Part 24

Winter range.--In winter the Tennessee warbler is found =north= to central Guatemala (Volcán de Santa María, Cobán, and Gualán). =East= to eastern Guatemala (Gualán); northeastern El Salvador (Mount Cacaguatique); eastern Nicaragua (Río Escondido); eastern Costa Rica (Puerto Limón); eastern Panamá (Barro Colorado and Permé); northern Colombia (Santa Marta region); and northern Venezuela (Caracas). =South= to northern Venezuela (Caracas and Mérida); and northwestern Colombia (Concordia). =West= to western Colombia (Concordia and Antioquia); Panamá (Paracaté); Costa Rica (El General and Liberia); El Salvador (Puerto de Triunfo); and Guatemala (Tecpán and Volcán de Santa María). It has also been found to the first of January (possibly delayed migration) at Knoxville (1936) and at Nashville (1935), Tenn.; and one wintered (1934-35) in Cameron County, Tex.

Migration.--Late dates of departure from the winter home are: Colombia--Miraflores, April 19. Costa Rica--San Isidro del General, April 30. El Salvador--San Salvador, April 25. Guatemala--Livingston, April 8. Chiapas--Tixtla Gutiérrez, May 8. Tamaulipas--Gómez Farías, April 27.

Early dates of spring arrival are: Cuba--Habana, April 8. Florida--Sandy Key, April 13. Georgia--Athens, April 13. District of Columbia--Washington, May 2. West Virginia--French Creek, April 20. Pennsylvania--McKeesport, April 27. New York--Corning, May 3. Massachusetts--Northampton, May 8. Maine--Waterville, May 11. New Brunswick--Petitcodiac, May 19. Quebec--Quebec, May 19. Louisiana--Avery Island, April 6. Arkansas--Winslow, April 8. Tennessee--Memphis, April 9. Kentucky--Bowling Green, April 19. Indiana--Bloomington, April 12. Ohio--Columbus, April 25. Michigan--Ann Arbor, April 21. Ontario--Ottawa, May 12. Missouri--Columbia, April 22. Iowa--Sigourney, April 25. Wisconsin--St. Croix Falls, April 25. Minnesota--Clarissa, April 30. Kansas--Winfield, April 19. Nebraska--Red Cloud, April 18. South Dakota--Vermillion, May 1. North Dakota--Fargo, May 1. Manitoba--Margaret, May 3. Colorado--Estes Park, May 14. Wyoming--Torrington, May 12. Montana--Great Falls, May 9. Alberta--Belvedere, May 1. British Columbia--Carpenter Mountain, Cariboo, May 15; Atlin, May 26.

Late dates of spring departure of transients are: Cuba--Habana, May 5. Florida--Fort Myers, May 15. Alabama--Melville, May 3. Georgia--Athens, May 7. North Carolina--Chapel Hill, May 3. Virginia--Falls Church, June 3. District of Columbia--Washington, June 3. Pennsylvania--Warren, May 30. New York--Rochester, June 6. Massachusetts--Beverly, June 3. Vermont--Wells River, June 5. Louisiana--Shreveport, May 15. Mississippi--Oxford, May 15. Arkansas--Delight, May 20. Tennessee--Nashville, May 21. Illinois--Lake Forest, June 3. Ohio--Toledo, June 5. Michigan--Houghton, June 7. Ontario--Toronto, June 7. Missouri--Columbia, May 31. Iowa--Sioux City, June 6. Wisconsin--Racine, June 4. Minnesota--St. Paul, June 1. Kansas--Lawrence, May 24. Nebraska--Omaha, May 28. South Dakota--Faulkton, June 5.

Late dates of fall departure are: British Columbia--Atlin, July 26; 16-mile Lake, Cariboo, August 28. Alberta--Glenevis, September 13. Montana--Fortine, September 11. Wyoming--Laramie, October 5. Saskatchewan--Wiseton, September 29. Manitoba--Aweme, October 3. North Dakota--Fargo, October 8. South Dakota--Arlington, October 8. Nebraska--Lincoln, October 14. Kansas--Lawrence, October 22. Oklahoma--Fort Sill, October 19. Minnesota--Hutchinson, October 11. Wisconsin--Madison, October 19. Iowa--National, October 17. Missouri--St. Louis, October 19. Michigan--Ann Arbor, October 30. Ontario--Port Dover, October 10. Ohio--Columbus, October 31. Illinois--Evanston, October 28. Tennessee--Nashville, October 23. Arkansas--Jonesboro, October 19. Louisiana--New Orleans, November 8. Mississippi--Gulfport, November 12. Quebec--Montreal, September 28. Vermont--Wells River, September 29. Massachusetts--Harvard, October 1. New York--Rhinebeck, October 14. Pennsylvania--Beaver, October 26. District of Columbia--Washington, October 22. North Carolina--Mount Mitchell, October 1. Georgia--Dalton, October 30, Alabama--Birmingham, October 25. Florida--Pensacola, November 4. Cuba--Habana, November 10.

Early dates of fall arrival are: Wyoming--Laramie, August 28. South Dakota--Lennox, August 30. Kansas--Topeka, August 29. Wisconsin--Delavan, August 19. Illinois--Glen Ellyn, August 17. Missouri--Monteer, August 20. Ohio--Toledo, August 19. Tennessee--Knoxville, September 15. Arkansas--Hot Springs, September 19. Louisiana--Monroe, September 14. Mississippi--Gulfport, September 5. Vermont--Woodstock, August 22. Massachusetts--Lexington, August 11. Pennsylvania--Jeffersonville, August 27. District of Columbia--Washington, August 31. Virginia--Salem, August 23. North Carolina--Blowing Rock, September 1. Georgia--Atlanta, September 9. Alabama--Leighton, September 17. Florida--Fort Myers, September 20. Cuba--Habana, October 13. Guatemala--Huehuetenango, September 11. Nicaragua--Río Escondido, October 24. Costa Rica--San José, September 17. Panamá--New Culebra, October 24. Colombia--Santa Marta Region, October 14.

Casual records.--In 1898 an adult male of this species was found dead at Narssag, Greenland. In Bermuda one was seen on March 2, 1914, and it remained about six weeks.

Egg dates.--Alberta: 6 records, June 1 to 16.

New Brunswick: 82 records, June 10 to July 10; 46 records, June 17 to 26, indicating the height of the season.

Quebec: 30 records, June 8 to 29; 21 records, June 17 to 27.

VERMIVORA CELATA CELATA (Say)

EASTERN ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER

HABITS

The type race of the orange-crowned warbler makes its summer home in northwestern Canada and Alaska, from northern Manitoba to the Kowak River, migrating in the fall southeastward through the United States to its winter range in the southern Atlantic States and Gulf States, from South Carolina and Florida to Louisiana. It was discovered and named by Say (1823) early in May at Engineer Cantonment, on the Missouri River, while on its northward migration.

The main migration route is through the Mississippi Valley, northwestward in the spring and southeastward in the fall. It is very rare in spring in the northern Atlantic States, though there are a few records for even Rhode Island and Massachusetts, but there are many fall records for this region, some of them remarkably late. It seems to be rare at either season in Ohio; Milton B. Trautman (1940) gives only 10 records for Buckeye Lake, 5 in spring and 5 in fall. "Eight were noted in lowlands, within 10 feet of the ground, in dense tangles of blackberry bushes, rosebushes, or grapevines. The remaining 2, both fall birds, were in rather well-drained, brushy, and weedy fields."

Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) says of its status in Alaska:

Throughout the wooded region of Northern Alaska, from the British boundary line west to the shores of Bering Sea, and from the Alaskan range of mountains north within the Arctic Circle as far as the tree-limit, this species is a rather common summer resident. It is known along the shores of Bering Sea and Kotzebue Sound mainly as an autumn migrant, as it straggles to the southward at the end of the breeding season. Wherever bushes occur along the northern coast of the Territory it is found at this season, and at Saint Michaels it was a common bird each summer from the last of July up to about the middle of August, after which it became rare and soon disappeared. I have never noted it on the seacoast during the spring migration.

The Prebles (1908) found it well distributed and probably breeding throughout the Athabaska-Mackenzie region. MacFarlane (1908) found it breeding as far north as the Anderson River. Kennicott, according to Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1874), found it nesting about Great Slave Lake. And Ernest Thompson Seton (1891) reported it as a common summer resident and breeding near Carberry, Manitoba.

Nesting.--Herbert Brandt (1943) found two nests of the eastern orange-crowned warbler along the Yukon River in Alaska, about 20 miles up from the sea, on July 1, 1924. His first nest contained five eggs, advanced in incubation. The nest was near the bank of the river, "in a bush 18 inches from the ground. The nest was loosely made of coarse grass held together with bark strips, silvery plant down, and a few feathers, one of which was a mottled feather of the Northern Varied Thrush. Twenty feet away was another nest of the same species, which held three young just hatched and two pipped eggs. * * * The measurements of the two nests cited are: height, 2.25 to 3.00; outside diameter, 3.5; inside diameter, 1.75; and depth of cup, 1.50 to 1.75 inches."

MacFarlane's (1908) nests, found on the Anderson River, "held from four to six eggs each, and they were made of hay or grasses lined with deer hair, feathers and finer grasses, and were usually placed in a shallow cavity on the ground in the shade of a clump of dwarf willow or Labrador tea."

Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (1874) write:

The nests of this species, seen by Mr. Kennicott, were uniformly on the ground, generally among clumps of low bushes, often in the side of a bank, and usually hidden by the dry leaves among which they were placed. He met with these nests in the middle of June in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake. They were large for the size of the bird, having an external diameter of four inches, and a height of two and a half, and appearing as if made of two or three distinct fabrics, one within the other, of nearly the same materials. The external portions of these nests were composed almost entirely of long, coarse strips of bark loosely interwoven with a few dry grasses and stems of plants. Within it is a more elaborately interwoven structure of finer dry grasses and mosses. These are softly and warmly lined with hair and fur of small animals.

E. A. Preble (1908) reported a nest found near Fort Resolution that "was placed among thick grass on a sloping bank, and was composed outwardly of grass and Equisetum stems, with a layer of finer grass and with an inner lining of hair."

Several nests have been reported from points farther south as being of this warbler, but these are probably all referable to the Rocky Mountain subspecies Vermivora celata orestera.

Eggs.--The orange-crowned warbler lays from 4 to 6 eggs to a set, probably most often 5. Dr. Brandt (1943) describes his Alaska eggs as follows: "The egg is short ovate in outline, the surface moderately glossy, and the shell delicate. The ground color is white and is prominent because the markings obscure but one-fifth of its area. These spots are very small, and are peppered over the broad end in an ill-defined wreath, while over the smaller two-thirds the egg is almost immaculate. In color the markings range from hydrangea red to ocher red; and underlying these are a few weak spots of deep dull lavender." Probably a series of the eggs would show all the variations shown in eggs of the other races. The measurements of 50 eggs, including those of the Rocky Mountain race, average 16.2 by 12.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =18.3= by 13.2, 17.0 by =14.2=, and =14.7= by =12.2= millimeters (Harris).

Plumages.--Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the juvenal plumage as "above, brownish olive-green. Wings and tail olive-brown, broadly edged with bright olive-green, the median and greater coverts tipped with buff. Below, greenish buff paler and yellower on abdomen and crissum. Lores and auriculars grayish buff."

The first winter plumage is acquired by a postjuvenal molt that involves the contour plumage and the wing coverts but not the rest of the wings or the tail. The sexes are alike in the juvenal plumage and much alike in all plumages, except that the female is always duller; in her first winter plumage the orange crown is lacking, and it is more or less suppressed and sometimes wholly lacking in subsequent plumages. Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the young male in first winter plumage as "above, bright olive-green, mostly concealed on the pileum and nape with pale mouse-gray edgings that blend into the green. The crown brownish orange concealed by greenish feather tips. Wing coverts broadly edged with dull olive-green, sometimes the greater coverts with faint whitish tips. Below, pale olive-yellow, grayish on the chin and sides of neck with very indistinct olive-gray streaking. A dusky anteorbital spot. Lores, orbital ring and indistinct superciliary stripe mouse-gray."

The first nuptial plumage is acquired by a partial prenuptial molt, "which involves chiefly the anterior part of the head and the chin. A richer, half concealed, orange crown patch is acquired; the lores and adjacent parts become grayer, the anteorbital spot darker. Wear makes birds greener above and slightly yellower below. Young and old become practically indistinguishable."