A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 1 of 3Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Science
A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 1 of 3
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Birds -- North America
Mr. Audubon observed them, near Louisville, Kentucky, frequenting
creeks and lagoons overshadowed by large trees. These were their
favorite places of resort. They also preferred the borders of sheets
of water to the interior of the forest. They return in spring to the
Southern States early in March, but to Kentucky not before the last of
April. They leave in October, and raise but a single brood in a
season. Audubon describes their nest, but it differs so essentially
from their known mode of breeding, that he was evidently in error in
regard to his supposed identification of the nest of this species.
Dr. Bachman, who often met them on the borders of small streams near
Charleston, was confident that they breed in that State, and noticed a
pair with four young birds as early as June 1, in 1836.
Recently more light has been thrown upon their habits by Mr. B. F.
Goss, who, in May, 1863, found them breeding near Neosho Falls, in
Kansas. The nest was built within a Woodpecker’s hole in the stump of
a tree, not more than three feet high. The nest was not rounded in
shape, but made to conform to the irregular cavity in which it was
built. It was of oblong shape, and its cavity was deepest, not in the
centre, but at one end, upon a closely impacted base made up of
fragments of dried leaves, broken bits of grasses, stems, mosses, and
lichens, decayed wood, and other material, the upper portion
consisting of an interweaving of fine roots of wooded plants, varying
in size, but all strong, wiry, and slender. It was lined with hair.
Other nests since discovered are of more uniform forms, circular in
shape, and of coarser materials, and all are built with unusual
strength and care for a nest occupying a sheltered cavity.
In one instance their nest was built in a brace-hole within a mill,
where the birds could be closely watched as they carried in the
materials, and the parent was afterward taken by hand by Mr. Goss from
its nest. It was quite tame, and approached within two yards of him.
Since then Mr. Ridgway has obtained a nest at Mt. Carmel, Ill. It was
built in a hollow snag, about five feet from the ground, in the river
bottom. So far from being noisy and vociferous, as its name would seem
to imply, Mr. Ridgway describes it as one of the shyest and most
silent of all the Warblers.
The eggs of this Warbler have an average breadth of .55 of an inch and
a length varying from .65 to .70 of an inch. They are of a
rounded-oval form, one end being but slightly less rounded than the
other. Their ground-color is a yellowish or creamy white, more or less
profusely marked over their entire surface with lilac, purple, and a
dark purplish-brown.
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