140 CAIRNS' WARBLER 



Biographical References 



(i) CM. Jones, On the Breeding of the Black-throated Blue Warbler 

 (Dendroica cczrulescens) in Connecticut, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, I, 1876, 11; 

 Orn. and 061., VI, 1881, 49; IX, 1884, 30. (2) W. L. Kells, Nesting of the 

 Black-throated Blue Warbler (in Ontario), Orn. and Ool., XII, 1887, 76; XIV, 

 1869, 170; Ottawa Nat., XVI, 1902, 181. (3) Egbert Bagg, Nesting of the 

 Black-throated Blue Warbler ( in N. N. Y.), Orn. and 061., XII, 1887, 90. 

 (4) O. W. Knight, Contributions to the Life History of the Black-throated 

 Blue Warbler, Journ. Maine Orn. Club, VIII, 1906, 33. (5) John Burroughs, 

 Birds' Nesting, in Locusts and Wild Honey, Riverside Edition, 1895, 181. 



Cairns* Warbler 



DENDROICA C,€RULESCENS CAIRNSI Coues 

 SubspecMc Characters. — Similar to Dendroica c. ccerulescens but <$ with 

 the back always more or less spotted with black, sometimes the center of the 

 back being entirely black. Adult ? generally darker. While specimens of 

 true ccerulescens ccerulescens not infrequently show more or less black in the 

 back cairnsi is very rarely without this character. 



General Distribution. — Higher parts of the southern Alleghenies. 



Summer Range. — Higher parts of the Alleghenies northward to 

 Pennysylvania. (Blue Knob, Sugar Loaf, Mt. Rainsburg), south to 

 Georgia. 



Winter Range. — West Indies. 



The Bird and its Haunts. — This southern Alleghenian form of the 

 Black-throated Blue Warbler was named by Dr. Coues for the late John 

 S. Cairns to whom we are chiefly indebted for our knowledge of its 

 life history. Cairns 2 writes : "High up on the heavily timbered moun- 

 tain ranges of western North Carolina is the summer home of the 

 Black-throated Blue Warbler. [The bird had not been subspecifically 

 separated when Cairns wrote.] Here, in precipitous ravines, amid 

 tangled vines and moss-covered logs, where the sun's rays never pene- 

 trate the rank vegetation and the air is always cool, dwells the happy 

 little creature, filling the woods from dawn to twilight with its song. 

 * * * These birds are a local race; breeding from one generation 

 to another. They arrive from the south nearly ten days earlier than 

 those that pass through the valleys on their northward migration. It 

 is common to observe migrants through the valleys while breeders on 

 the higher mountains are already nest-building and rearing their 

 young." 



Nesting Site. — "Nesting begins early in May and continues until 

 the end of June. The nests are placed in various shrubs, such as 

 laurel, wild gooseberry, and chestnut, but the blue cohosh or papoose- 

 root (Caulophyllum thalictroides) seems to be the favorite. These thick 



