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THE B L A C K B U R N I A N W A R B L E R .
SYLVIA BLACKBURNIAN, LATH.
P L A T E C X X X V . MALE.
THIS charming and delicate Warbler passes through the United
States in April and May. I have met with it at different times, although
sparingly, in every part of the Union, more frequently in the
southern districts in spring, and in the eastern in early autumn. In the
State of Maine, on the north-eastern confines of the United States, it is
not uncommon, and I have reason to think that it breeds in the vicinity
of Mars Hill, and other places, along the banks of St John's River, where
my sons and myself shot several individuals, in the month of September.
While at Frederickton, New Brunswick, Sir ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL kindly
presented me with specimens. On the Magdalene Islands, in the Gulf
of St Lawrence, which I visited in June 1833, I found the Blackburnian
Warbler in all the brilliancy of its spring plumage, and had the pleasure
of hearing its sweet song, while it was engaged in pursuing its insect prey
among the branches of a fir tree, moving along somewhat in the manner
of the American Redstart. Its song, which consisted of five or six notes,
was so much louder than could have been expected from the size of the
bird, that it was not until I had fairly caught it in the act, that I felt satisfied
as to its proceeding from my old acquaintance My endeavours to discover
its nest proved fruitless. In Labrador we saw several individuals
of both sexes, and on the coast of Newfoundland, on our return westward,
we again found it.
To Professor MACCCLLOCH of the Pictou College I am indebted for
a nest and three eggs of this bird. While looking at his valuable collection
of the Birds of Nova Scotia, my attention was attracted by a case
containing nests with eggs, among which was that of the Blackburnian
Warbler. It was composed externally of different textures, and lined
with silky fibres and thin delicate stripes of fine bark, over which lay a
thick bed of feathers and horse-hair. The eggs were small, very conical
towards the smaller end, pure white, with a few spots of light red towards
the larger end. It was found in a small fork of a tree, five or six
feet from the ground, near a brook. The Professor informed me that it
BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER. 209
was the only nest he had seen, and that he considered this species of
Warbler as rare in the district.
My friend JOHN BACHMAN has since informed me, that, in June 1833,
he saw a pair of these birds engaged in constructing a nest near Lansing"
burgh, in the State of New York. He never saw the species in the maritime
parts of South Carolina.
The specimen from which I made the drawing copied in the plate before
you, I procured near Reading in Pennsylvania, on the banks of the
Schuylkill River, about thirty years ago. Some specimens shot in New
Brunswick in September, were mottled somewhat in the manner of a two
years old Tanager or Summer Red Bird, being probably very young birds.
S Y L V I A B L A C K B U R N I . / E , Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 257.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of
Birds of the United States, p. 80.
B L A C K B U R N I A N "WABBLEB, S Y L V I A B L A C K B U H N I J E , Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. iii. p. 67.
pi. 28, fig. 3—Nuttall, Manual, part i. p. 379.
Adult Male. Plate CXXXV.
Bill short, straight, subulato-conical, acute, rather broader than deep
at the base, the edges sharp. Nostrils basal, lateral, elliptical, half-closed
by a membrane. General form slender. Feet of ordinary length ; tarsus
slender, compressed, anteriorly scutellate, sharp behind; toes free,
scutellate above, the hind toe of moderate size; claws arched, slender,
compressed, acute.
Plumage soft, blended, slightly glossed. Wings longish, the first
quill longest, the two next scarcely shorter, and almost equal. Tail of
moderate length, slightly emarginate.
Bill and legs umber-brown, the former bluish at the base below.
Iris hazel. The general colour of the upper parts is black, with'streaks
of white on the back. A small patch of orange on the top of the head,
a band of the same colour from the base of the mandible over the eye,
passing down the neck and curving forwards; a similar short band under
the eye; lore, and a patch behind the eye, black. Quills margined with
white, and a large patch of the same on the wing, including the inner
secondary coverts, and the ends of the outer, with those of the first row
of smaller coverts. The three outer tail-feathers on each side white at
the base, and along the inner web. Throat and breast of a rich reddishorange,
the hind part of the breast and belly dull yellow, fading backwards
; the sides of the breast marked with black streaks and spots.
VOL. II. o