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 found its nest placed deep among the branches of low
fir-trees, supported by horizontal twigs, constructed of moss and
lichens, and lined with fibrous roots and feathers. One found in
Labrador, in the beginning of July, contained five eggs, small and
rather more elongated than is common in this genus. They were white,
and sprinkled with reddish dots at the larger end. The female
fluttered among the branches, spreading her wings and tail in great
distress, and returning to her nest as soon as the intruders were a
few yards off. In August he saw a number of their young already
following their parents and moving southward. In his expedition to
Texas, Mr. Audubon again met this bird, in considerable numbers, early
in April. Their eggs, he states, measure three fourths of an inch in
length by nine sixteenths in breadth. In some the ground-color,
instead of pure white, is of a yellowish tinge.
The writer found this Warbler abundant near Halifax in the early
summer of 1850, frequenting the thick hemlock woods, confiding in its
habits, unsuspicious, and easily approached. The distress, as
described by Audubon, manifested in behalf of its own young, it is as
ready to exhibit when the nest of a feathered neighbor is disturbed. A
pair of Hudson’s Bay Titmice, protesting against the invasion of their
home, by their outcries brought a pair of these Warblers to their
sympathetic assistance; and the latter manifested, in a more gentle
way, quite as much distress and anxiety as the real parents. With
expanded tail and half-extended wings they fluttered overhead among
the branches, approaching us almost within reach, uttering the most
piteous outcries.
Sir John Richardson found this Warbler as common and as familiar as
the _D. æstiva_ on the Saskatchewan, and greatly resembling it in
habits, though gifted with a much more varied and agreeable song.
Mr. Kennicott met this Warbler on Great Slave Lake, June 12, 1860,
where he obtained a female, nest, and five eggs. The nest, loosely
built, was placed in a small spruce about two feet from the ground,
and in thick woods. The bird was rather bold, coming to her nest while
he stood by it. This nest was only one and a half inches deep, with a
diameter of three and a half inches; the cavity only one inch deep,
with a diameter of two and a half inches. It was made almost entirely
of fine stems of plants and slender grasses, and a few mosses. The
cavity was lined with finer stems, and fine black roots of herbaceous
plants.
The eggs of this Warbler are, in shape, a rounded oval, one end being
but slightly more pointed than the other. They measure .62 of an inch
in length and .49 in breadth. Their ground-color is a light ashen hue,
or a dull white, and this is more or less sprinkled with fine dots and
blotches of a light brown. For the most part these are grouped in a
ring about the larger end.
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