Page images
PDF
EPUB

WORM-EATING WARBLER.

[Plate XXIV.-Fig. 4.]

Arct. Zool. p. 406, No. 300.—EDWARDS, 305.-LATHAM, II, 499. -Le Demi-fin mangeur de vers, BUFFON, v, 325.-PEALE'S Museum, No. 6848.

THIS is one of the nimblest species of its whole family, inhabiting the same country with the preceding; but extending its migrations much farther north. It arrives in Pennsylvania about the middle of May; and leaves us in September. I have never yet met with its nest; but have seen them feeding their young about the twenty-fifth of June. This bird is remarkably fond of spiders, darting about wherever there is a probability of finding these insects. If there be a branch broken and the leaves withered, it shoots among them in preference to every other part of the tree, making a great rustling in search of its prey. I have often watched its manoeuvres while thus engaged and flying from tree to tree in search of such places. On dissection I have uniformly found their stomachs filled with spiders or caterpillars, or both. Its note is a feeble chirp, rarely uttered.

The Worm-eater is five inches and a quarter in length, and eight inches in extent; back, tail, and wings a fine clear olive; tips and inner vanes of the wing quills a dusky brown; tail slightly forked, yet the exterior feathers are somewhat shorter than the middle ones; head and whole lower parts a dirty buff; the former marked with four streaks of black, one passing from cach nostril, broadening as it descends the hind head; and one from the posterior angle of each eye; the bill is stout, straight, pretty thick at the base, roundish and tapering to a fine point; no bristles at the side of the mouth; tongue thin, and lacerated

at the tip; the breast is most strongly tinged with the orange buff; vent waved with dusky olive; bill blackish above, flesh coloured below; legs and feet a pale clay colour; eye dark hazel. The female differs very little in colour from the male.

On this species Mr. Pennant makes the following remarks. Does not appear in Pennsylvania till July in its passage "northward. Does not return the same way; but is supposed "to go beyond the mountains which lie to the west. This seems "to be the case with all the transient vernal visitants of Penn"sylvania." That a small bird should permit the whole spring and half of the summer to pass away before it thought of "passing to the north to breed," is a circumstance one should think would have excited the suspicion of so discerning a naturalist as the author of Arctic Zoology, as to its truth. I do not know that this bird breeds to the northward of the United States. As to their returning home by "the country beyond the mountains," this must doubtless be for the purpose of finishing the education of their striplings here, as is done in Europe, by making the grand tour. This by the by would be a much more convenient retrograde route for the ducks and geese; as, like the Kentuckians, they could take advantage of the current of the Ohio and Mississippi, to float down to the southward. Unfortunately however for this pretty theory, all our vernal visitants with which I am acquainted, are contented to plod home by the same regions through which they advanced; not even excepting the geese.

* Arct. Zool. p. 406.

TENNESEE WARBLER.

[Plate XXV.-Fig. 2.]

PEALE'S Museum, No. 7787.

THIS plain little bird has hitherto remained unknown. I first found it on the banks of Cumberland river, in the state of Tennesee, and supposed it to be a rare species, having since met with only two individuals of the same species. It was hunting nimbly among the young leaves, and like all the rest of the family of Worm-eaters, to which by its bill it evidently belongs, seemed to partake a good deal of the habits of the Titmouse. Its notes were few and weak; and its stomach on dissection contained small green caterpillars, and a few winged insects.

As this species is so very rare in the United States, it is most probably a native of a more southerly climate, where it may be equally numerous with any of the rest of its genus. The small Cerulean Warbler, (Plate XVII, fig. 5.) which in Pennsylvania, and almost all over the atlantic states, is extremely rare, I found the most numerous of its tribe in Tennesee and West Florida; and the Carolina Wren, (Plate XII, fig. 5.) which is also scarce to the northward of Maryland, is abundant through the whole extent of country from Pittsburgh to New Orleans.

Particular species of birds, like different nations of men, have their congenial climes and favourite countries; but wanderers are common to both; some in search of better fare; some of adventures; others led by curiosity; and many driven by storms and accident.

The Tennesee Warbler is four inches and three quarters long, and eight inches in extent; the back, rump and tail coverts, are

of a rich yellow olive; lesser wing coverts the same; wings deep dusky, edged broadly with yellow olive; tail forked, olive, relieved with dusky; cheeks and upper part of the head inclining to light bluish, and tinged with olive; line from the nostrils over the eye pale yellow, fading into white; throat and breast pale cream colour; belly and vent white; legs purplish brown; bill pointed and thicker at the base than those of the Sylvia genus generally are; upper mandible dark dusky, lower somewhat paler; eye hazel.

The female differs little, in the colour of her plumage, from the male; the yellow line over the eye is more obscure, and the olive not of so rich a tint.

KENTUCKY WARBLER.

[Plate XXV.-Fig. 3.]

PEALE'S Museum, No. 7786.

THIS new and beautiful species inhabits the country whose name it bears. It is also found generally in all the intermediate tracts between Nashville and New Orleans, and below that as far as the Balize, or mouths of the Mississippi, where I heard it several times, twittering among the high rank grass and low bushes of those solitary and desolate looking morasses. In Kentucky and Tennesee it is particularly numerous, frequenting low damp woods, and builds its nest in the middle of a thick tuft of rank grass, sometimes in the fork of a low bush, and sometimes on the ground; in all of which situations I have found it. The materials are ioose dry grass, mixed with the light pith of weeds, and lined with hair. The female lays four, and sometimes six eggs, pure white, sprinkled with specks of reddish. I observed her sitting early in May. This species is seldom seen among the high branches; but loves to frequent low bushes and cane swamps, and is an active sprightly bird. Its notes are loud, and in threes, resembling, tweedle, tweedle, tweedle. It appears in Kentucky from the south about the middle of April; and leaves the territory of New Orleans on the approach of cold weather; at least I was assured that it does not remain there during the winter. It appeared to me to be a restless, fighting species; almost always engaged in pursuing some of its fellows; though this might have been occasioned by its numbers, and the particular season of spring, when love and jealousy rage with violence in the breasts of the feathered tenants of the grove; who

« PreviousContinue »