Part 17

"In Costa Rica, it appears to arrive late and to depart early, not having been recorded before September 15, nor later than April 9. Early dates of fall arrival are: Costa Rica--San José (Cherrie), September 15 and October 2; La Hondura (Carriker), September 21; Basin of El General, October 18, 1936; Vara Blanca, October 5, 1937.

"Late dates of spring departure are: Costa Rica--Basin of El General, April 8, 1936, April 7, 1937, March 30, 1939, and April 9, 1943; Vara Blanca, April 9, 1938; Guápiles (Carriker), March 30."

DISTRIBUTION

Range.--Eastern United States to northwestern South America.

Breeding range.--The golden-winged warbler breeds =north= to central Minnesota (Detroit Lakes, Onamia, and Cambridge); central Wisconsin (St. Croix Falls, New London, and Shiocton); northern peninsula or Michigan (McMillan and Mackinac Island); southern Michigan (Kalamazoo, Locke, and Detroit); southern Ontario (London and Port Rowan, has occurred north to Collingwood and Bowmanville); central New York (Medina, Rochester, and Waterford); central Vermont (Rutland), and northern Massachusetts (Winchendon, Newton, and Lynn). It has been found in summer and may possibly breed in southern New Hampshire (Concord and Durham); and southwestern Maine (Emery Mills and Sandford). =East= to eastern Massachusetts (Lynn, Boston, and Rehoboth); southern Connecticut (New Haven and Bridgeport); northern New Jersey (Morristown); central Pennsylvania (near State College); and south through the mountains to western North Carolina (Weaverville, Waynesville, and Highlands); northwestern South Carolina (Caesars Head and Highlow Gap); and northern Georgia (Young Harris, Margret, and Oglethorpe Mountain). =South= to northern Georgia (Oglethorpe Mountain and Rising Faun); central Tennessee (Maryland); northern Ohio (Steuben, Port Clinton, and Wauseon); northern Indiana (Waterloo); and northern Illinois (Riverside). =West= to northern Illinois (Riverside); central and western Wisconsin (Baraboo Bluffs and Durand); and central Minnesota (Minneapolis, Elk River, and Detroit Lakes). It has been noted in summer, or in migration, west to St. Louis, Mo.; Lake Quivira and Lawrence, Kans.; and Omaha, Nebr.

Winter range.--In winter the golden-winged warbler is found =north= to central Guatemala (Cobán); and northern Honduras (Lancetilla); casually or in migration to the Yucatán Peninsula (Campeche and Mérida). =East= to Honduras (Lancetilla); eastern Nicaragua (Escondido River); Costa Rica (Guápiles and Guayabo); central Panamá (Lion Hill, Canal Zone); and central Colombia (Santa Marta region, Bogotá, and Villavicencio); rare or accidental in western Venezuela (Mérida). =South= to central Colombia (Villavicencio and El Eden). =West= to northwestern Colombia (El Eden, Medellín, and Antioquia); western Panamá (Chiriquí); Costa Rica (El General and Nicoya); and central Guatemala (Cobán).

Migration.--Late dates of spring departure are: Colombia--Fusagasugá, March 24. Panamá--Volcán de Chiriquí, April 16. Costa Rica--Vara Blanca, April 9. Florida--Pensacola, April 22. Alabama--Hollins, May 7. Georgia--Athens, May 13. South Carolina--Clemson College, May 3. North Carolina--Raleigh, May 7. District of Columbia--Washington, May 20. Mississippi--Gulfport, April 18. Missouri--St. Louis, May 25.

Early dates of spring arrival are: Florida--Pensacola, April 5. Alabama--Barachias, April 22. Georgia--Milledgeville, April 12. South Carolina--Clemson College, April 21. North Carolina--Asheville, April 23. Virginia--Lynchburg, April 19. West Virginia--Bluefield, April 19. District of Columbia--Washington, April 24. Pennsylvania--Beaver, April 24. New York--Rochester, April 29. Massachusetts--Belmont, April 28. Louisiana--Grand Isle, April 6. Mississippi--Gulfport, April 10. Tennessee--Memphis, April 12. Illinois--Olney, April 17. Indiana--Sedan, April 27. Michigan--Plymouth, April 30. Ohio--Youngstown, April 27. Ontario--London, April 30. Missouri--St. Louis, April 18. Iowa--Keokuk, April 27. Wisconsin--Sheboygan, April 30. Minnesota--Minneapolis, April 30. The golden-winged warbler ranges west to central Iowa in migration, and in the lower Mississippi Valley is much less abundant in spring than in fall.

Late dates of fall departure are: Minnesota--Minneapolis, September 30. Wisconsin--Madison, October 11. Ontario--Point Pelee, September 2. Ohio--Ellsworth Station, September 23. Michigan--Ann Arbor, October 6. Indiana--Lyons, September 27. Illinois--Chicago, October 7. Missouri--La Grange, September 30. Kentucky--Versailles, September 25. Tennessee--Athens, September 29. Louisiana--New Orleans, September 25. Mississippi--Gulfport, October 8. Massachusetts--Danvers, September 7. New York--Brooklyn, October 2. Pennsylvania--Jeffersonville, October 2. District of Columbia--Washington, September 14. West Virginia--French Creek, September 15. North Carolina--Piney Creek, October 3. South Carolina--Chester, September 22. Georgia--Atlanta, October 9. Alabama--Greensboro, October 4.

Early dates of fall arrival are: Mississippi--Bay St. Louis, July 23. District of Columbia--Washington, August 8. Virginia--Naruna, August 23. North Carolina--Highlands, August 15. South Carolina--Charleston, August 20. Georgia--Athens, August 14. Alabama--Greensboro, August 11. Florida--Pensacola, August 14. Costa Rica--San José, September 15. Colombia--Bonda, September 6.

Casual record.--One reported seen at Fort Thorn, N. Mex., in April 1854 by Dr. Joseph Henry. Since no specimen was taken this remains on the hypothetical list for the State.

Egg dates.--Massachusetts: 14 records, May 27 to June 24; 9 records, May 30 to June 7, indicating the height of the season.

Michigan: 33 records, May 13 to June 10; 18 records, May 17 to 30.

New York: 6 records, June 3 to 24.

New Jersey: 7 records, May 25 to June 5 (Harris).

VERMIVORA PINUS (Linnaeus)

BLUE-WINGED WARBLER

PLATES 12, 13

HABITS

Bagg and Eliot (1937) write: "According to Wilson, this species was discovered by William Bartram, who gave it the descriptive name Parus aureus alis caeruleis (Blue-winged Golden Tit), and sent a specimen to 'Mr. Edwards' by whom it was drawn and etched. Edwards suspected its identity with the Pine Creeper of Catesby: hence its present inappropriate name, pinus." As there are other warblers whose wings are more distinctly blue, those of this warbler being only bluish gray, the old familiar name, blue-winged yellow warbler, which stood for many years, seems more appropriate and more truly descriptive.

The blue-winged warbler is a bird of the so-called Carolinian Life Zone, with a rather restricted breeding range in the Central States and not quite reaching our northern borders. Its center of abundance in the breeding season seems to be in southern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, northern Kentucky, northern Missouri, and southern Iowa. Its range extends northeastward to New Jersey, southeastern New York, and southern Connecticut. It is fairly common in the latter State, and I know of one small colony in eastern Rhode Island within a mile or two of the Massachusetts line. North of these points in New England it occurs only as a straggler or casual breeder. In southern New England I have found it in rather open situations, in neglected pastures where there is low shrubbery, brier patches, and bushy thickets around the edges; or in similar growth along the borders of woods, usually on dry uplands; and sometimes in the rank growth of tall grasses and weeds near the borders of swamps or streams.

Frank L. Burns wrote to Dr. Chapman (1907) of its haunts in Pennsylvania: "This species is here an inhabitant of the rather open swampy thickets, upland clearings, neglected pastures and fence rows, where the grass and weeds have not been choked out by a too thick growth of briers, bushes, saplings and vines." Dr. Lawrence H. Wilkinshaw tells me that, in southern Michigan, "this species loves deep swampy woods, where the golden-winged warbler and cerulean warbler are found." This is quite different from the haunts in which we find it in the east, though Dr. Chapman (1907) says: "It is not, as a rule, a deep woods warbler, though I have found it nesting in heavy forest, but prefers rather, bordering second growths, with weedy openings, from which it may follow lines or patches of trees to haunts some distance from the woods."

Spring.--From its winter home in Central America the blue-winged warbler seems to migrate from Yucatán straight across the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf States and along the eastern coast of Texas to Louisiana. It is apparently very rare anywhere in Florida or the Keys, and along the Atlantic coast, where it is comparatively rare, it is found at low elevations. It migrates northward mainly west of the Alleghenies, seeming to avoid the mountains; the main body of the species seems to travel through the Mississippi Valley to the centers of abundance in the central States. Perhaps the birds that settle in southern New York and New England travel up the Ohio River, drifting through Pennsylvania and New Jersey to their destination. According to Milton B. Trautman (1940) this warbler seems to be a rare or uncommon spring migrant in central Ohio, and "in some migrations only 2 individuals were noted" at Buckeye Lake; this adds support to the theory that the birds follow the river along the southern border of the State.

Nesting.--Although Wilson (1831) gave a very good description of the nest of the blue-winged yellow warbler, very little was known of its nesting in southern New England prior to about 1880, when nests were found in southern Connecticut, where it is now known to be a fairly common breeder. I found two nests near West Haven, Conn., on June 8, 1910; both were close to the ground but not quite on it; one was in a clump of blackberry vines, weeds, and grasses, in a swampy corner of a scrubby lot; the other was in a bunch of grass and rank weeds on some sprout land among some mixed bushes. Again, on June 1, 1934, I photographed (pl. 12) a nest near Hadlyme, Conn., on the edge of an open, neglected field and close to the border of some young woods. It was built among and attached to the upright stems of a clump of tall goldenrod. These were all typical of the nests described below.

Massachusetts nests are very rare; Forbush (1929) gives but two nesting records for this State, and only one for Rhode Island, though I am confident that its breeds regularly in the latter State. Horace W. Wright (1909b) gives a very full account of a nest found near Sudbury, Mass., in some mixed woods, placed between the exposed roots of a decayed stump and partially concealed by a growth of ferns.

T. E. McMullen has sent me the data for several Pennsylvania nests, three in old fields, one under a cherry sprout, one under a small bush, and one 6 inches up in a tussock of goldenrod; another was under a birch sprout along the edge of an old woods road.

The nest of the blue-winged warbler is unique and quite distinctive, often shaped like an inverted cone, usually very narrow and very deep and supported by a firm cup of strong, dead leaves. I cannot improve on the excellent description given to Dr. Chapman (1907) by Frank L. Burns as follows:

Outwardly composed of the broad blades of a coarse grass, the dead leaves of the maple, beech, chestnut, cherry and oak trees; the leaf points curving upward and inward forming a deep cuplike nest in which the bird's head and tail seem almost to meet over her back. Occasionally grass stems, coarse strips or wild grapevine bark, shreds of corn fodder, and fragments of beech and wild cherry bark appear in the make-up. Lined most frequently with wild grapevine bark laid across, instead of bent around in a circle, shredded finest on top, to which is added an occasional long black horse-hair or split grass stem, with now and then a final lining of split grass stems in place of fine bark. The shape varies in accordance to situation, outwardly a short cornucopia, a round basket, and once a wall-pocket affair, would best describe the shapes I have noticed.