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
HABITS. The history of the Yellow-throated Warbler is very imperfectly
known. Its geographical distribution is irregular and apparently
eccentric. Found occasionally, rather than frequently, in the Southern
Atlantic and Gulf States, it occurs irregularly as far north as
Washington, New York City, Cleveland, O., Union County, Ill., and
Kansas. In the last place it is supposed also occasionally to breed.
West of this it has not been traced in any portion of the United
States. It was obtained in Tamaulipas, Mexico, by Lieutenant Couch,
and on the western coast Mr. Xantus found it at Colima. Mr. Sclater
has also procured it from other portions of Mexico, and M. Boucard
took it at Oaxaca. It has been obtained in Guatemala and Jamaica. In
the latter place it is found the entire season. In Cuba, in the
winter, it is quite common. It has also been found in St. Domingo, and
probably in the other West India Islands. Mr. Gosse states that these
birds do not appear in Jamaica before the 16th of August, and that
they leave by the first of April. On the other hand, Mr. March, in his
notes on the birds of that island, states that on the 8th of August he
obtained an old bird and two young, the latter of which he was
confident had been hatched on the island, and his son had met with the
birds all through the summer, and had procured a specimen on the 4th
of June.
Wilson states that the habits of this species partake more of those of
the Creeper than of the true Warbler. He met with it in Georgia in the
month of February. He speaks of its notes as loud, and as resembling
those of the Indigo-Bird. It remained some time creeping around the
branches of the same pine, in the manner of a _Parus_, uttering its
song every few minutes. When it flew to another tree, it would alight
on the trunk and run nimbly up and down in search of insects. They are
said to arrive in Georgia in February, after an absence of only three
months. Wilson states that they occur as far north as Pennsylvania,
but does not give his authority. The food of this species appears to
be larvæ and pupæ, rather than winged insects. Those dissected by Mr.
Gosse in Jamaica were found to have quite large stomachs, containing
caterpillars of various kinds.
Nuttall and Audubon are very contradictory in their statements
touching its nesting, and it is not probable that the accounts given
by either are founded upon any reliable authorities. The former
describes a nest remarkable both for structure and situation, said to
have been found in West Florida, suspended by a kind of rope from the
end of branches over a stream or a ravine. This nest, entirely
pensile, is impervious to rain, and with an entrance at the bottom. He
gives a very full and minute description of this nest, but gives no
authority and no data to establish its authenticity. We can therefore
only dismiss it as probably erroneous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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