotaria citrea: Prothonotary warbler 17 Habits 17 Distribution 28 Limnothlypis swainsonii: Swainson’s warbler 30 Habits 30 Distribution 37 Helmitheros vermivoros: Worm-eating warbler 38 Habits 38 Distribution 45 Vermivora chrysoptera: Golden-winged warbler 47 Habits 47 Distribution 56 Vermivora pinus: Blue-winged warbler 58 Habits 58 Distribution 65 Vermivora bachmanii: Bachman’s warbler 67 Habits 67 Distribution 73 Vermivora peregrina: Tennessee warbler 75 Habits 75 Distribution 86 Vermivora celata celata: Eastern orange-crowned warbler 89 Habits 89 Distribution 94 Vermivora celata orestera: Rocky Mountain orange-crowned warbler 98 Habits 98 Vermivora celata lutescens: Lutescent orange-crowned warbler 99 Habits 99 Vermivora celata sordida: Dusky orange-crowned warbler 103 Habits 103 Vermivora ruficapilla ruficapilla: Eastern Nashville warbler 105 Habits 105 Distribution 113 [ix] Vermivora ruficapilla ridgwayi: Western Nashville warbler 116 Habits 116 Vermivora virginiae: Virginia’s warbler 119 Habits 119 Distribution 124 Vermivora crissalis: Colima warbler 126 Habits 126 Distribution 129 Vermivora luciae: Lucy’s warbler 129 Habits 129 Distribution 134 Parula americana pusilla: Northern parula warbler 135 Habits 135 Distribution 145 Parula americana americana: Southern parula warbler 147 Habits 147 Parula pitiayumi nigrilora: Sennett’s olive-backed warbler 149 Habits 149 Distribution 152 Parula graysoni: Socorro warbler 152 Habits 152 Distribution 153 Peucedramus taeniatus arizonae: Northern olive warbler 153 Habits 153 Distribution 160 Dendroica petechia aestiva: Eastern yellow warbler 160 Habits 160 Distribution 178 Dendroica petechia amnicola: Newfoundland yellow warbler 182 Habits 182 Dendroica petechia rubiginosa: Alaska yellow warbler 184 Habits 184 Dendroica petechia morcomi: Rocky Mountain yellow warbler 185 Habits 185 Dendroica petechia brewsteri: California yellow warbler 186 Habits 186 Dendroica petechia sonorana: Sonora yellow warbler 189 Habits 189 Dendroica petechia gundlachi: Cuban yellow warbler 190 Habits 190 Dendroica petechia castaneiceps: Mangrove yellow warbler 191 Habits 191 Dendroica magnolia: Magnolia warbler 195 Habits 195 Distribution 209 Dendroica tigrina: Cape May warbler 212 Habits 212 Distribution 222 Dendroica caerulescens caerulescens: Northern black-throated blue warbler 224 Habits 224 Distribution 233 Dendroica caerulescens cairnsi: Cairns’ warbler 237 Habits 237 Dendroica coronata coronata: Eastern myrtle warbler 239 Habits 239 Distribution 254 Dendroica coronata hooveri: Alaska myrtle warbler 258 Habits 258 [x] [xi] Dendroica auduboni auduboni: Pacific Audubon’s warbler 260 Habits 260 Distribution 271 Dendroica auduboni nigrifrons: Black-fronted Audubon’s warbler 273 Habits 273 Dendroica nigrescens: Black-throated gray warbler 275 Habits 275 Distribution 281 Dendroica towndsendi: Townsend’s warbler 282 Habits 282 Distribution 290 Dendroica virens virens: Northern black-throated green warbler 291 Habits 291 Distribution 304 Dendroica virens waynei: Wayne’s black-throated green warbler 308 Habits 308 Dendroica chrysoparia: Golden-cheeked warbler 316 Habits 316 Distribution 321 Dendroica occidentalis: Hermit warbler 321 Habits 321 Distribution 328 Dendroica cerulea: Cerulean warbler 329 Habits 329 Distribution 335 Dendroica fusca: Blackburnian warbler 337 Habits 337 Distribution 347 Dendroica dominica dominica: Eastern yellow-throated warbler 349 Habits 349 Distribution 358 Dendroica dominica albilora: Sycamore yellow-throated warbler 359 Habits 359 Dendroica graciae graciae: Northern Grace’s warbler 363 Habits 363 Distribution 367 INTRODUCTION This is the nineteenth in a series of bulletins of the United States National Museum on the life histories of North American birds. Previous numbers have been issued as follows: 107. Life Histories of North American Diving Birds, August 1, 1919. 113. Life Histories of North American Gulls and Terns, August 27, 1921. 121. Life Histories of North American Petrels and Pelicans and Their Allies, October 19, 1922. 126. Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl (part), May 25, 1923. 130. Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl (part), June 27, 1925. 135. Life Histories of North American Marsh Birds, March 11, 1927. 142. Life Histories of North American Shore Birds (pt. 1), December 31, 1927. 146. Life Histories of North American Shore Birds (pt. 2), March 24, 1929. 162. Life Histories of North American Gallinaceous Birds, May 25, 1932. 167. Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey (pt. 1), May 3, 1937. 170. Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey (pt. 2), August 8, 1938. 174. Life Histories of North American Woodpeckers, May 23, 1939. 176. Life Histories of North American Cuckoos, Goatsuckers, Hummingbirds, and Their Allies, July 20, 1940. 179. Life Histories of North American Flycatchers, Larks, Swallows, and Their Allies, May 8, 1942. 191. Life Histories of North American Jays, Crows, and Titmice, January 27, 1947. 195. Life Histories of North American Nuthatches, Wrens, Thrashers, and Their Allies, July 7, 1948. [xiii] 196. Life Histories of North American Thrushes, Kinglets, and Their Allies, June 28, 1949. 197. Life Histories of North American Wagtails, Shrikes, Vireos, and Their Allies, June 21, 1950. The paragraphs on distribution for the Colima and Kirtland’s warblers were supplied by Dr. Josselyn Van Tyne with his contributions on these species. All other data on distribution and migration were contributed by the Fish and Wildlife Service under the supervision of Frederick C. Lincoln. The same general plan has been followed as explained in previous bulletins, and the same sources of information have been used. It does not seem necessary to explain the plan again here. The nomenclature of the Check-List of North American Birds (1931), with its supplements, of the American Ornithologists’ Union, has been followed. Forms not recognized in this list have not been included. Many who have contributed material for previous Bulletins have continued to cooperate. Receipts of material from several hundred contributors has been acknowledged in previous Bulletins. In addition to these, our thanks are due to the following new contributors: G. A. Ammann, O. L. Austin, Jr., F. S. Barkalow, Jr., Ralph Beebe, H. E. Bennett, A. J. Berger, Virgilio Biaggi, Jr., C. H. Blake, Don Bleitz, B. J. Blincoe, L. C. Brecher, Jeanne Broley, Maurice Broun, J. H. Buckalew, I. W. Burr, N. K. Carpenter, May T. Cooke, H. L. Crockett, Grace Crowe, Ruby Curry, J. V. Dennis, E. von S. Dingle, M. S. Dunlap, J. J. Elliott, A. H. Fast, Edith K. Frey, J. E. Galley, J. H. Gerard, Lydia Getell, H. B. Goldstein, Alan Gordon, L. I. Grinnell, Horace Groskin, F. G. Gross, G. W. Gullion, E. M. Hall, R. H. Hansman, Katharine C. Harding, H. H. Harrison, J. W. Hopkins, N. L. Huff, Verna R. Johnston, Malcolm Jollie, R. S. Judd, M. B. Land, Louise de K. Lawrence, R. E. Lawrence, G. H. Lowery, J. M. Markle, C. R. Mason, D. L. McKinley, R. J. Middleton, Lyle Miller, A. H. Morgan, R. H. Myers, W. H. Nicholson, F. H. Orcutt, H. L. Orians, R. A. O’Reilly, A. A. Outram, G. H. Parks, K. C. Parkes, M. M. Peet, J. L. Peters, F. A. Pitelka, Mariana Roach, James Rooney, Jr., O. M. Root, G. B. Saunders, James Sawders, Mary C. Shaub, Dorothy E. Snyder, Doris Heustis Speirs, E. A. Stoner, P. B. Street, H. R. Sweet, E. W. Teale, A. B. Williams, G. G. Williams, R. B. Williams, Mrs. T. E. Winford, and A. M. Woodbury. As the demand for these Bulletins is much greater than the supply, the names of those who have not contributed to the work during recent years will be dropped from the author’s mailing list. Dr. Winsor M. Tyler has again read and indexed for this volume a large part of the current literature on North American birds and has contributed four complete life histories. Dr. Alfred O. Gross has written stories on the yellow-throats (Geothlypis trichas) and has contributed three other complete life histories. Edward von S. Dingle, Alexander Sprunt, Jr., and Dr. Josselyn Van Tyne have contributed two complete life histories each. William George F. Harris has increased his valuable contribution to the work by producing the entire paragraphs on eggs, including descriptions of the eggs in their exact colors, assembling and averaging the measurements, and collecting and arranging the egg dates, as they appear under Distribution; the preparation of this last item alone required the handling of over 5,600 records. Clarence F. Smith has furnished references to food habits of all the species of wood warblers. Aretas A. Saunders has contributed full and accurate descriptions of the songs and call notes of all the species with which he is familiar, based on his extensive musical records. Dr. Alexander F. Skutch has sent us full accounts of all the North American wood warblers that migrate through or spend the winter in Central America, with dates of arrival and departure. James Lee Peters has furnished descriptions of molts and plumages of several species and has copied several original descriptions of subspecies from publications that were not available to the author. Eggs were measured for this volume by American Museum of Natural History (C. K. Nichols), California Academy of Sciences (R. T. Orr), Colorado Museum of Natural History (F. G. Brandenburg), C. E. Doe, W. E. Griffee, W. C. Hanna, E. N. Harrison, H. L. Heaton, A. D. Henderson, Museum of Comparative Zoology (W. G. F. Harris), and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (M. Jollie). The manuscript for this Bulletin was written in 1945; only important information could be added. If the reader fails to find in these pages anything that he knows about the birds, he can only blame himself for failing to send the information to— The Author. LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WOOD WARBLERS Order PASSERIFORMES: Family Parulidae By Arthur Cleveland Bent Taunton, Mass. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE FAMILY PARULIDAE Contributed by Winsor Marrett Tyler The family of wood warblers, Parulidae, is the second largest family of North American birds, surpassed only in number of species by the family Fringillidae. The wood warblers occur only in the Western Hemisphere; they are [xiv] [xv] [1] distinct from the Old World warblers, Sylviidae, although the two families play a similar rôle in nature’s economy. The wood warblers are largely nocturnal migrants, whose long journeys in the dark of night over sea and lake and along the coast expose them to many perils, one being the lighthouses they strike with frequently fatal results. Their notes are seldom heard from the night sky during their spring migration, but on many a calm, quiet night in August and September, as they fly overhead, their sharp, sibilant, staccato notes punctuate the rhythmic beat of the tree-crickets singing in the shrubbery and stand out clearly among the soft, whistled calls of the migrating thrushes. The length of migration varies greatly; the pine warbler withdraws in winter only a short distance from the southern limit of its breeding range, whereas the most northerly breeding black-polls migrate from Alaska to the Tropics. In spring many species migrate at nearly the same time, apparently advancing northward in intermittent waves of great numbers during favorable nights. Flocks made up of sometimes a dozen species together flash about in their bright plumage during the week or two at the height of the migration and furnish days of great excitement to ornithologists. Their return in late summer and autumn is more leisurely and regular; in loose flocks they drift slowly by for several weeks, their southward passage evident even in daytime. The flocking begins early, soon after nesting is over, and to the north is apparent early in July, if closely watched for, even before the leaves begin to wither. The mixed fall flocks, with adults in winter plumage and young birds in duller colors, present many fascinating problems in identification as the birds move quietly along. [Author’s Notes: When I asked Dr. Tyler to contribute these remarks we discussed Professor Cooke’s (1904) theory of trans-Gulf migration, which has been generally accepted until recently, when it was challenged by George C. Williams (1945). This paper started a discussion in which George H. Lowery, Jr. (1945), has taken a prominent part, and of which we have not yet heard the last. Routes of migration from South America to the United States are evidently well established through the West Indies and the Bahamas to the southeastern States; across the Caribbean to Jamaica, Cuba, and Florida; through Central America and directly across the Gulf from Yucután to the Gulf States; through eastern Mexico and Texas; and through western Mexico to the southwestern States. Professor Cooke was probably correct in assuming that the majority of wood warblers breeding in eastern North America migrate directly across the Caribbean or the Gulf. Some species may confine themselves to only one of the routes named, but we need more data to say just which species uses what route.] The literature contains descriptions of several warblers not recognized as established species by the A. O. U. Check-List (1931). Some, described and illustrated by older writers such as Wilson and Audubon, cannot be identified; others are presumably hybrids; and one, Sylvia autumnalis Wilson, the autumn warbler, is clearly the black- poll in fall plumage. The first category includes Dendroica carbonata (Audubon), the carbonated warbler, of which the Check-List says “the published plates may have been based to some extent on memory”; D. montana (Wilson), the blue mountain warbler, which is “known only from the plates of Audubon and Wilson”; and Wilsonia (?) microcephala (Ridgway), the small-headed flycatcher, of which it says: “Known only from the works of Wilson and Audubon whose specimens came from New Jersey and Kentucky respectively. There is some question whether they represent the same species.” In the second category is Vermivora cincinnatiensis (Langdon), the Cincinnati warbler, described in 1880. “The unique type is regarded as a hybrid between Vermivora pinus (Linnaeus) and Oporornis formosa (Wilson).” Recently, in a letter dated August 3, 1948, Dr. George M. Sutton reports to Mr. Bent the discovery of a second Cincinnati warbler, taken in Michigan on May 28, 1948. He says: “Its bill and feet are large for Vermivora and its under tail coverts proportionately too long for that genus. It has only a faint suggestion of wing-barring and the merest shadow of a pattern on the outer rectrices. One of its most interesting and beautiful characters is the gray tipping of the feathers at the rear of the crown, as in O. formosus. The effect is very unusual, for the gray-tipped feathers are yellow. It is, in short, obviously a cross between Vermivora and Oporornis.” The status of Vermivora leucobronchialis and V. lawrencii and the relationship between them puzzled ornithologists for upward of two generations. William Brewster (1876) described the former as a new species, and since that time, as Walter Faxon (1911) writes, “almost every conceivable hypothesis has been advanced by one writer or another to fix its true status in our bird-fauna.” In addition to being considered a valid species, it has been regarded as a hybrid (Brewster, 1881), as a dichromatic phase, that is, a leucochroic phase of V. pinus (Ridgway, 1887), as a mutant (Scott, 1905), and finally as a phase, “ancestral in character” (atavistic) of the goldenwing (C. W. Townsend, 1908). Lawrence’s warbler is a very rare bird. The first specimen was described in 1874 (Herold Herrick, 1874), and since that time the bird was taken or seen infrequently, chiefly in regions where the breeding ranges of V. chrysoptera and V. pinus overlap. Consensus of opinion in the main regarded it as a hybrid between V. chrysoptera and V. pinus, as it combined characters of both the supposed parents. John Treadwell Nichols (1908) some years ago brought new light to the problem. He says: In any discussion of the status of Lawrence’s and Brewster’s Warblers it is well to bear in mind the facts, including the much greater abundance of Brewster’s, are in accord with Mendel’s Law of Heredity, supposing both forms to be hybrids between Helminthophila pinus and H. chrysoptera. * * * All the first generation hybrids will be Brewster’s Warbler in plumage. In the next generation there will be pure Golden-winged Warblers, pure Blue-winged Warblers, pure Brewster’s Warblers, and pure Lawrence’s Warblers; also mixed birds of the first three forms, but none of the last form, which, being recessive, comes to light only when pure. The original hybrids then (which will be all Brewster’s in plumage) must be fertile with one another or with the parent species for any Lawrence’s to occur; and if they are perfectly fertile Lawrence’s must still remain a small minority. After the first generation the [2] [3] proportion of plumages of birds with mixed parentage should be: 9 Brewster’s, 3 chrysoptera, 3 pinus, 1 Lawrence’s. This explanation removed the stumbling block, long believed to be insurmountable, that a black-throated bird, mating with a yellow-throated bird, could produce progeny having a white throat. Under Mendel’s Law the dominant color (white) of chrysoptera would appear by the suppression of the recessive black throat. Fortunately, Walter Faxon (1913) not long afterward found a female blue-winged warbler mated with a goldenwing and was successful in following the resulting brood of young birds until they had acquired their first winter plumage when, fulfilling Mendel’s Law, they were all in “the garb of Helminthophila leucobronchialis,” thus establishing beyond a doubt the hybrid nature of the bird. At the end of his paper, Walter Faxon (1913) relates a bit of interesting ancient history regarding these three species of Vermivora. He says: In my paper published in 1911, after stating the different hypotheses proposed in order to explain the relations existing among the Golden-winged, Blue-winged, Brewster’s, and Lawrence’s Warblers I added, half in jest, that the only hypothesis left for a new-comer in the field was this: that the Golden-winged and the Blue-winged Warblers themselves were merely two forms of one species. Curiously enough, not long after this I found that this very opinion had been expressed, and in a most unexpected quarter: in a letter dated Edinburgh, Sept. 15, 1835, Audubon wrote to Bachman that he suspected the golden-winged warbler and the blue-winged warbler were one species! That Audubon at that early date, ignorant (as he was assumed to be) of the existence of Brewster’s and Lawrence’s warblers, and but superficially acquainted with the golden-wing, should suspect that two birds so diverse as the blue-wing and the golden-wing were one species seemed incomprehensible, and in the light of what we now know about these birds, his surmise seemed to presuppose an almost superhuman faculty of prevision. As a possible explanation of Audubon’s letter I have only this to offer: in the winter of 1876-77 Dr. Spencer Trotter discovered in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia a specimen of Brewster’s warbler without a label, the third specimen known up to that time; on the bottom of the stand was written in the autograph of John Cassin, “J. C., 20 October, 1862,” and also a badly blurred legend “Not from Bell.” An appeal to J. G. Bell elicited the response that he remembered shooting a peculiar warbler in Rockland Co., N. Y., about the year 1832—a warbler something like a golden-wing, but lacking, although in high plumage, the black throat of that species; a great many years afterward, he sold this specimen in Philadelphia but knew nothing of its ultimate fate. Dr. Trotter justly inferred that the Philadelphia Academy specimen was in all probability the very bird shot by Bell. Now as Audubon was intimately associated with Bell, is it not possible that he had examined this example of Brewster’s warbler? In that case, seeing that this bird’s characters were in part those of the blue-wing, in part those of the golden-wing, he may have inferred the interbreeding of these two birds, and so (rather unwarrantably, it is true) their identity. If this be not the explanation of the passage in Audubon’s letter to Bachman I have no other to suggest. When Audubon came to publish his account of the Golden-winged Warbler in 1839 (Ornithological Biography, 1839, 5, p. 154) he said not a word about its connection with the Blue-winged Warbler. Recently Karl W. Haller (1940) described “a new wood warbler from West Virginia” from two specimens, male and female, which he collected on May 30 and June 1, 1939, respectively, at points 18 miles apart, and proposed for it the new name Dendroica potomac, Sutton’s warbler. These birds resemble the yellow-throated warbler in plumage but lack streaks on the sides. They also suggest the parula warbler in having a faint yellowish wash on the back and, in the male, “an almost imperceptible hint of raw sienna” on the upper breast. The male sang a song much like the parula’s, but doubled by repetition. Two more Sutton’s warblers have been carefully observed in the field: one at the point where the type was collected on May 21, 1942, by Maurice Brooks and Bayard H. Christy (1942); the second about 18 miles to the westward on June 21, 1944, by George H. Breiding and Lawrence E. Hicks (1945). Another aberrant warbler has been described by Stanley G. Jewett (1944), who examined four specimens which show a curious intermingling of the plumage characters of the hermit and Townsend warblers. [Author’s Note: Since the above was written, Kenneth C. Parkes (1951) has published a study of the genetics of the golden-winged—blue-winged warbler complex, to which the reader is referred.] MNIOTILTA VARIA (Linnaeus) BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER Contributed by Winsor Marrett Tyler Plates 1-3 HABITS The black-and-white warbler is one of the earliest spring warblers to reach its breeding-ground in the Transition Zone. Most of the other members of this family arrive in or pass through the region in mid-May or somewhat later, according to the season, when the oaks are in bloom and the opening flowers attract swarms of insects. The black-and-white warbler, however, owing to its peculiar habit of feeding on the trunks and the large limbs of the trees, does not have to wait for the bounty supplied by the oaks but finds its special feeding-ground well stocked with food long before the oaks blossom or their leaves unfold. It comes with the yellow palm warbler late in April, when many of the trees are nearly bare, and not long after the pine warbler. [4] [5] Mniotilta is a neat little bird, dressed in modest colors, at this season singing its simple but sprightly song as it scrambles over the bark—the black-and-white creeper, Alexander Wilson calls it. Milton B. Trautman (1940), speaking of the spring migration at Buckeye Lake, Ohio, shows that the male birds are preponderant in the earliest flights. He says: “The first spring arrivals, chiefly males, were noted between April 16 and 30, and between May 1 and 5, 2 to 15 birds, mostly males, could be daily noted. The peak of migration usually lasted from May 6 to May 18, and then from 3 to 42 individuals, consisting of a few old males and the remainder females and young males, were daily observed. On May 18 or shortly thereafter a decided lessening in numbers occurred, and by May 23 all except an occasional straggler had left.” Courtship.—Forbush (1929) gives this hint of courtship, which resembles the activities of most warblers at this season: “When the females arrive there is much agitation, and often a long-continued intermittent pursuit, with much song and fluttering of black and white plumage, and much interference from rival males before the happy pair are united and begin nesting.” Nesting.—The black-and-white warbler usually builds its nest on the ground, tucking it away against a shrub or tree, or even under the shelter of an overhanging stone or bank. The nest is generally concealed among an accumulation of dead leaves which, arching over it, hides it from above. It is made, according to A. C. Bent (MS.), “of dry leaves, coarse grass, strips of inner bark, pine needles and rootlets, and is lined with finer grasses and rootlets and horsehair.” I have seen a nest made chiefly of pine needles on a base of dry leaves. Henry Mousley (1916), writing of Hatley, Quebec, mentions moss as a component part of the nest, and says of three nests that they were all “heavily lined with long black and white horse hairs,” a peculiarity of coloration mentioned in one of Mr. Bent’s nests. Thomas D. Burleigh (1927b) speaks of a nest in Pennsylvania “built of dead leaves and rhododendron berry stems, lined with fine black rootlets and a few white hairs.” H. H. Brimley (1941) describes an exceptional nest. He says: “There was no particular departure from normal in its construction except for the fact that it was lined with a mixture of fine rootlets and very fine copper wire, such as is used in telephone cables. Fragments of such cable, discarded by repair men, were found nearby where a telephone line ran through the woods.” Cordelia J. Stanwood (1910c) speaks of a nest “built in a depression full of leaves, behind a flat rock. * * * The cavity was shaped on a slant, the upper wall forming a partial roof. * * * It looked not unlike a small-sized nest of an Oven-bird. On the inside, the length was 2 ⁄ inches, width 1 ⁄ inches, depth 2 inches. On the outside, length 3 ⁄ inches, width 2 ⁄ inches, depth 2 ⁄ inches. Thickness of wall at the top of nest, 1 inch; at the bottom, ⁄ inch.” Henry Mousley (1916) gives the average dimensions of three nests as “outside diameter 3 ⁄ , inside 1 ⁄ inches; outside depth 2 ⁄ , inside 1 ⁄ inches.” F. A. E. Starr (MS.) writes to A. C. Bent from Toronto, Ontario, that all the nests he has found have been in broken-off stumps in low woods. “The cavity in the top of the stump,” he says, “is filled with old leaves, and the nest proper is made chiefly of strips of bark with grass and fiber.” Guy H. Briggs (1900) reports a nest “in a decayed hemlock stump, fifteen inches from the ground.” In such cases, of course, while the nest is well above the ground level, it rests on a firm foundation. Audubon (1841) says: “In Louisiana, its nest is usually placed in some small hole in a tree,” but he quotes a letter to him from Dr. T. M. Brewer on the subject, thus: “This bird, which you speak of as breeding in the hollows of trees, with us always builds its nest on the ground. I say always, because I never knew it to lay anywhere else. I have by me a nest brought to me by Mr. Appleton from Batternits, New York, which was found in the drain of the house in which he resided.” Minot (1877) speaks of two nests found near Boston, Mass., well above the ground. He says: “The first was in a pine grove, in the cavity of a tree rent by lightning, and about five feet from the ground, and the other on the top of a low birch stump, which stood in a grove of white oaks.” Gordon Boit Wellman (1905) states: “Toward the last of the incubation time one of the birds was constantly on the nest. I found the male sitting usually at about dusk, but I think the female sat on the eggs over night.” Eggs.—[Author’s Note: The black-and-white warbler usually lays 4 or 5 eggs to a set, normally 5, seldom fewer or more. These are ovate to short ovate and slightly glossy. The ground color is white or creamy white. Some are finely sprinkled over the entire surface with “cinnamon-brown,” “Mars brown,” and “dark purplish drab”; others are boldly spotted and blotched with “russet” and “Vandyke brown,” with underlying spots of “brownish drab,” “light brownish drab,” and “light vinaceous-drab.” Speckled eggs are commoner than the more boldly blotched type. The markings are usually concentrated at the large end, and on some of the heavily spotted eggs there is a solid wreath of different shades of russet and drab. The measurements of 50 eggs average 17.2 by 13.3 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 18.8 by 13.7, 17.9 by 14.7, 15.7 by 12.7, and 16.3 by 12.2 millimeters (Harris).] Young.—Cordelia J. Stanwood (MS.) speaks of the nestlings a few days from the egg as “very dark gray, much like young juncos and Nashville warblers.” But when they leave the nest they are clearly recognizable as young black- and-white warblers, although they are slightly tinged with brownish. By mid-July, here in New England, they assume their first winter plumage, and, as both sexes of the young birds have whitish cheeks, they resemble very closely their [6] 12 12 12 12 12 12 34 34 14 12 [7] female parent. Unlike the young of some of the other warblers which remain near the ground for many days, the young black-and- white warblers shortly ascend to the branches of trees where they are fed by the old birds. I find no definite record of the length of the incubation period, but in a nest I watched in 1914 it was close to 10 days. Burns (1921) gives the period of nestling life as 8 to 12 days. Plumages.—[Author’s Note: Dr. Dwight (1900) calls the natal down mouse gray, and describes the juvenal plumage as follows: “Above, wood-brown streaked with dull olive-brown, the upper tail coverts dusky; median crown and superciliary stripe dingy white. Wings and tail dull black, edged chiefly with ashy gray, the tertiaries (except the proximal which is entirely black) broadly edged with white, buff tinged on the middle one. Two buffy white wing bands at tips of greater and median wing coverts. The outer two rectrices with terminal white blotches of variable extent on the inner webs. Below, dull white, washed on the throat and sides with wood-brown, obscurely streaked on throat, breast, sides and crissum with dull grayish black.” A postjuvenal molt begins early in July, involving everything but the flight feathers; this produces in the young male a first winter plumage which is similar to the juvenal, but whiter and more definitely streaked. “Above, striped in black and white, the upper tail coverts black broadly edged with white; median crown and superciliary stripe pure white. The wing bands white. Below, pure white streaked with bluish black on sides of breast, flanks and crissum, the black veiled by overlapping white edgings; the chin, throat, breast and abdomen unmarked. Postocular stripe black; the white feathers of the sides of the head tipped with black.” The first nuptial plumage is acquired by a partial prenuptial molt in late winter, which involves a large part of the body plumage, but not the wings or the tail. “The black streaks of the chin and throat are acquired, veiled with white, and the loral, subocular and auricular regions become jet-black. The brown primary coverts distinguish young birds and the chin is less often solidly black than in adults.” The adult winter plumage is acquired by a complete postnuptial molt, beginning early in July. It differs from the first winter dress "in having the chin and throat heavily streaked with irregular chains of black spots veiled with white edgings, the wings and tail blacker and the edgings a brighter gray. * * * The female has corresponding plumages and moults, the first prenuptial moult often very limited or suppressed. In juvenal dress the wings and tail are usually browner with duller edgings and the streaking below obscure. In first winter plumage the streakings are dull and obscure everywhere, a brown wash conspicuous on the flanks and sides of the throat. The first nuptial plumage is gained chiefly by wear through which the brown tints are largely lost, the general color becoming whiter and the streaks more distinct. The adult winter plumage is rather less brown than the female first winter, the streaking less obscure and the wings and tail darker. The adult nuptial plumage, acquired partly by moult, is indistinguishable with certainty from the first nuptial.”] Food.—McAtee (1926) summarizes the food of the species thus: In its excursions over the trunks and larger limbs of trees the Black and White Creeper is certainly not looking for vegetable food, and only a trace of such matter has been found in the stomachs examined. The food is chiefly insects but considerable numbers of spiders and daddy-long-legs also are eaten. Beetles, caterpillars, and ants are the larger classes of insect food, but moths, flies, bugs, and a few hymenoptera also are eaten. Among forest enemies that have been found in stomachs of this species are round-headed wood borers, leaf beetles, flea beetles, weevils, bark beetles, leaf hoppers, and jumping plant lice. The hackberry caterpillar, the hackberry psyllid, an oak leaf beetle Xanthonia 10-notata, and the willow flea beetle, are forms specifically identified. Observers have reported this warbler to feed also upon ordinary plant lice, and upon larvae of the gypsy moth. Forbush (1929) adds the following observation: “The food of this bird consists mostly of the enemies of trees, such as plant-lice, scale-lice, caterpillars, both hairy and hairless, among them such destructive enemies of orchard, shade and forest trees as the canker-worm and the gipsy, brown-tail, tent and forest tent caterpillars. Wood-boring and bark- boring insects, click beetles, curculios and many other winged insects are taken. Sometimes when the quick-moving insects escape its sharp bill, it pursues them on the wing but most of its attention is devoted to those on the trees.” H. H. Tuttle (1919), speaking of the male parent feeding the young birds, says: “The fare which he provided was composed entirely of small green caterpillars, cut up into half-lengths.” Behavior.—The black-and-white warbler seems set apart from others of the group, perhaps because of its marked propensity for clambering over the trunks of trees and their larger branches. Although, like other warblers, it seems at home among the smaller twigs, it spends a large part of its time on upright surfaces over which it moves easily and quickly, upward, downward, and spirally, with great agility and sureness of footing, constantly changing direction, and not using the tail for support. As it scrambles over the bark, it switches from side to side as if at each hop it placed one foot and then the other in advance, and even on slim branches it hops in the same way, the tail alternately appearing first on one side of the branch and then on the other; it reminds us of a little schoolgirl swishing her skirt from side to side as she walks down the street. The bird is alert and watchful, and if it starts an insect from the bark, or sees one flying near, it may pursue it and catch it in the air. H. H. Tuttle (1919) describes an extreme example of behavior simulating a wounded bird. He says: “She struck the leaves with a slight thud and turned over on her side, while the toes of one up-stretched leg clutched at the air and her tail spread slowly into a pointed fan. * * * Deceived for a moment then, I turned a step in her direction. She lay quite still except for a quivering wing. I reached out toward her with a small stick and touched her side; she screamed pitifully; [8] [9] [10] I stretched out my hand to pick her up, but with a last effort she righted herself, and by kicking desperately with one leg, succeeded in pushing forward a few inches.” We associate this warbler with dry, rocky hillsides where the ground is strewn with dead leaves, but the bird may breed also in the dry portions of shady, wooded swamps. Voice.—The black-and-white is one of the high-voiced singers. Its song is made up of a series of squeaky couplets given with a back-and-forth rhythm, a seesawing effect, like the ovenbird’s song played on a fine, delicate instrument. It may be suggested by pronouncing the syllables we see rapidly four or five times in a whispered voice. In the distance the song has a sibilant quality; when heard near at hand a high, clear whistle may be detected in the notes. The final note in the song is the accented see. Albert R. Brand (1938), in his mechanically recorded songs of warblers, placed the black-and-white’s song as the fourth highest in pitch in his last of 16 species, the black-poll, blue-winged, and the Blackburnian being higher. He gives the approximate mean (vibrations per second) of the black and white as 6,900 and of the blackpool as 8,900. Aretas A. Saunders (MS.) says: “The pitch of the songs varies, according to my records, from B‴ to E‴′, a range of three and a half tones more than an octave. A single song, however, does not vary more than three and a half tones.” A second song, not heard, I think, until the bird has been on its breeding ground for some time, is rather more pleasing, less monotonous, than the first. It is longer, somewhat faster, more lively, and is modulated in pitch. Francis H. Allen (MS.) speaks of it thus: “Later in the season a more elaborate song is very commonly heard. I have been accustomed to syllabify it as weesy, weesy, weesy, weesy, woosy, woosy, weesy, weesy . The notes indicated by woosy really differ from the others only by being pitched lower.” Occasionally we hear aberrant songs which prove puzzling until we can see the singer. Allen remarks that he has heard several such songs, and I remember hearing one in which the lower note of each couplet was reduplicated, thereby strongly suggested one of the songs of the Blackburnian warbler. Sometimes Mniotilta sings during flight. I once heard a song from a bird flying within a few feet of me—at this range a sound of piercing sharpness. Of the minor notes Andrew Allison (1907) says: “I know of no other warbler except the Chat that can produce so great a variety of sounds; and since nearly all of the notes resemble those of other warblers, this is a most confusing bird to deal with during the busy season of ‘waves’.” The call note often has a buzzing quality, and often runs into a long chatter (also characteristic of the young bird), but it may be given so sharply enunciated that it suggests the chip of the black-poll. Allen (MS.) writes it chi, “like pebbles struck together,” and Cordelia J. Stanwood (1910) renders it sptz, saying “the sound resembled the noise made by a drop of syrup sputtering on a hot stove.” Field marks.—The black-poll, in its spring plumage, and the black-and-white warbler resemble each other in coloration, but the latter bird may be readily distinguished by its white stripe down the center of the crown and the white line over the eye. The contrast in the behavior of the two birds separates them at a glance. Enemies.—Like other birds which build on the ground, the black-and-white is subject, during the nesting season, to attacks by snakes and predatory mammals. A. D. DuBois (MS.) cites a case in which maggots destroyed a nestful of young birds. Harold S. Peters (1936) reports that a fly, Ornithoica confluens Say, and a louse, Myrsidea incerta (Kellogg), have been found in the plumage of the black-and-white warbler. Herbert Friedmann (1929) says: “This aberrant warbler is a rather uncommon victim of the Cowbird, only a couple dozen definite instances having come to my notice. * * * The largest number of Cowbirds’ eggs found in a single nest of this Warbler is five, together with three eggs of the owner.” George W. Byers (1950) reports a nest of this warbler, in Michigan, that held two eggs of the warbler and eight of the cowbird, on which the warbler was incubating. His photograph of the eggs suggests that they were probably laid by four different cowbirds. Fall.—Several of the warblers show a tendency to stray from their breeding grounds soon after their young are able to care for themselves, perhaps even before the postnuptial molt is completed and long before the birds gather into the mixed autumn flocks. Among these early wandering birds the black-and-white warbler is a very conspicuous species, perhaps because it is one of our commoner birds or, more probably, because of its habit of feeding in plain sight on the trunks and low branches of dead or dying trees and shrubs instead of hiding, like other warblers, high up in the foliage. It may be that the warblers we see at some distance from their breeding grounds thus early in the season have already begun their migration toward the south: they often appear to be migrating. Behind the house in Lexington, Mass., where I lived for years, there was a little hill, sparsely covered with locust trees, to the southward from my dooryard. This hill was a favorite resort for warblers in late summer. No warbler bred within a mile of the spot, except the summer yellowbird, to use the old name, yet soon after the first of July the black- and-white warblers began to assemble there. Not infrequently I have seen a single bird come to the hill, flying in from the north across Lexington Common, and join others there. The small company might remain for an hour or more, frequently singing (evidently adult males) as the birds fed in the locust trees. [11] [12] Later in the season, as August advances, migration appears more evident. The birds now gather in larger numbers, sometimes as many as eight or ten; they pause in the locust trees for a shorter time before flying off; they are no longer in song; and the majority of the birds have white cheeks, most of them presumably young birds. Although they are almost silent as they climb about feeding, if you stand quietly in the midst of a company of four or five, now and then you may hear a faint note, and at once the note comes from all sides, each bird apparently reporting its whereabouts—a sound which calls to mind the south-bound migrants as they roam through the quiet autumn woods. Other warblers, unquestionably migrants, visit this hillside in August, notably the Tennessee, an early arrival who has already traveled a long way. The fall migration of the black-and-white is long-drawn-out. The bird does not depend, like many of the warblers, on finding food among the foliage, so it may linger long after the trees are bare of leaves, sometimes, here in New England, well into October. I saw a bird in eastern Massachusetts on October 23, 1940, a very late date. Winter.—Dr. Alexander F. Skutch (MS.) sent to A. C. Bent the following comprehensive account of the bird on its winter quarters: "None of our warblers is more catholic in its choice of a winter home than the black-and-white. Upon its departure from its nesting range, it spreads over a vast area from the Gulf States south to Ecuador and Venezuela, from the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America eastward through the Antilles. And in the mountainous regions of its winter range it does not, like so many members of the family, restrict itself to a particular altitudinal zone, but on the contrary scatters from sea level high up into the mountains. As a result of this wide dispersion, latitudinal and altitudinal, it appears to be nowhere abundant in Central America during the winter months, yet it has been recorded from more widely scattered localities than most other winter visitants. On the southern coast of Jamaica, in December 1930, I found a greater concentration of individuals than I have ever seen in Central America during midwinter. “Wintering throughout the length of Central America, from near sea level up to 9,000 feet and rarely higher, the black-and-white warbler is somewhat more abundant in that portion of its altitudinal range comprised between 2,000 or 3,000 and 7,000 or 8,000 feet above sea level. It is found in the heavy forest, in the more open types of woodland, among the shade trees of the coffee plantations, and even amid low second-growth with scattered trees. It creeps along the branches in exactly the same fashion in its winter as in its summer home. Solitary in its disposition, two of the kind are almost never seen together. The only time I have heard this warbler sing in Central America was also one of the very few occasions when I found two together. Early on the bright morning of September 1, 1933, when the warblers were arriving from the north, I heard the black-and-white’s weak little song repeated several times among the trees at the edge of an oak wood, at an altitude of 8,500 feet in the Guatemalan highlands. Looking into the tree tops, I saw two of these birds together. Apparently they were singing in rivalry, as red-faced warblers, Kaup’s redstarts, yellow warblers, and other members of the family solitary during the winter months will sing in the face of another of their kind, at seasons when they are usually silent. Often such songs lead to a pursuit or even a fight; but I have never seen black- and-white warblers actually engaged in a conflict in their winter home. “Although intolerant of their own kind, the black-and-white warblers are not entirely hermits; for often a single one will attach itself to a mixed flock of small birds. In the Guatemalan highlands, during the...