Dec. 15, 1882.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



191 



rhe Caerulean Warbler. 



I discharge both loads from my dotible- 

 barrel and bring down a pair of Warblers, 

 male and female, from the top of a tall ma- 

 ple. They are fine specimens of the T)en- 

 droeca cmrulea. Have they just dropped 

 down from the skies, and brought the pure 

 azure with them ■? Except the diisky wings 

 and tail, dark wing-crests and centers of 

 many of the feathers, and white under- 

 fts, the epithet Ceernlean, sky-blue, is 

 certainly applicable to the male, particu- 

 larly to his head, back, and collar just 

 above the breast. Excepting her lighter 

 markings, less dusky wings and tail, mis- 

 sing collar, and greenish tint over the head 

 and back, thp female is the same as tlie 

 male. This species has the streaks along 

 the sides, and the white marks in the outer 

 tail-feathers, in common with the rest of 

 the Dendriieoa. 



The Cserulean Warbler, apparently be- 

 longing to the Mississippi valley, and 

 scarcely a casual visitor on the Atlantic 



coast, hke certain other species of its local- 

 ity, finds its way around the Alleghany 

 Motintains for a short distance, and is very 

 common throughout the Summer in west- 

 ern New York. Indeed it is not uncom- 

 mon as a Summer resident in the central 

 parts of the State. I have had every op- 

 portunity of observing its habits ; and, as 

 no writer has given it a full record, I bear 

 it a special accountability. 



It is a bird of the woods, everywhere as- 

 sociated with the beautiful tall foi-ests of 

 the more northern counties of AVestern 

 New York, sometimes found in the open 

 woods of pasture-lands, and quite partial 

 to hardwood trees. In its flitting motions 

 in search of insect-prey, and in the jerking 

 curves of its more prolonged flight, as also 

 in structure, it is a genuine Wood War- 

 bler, and keeps, for the most part, to what 

 Thoreau calls " the upper story" of its sjd- 

 van domain. Its song, which is frequent, 

 and may be heard for some distance, may 

 be imitated by the syllables rheet, rheet, 

 rheet, rheet, ridi, idi, e-e-e-e-e-e-e ; begin- 

 ning with several soft, warbling notes, and 

 ending in a rather prolonged but quite mu- 

 sical squeak. The latter and more rapid 

 part of the strain, which is given in the up- 

 ward slide, approaches an insect quahty of 

 tone which is more or less peculiar to all 

 blue Warblers. This song is so common 

 here as to be a universal characteristic of 

 our tall forests. 



The bird is shy when started from the 

 nest, and has the sharp chipping alarm 

 note common to the family. The nest is 

 saddled on a horizontal Hmb of considera- 

 ble size, some distance from the tree, and 

 some forty or fifty feet from the ground. 

 Small, and very neatly and compactly built, 

 somewhat after the style of the Redstart, 

 it consists outwardly of fine dried grasses, 

 bits of wasp's nests and gray lichen, and 

 more especially of old and weathered 

 woody fibres, making it look quite gray 

 and waspy ; while the hning is fine dried 

 or shreds of the wild 



vine, thus giving the inside a rich brown 

 appearance in contrast with the gray exte- 

 rior. 



The eggs, 4 or 5, some .60x47, are 

 grayish or greenish white, pretty well spot- 

 ted, or specked, or even blotched, espe- 

 cially about the large end, with brown and 

 deep lilac. They do not possess that deli- 

 cate appearance common to the oological 

 gems of most of the Warblers. — J. H. 

 Langille, J^^ff^o^J^^ 15.1881. p.;f.-/?/. 



