130 BIKDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Helminthophila peregrina (Wils.) 



TENNESSEE WARBLER. 



Sylvia peregrina. WILS. Am. Orn. iii, 1811, 83, pi. 25, flg. 2. NUTT. Man. i.1832, 412. Aur>. 

 Orn. Biog. ii, 1834, 307, pi. 154. 



Syluicola(Vermivora) peregrina Sw. RICH. Faun. Bor. Am. ii, 1831, 221, pi. 42. 



Vermivora peregrina NUTT. Man. 2d ed. i, 1810, 469. 



Helinaia peregrina AUD. Synop. 1839, 68; B. Am. ii, 1841, 96, pi. 110. 



He'lminthop hag a peregrina CAB. BAIED, B. N. Am. 1858, 258; Cat. N. Am. A. 1859, No. 185; 

 Review, 1865, 178. COUES, Key, 1872, 95; Check List, 1873, No. 69; 2d ed. 1882, No. 109: 

 B. N. W. 1874, 53; B. Col. Val. 1878, 2JO.-B. B. & 11. Hist. N. Am. B. i. 1874, 205. pi. 

 11, figs. 10, 11. RIDGW. Nom. N. Am. B. 1831, No. 87. 



Helminthopldla peregrina RIDGW. Bull. Nutt. Orn. Cl. vii, 18S2. 54. 



HAB. Eastern North America, west to eastern base of Rocky Mountains (El Paso Co., 

 Colorado, Sept. 1, 1873; C. E. Aiken); breeding from northern border ot United States to 

 the Arctic regions; winters in Cuba and Middle America and south to Colombia. 



"Sp. CHAR. Top and sides of the head and neck ash-gray; rest of upper parts olive- 

 green, brightest on the rump. Beneath dull white, faintly tinged in places, especially on 

 the sides, with yellowish-olive. Eyelids and a stripe over the eye whitish; a dusky line 

 from the eye to the bill. Outer tail-feather with a white spot along the inner edge near 

 the tip. Female with the ash of the head less conspicuous; the under parts more tinged 

 with olive-yellow. Length, 4.50; wing, 2.75: tail, 1.85. 



"Autumnal specimens and young birds are sometimes so strongly tinged with green- 

 ish yellow as to be scarcely distinguishable from./?, celata. The wing is, however, 

 always longer, and the obscure whithish patch on the inner edge of the exterior tail- 

 feather, near its tip, is almost always appreciable. In celata this edge is very narrowly 

 and uniformly margined with whitish. 



"A young bird of the year, from Fort Simpson (27.223), has two distinct greenish white 

 bands on the wings, and the forehead and cheeks greenish yellow. A corresponding age 

 of II. celata has the wing-bands more reddish brown, the wings shorter, and no white 

 patch on the outer tail-feather." (Hist. N. Am. B.) 



Autumnal specimens usually have the primaries narrowly but distinctly tipped with 

 white, and occasionally show traces of white tips to the greater wing-coverts. 



Like the Orange-crowned Warbler, the Tennessee Warbler is a 

 bird of extreme northern distribution during the breeding season ; 

 but, while the former is chiefly western during its migrations the 

 latter is exclusively eastern, the base of the Rocky Mountains being 

 the western limit of its range. It is very abundant in Illinois dur- 

 ing its migrations, both in spring and fall ; indeed, it seems to be 

 far more numerous west of the Alleghanies than eastward of that 

 range, in which respect it is like the Philadelphia Vireo and several 

 other migratory birds, which can scarcely be considered as more 

 than stragglers in the Atlantic States. Like the Orange-crowned 



