494 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Island.^ It is represented in the M. C. Z. by ten adult specimens 

 in fresh spring plumage all collected by W. W. Brown Jr. 



Dendroica vitellina nelsoni, subsp. nov. 



Typc.— M. C. Z. 58,207. Adult 9- Swan Island (Caribbean 

 Sea), 12 March, 1912. George Nelson. 



Characters. — Sides of breast almost unstreaked or with but faint 

 dusky olive stripes; darker markings on sides of face much paler 

 and more indistinct and not sharply contrasted with the yellow ear- 

 coverts and superciliary; wing-bands duller, the upper usually olive- 

 yellow, the lower ecru-olive; white areas of two outer tail-feathers 

 less well defined and not sharply contrasted with the dusky portions 

 of the feathers, which are duller; colors of upper and under parts 

 similar to those of D. v. viiellina. 



Measurements.— Adult d^, wing, 57.9 (56-60); tail, 50.8 (49-52); 

 tarsus, 18.7, (18-19.5); exposed culmen, 10.7 (10-11). Adult 9, 

 wing, 55.3 (53-58); tail, 48.9 (46.5-51); tarsus, 18.2 (17.5-19); 

 exposed culmen, 10.6 (10-11). 



Reviarks. — The series of this form consists of thirty-seven skins, 

 which includes adults in spring, in autumn, and in worn mid-summer 

 plumage and young of various ages. One skin was made by C. H. 

 Townsend on his visit to the island in 1887, the others were all col- 

 lected by George Nelson of the M. C. Z. on several visits made at 

 different times of year. Mr. Nelson also took the nest and eggs. 

 I take great pleasure in naming the form after him. 



Swan Island lies approximately a little over two hundred miles 

 southwest of Grand Cayman, and Little Cayman and Cayman Brae 

 are about seventy miles east and north of Grand Cayman. In its 

 characters, however, D. v. nelsoni of Swan Island is more or less 

 intermediate, and the two extreme forms are those of Grand Cayman 

 and of the two smaller islands of the Cayman group. 



Dendroica vitellina crawfordi Nicoll. 



Dendroica crawfordi Nicoll, Bull. B. O. C, 1904, 14, p. 95. Ibis, 

 1904, ser. 8, 4, p. 586, pi. 11, fig. 1. Little Cayman Island. 



' Ridgway, Birds of North and Middle America, 1902, pt. 2, p. 61], in Uie synonoroy of 

 D. viiellina gives his second reference to the species as — (Cory, Auk) "IV, 1887, 181 (St. 

 Andrews I. Caribbean Sea)." Turning to the page of the Auk quoted I find Cory's list of the 

 birds of St. Andrews Island, but no mention of Dendroica vitellina! 



