92 Zoology of Colorado 



COMPSOTHLYPIDAE (MNIOTILTIDAE) 



This is also a purely American family, including our numerous 

 warblers, which are not closely related to the warblers of the Old 

 World. We have eleven genera in Colorado, but Dendroica in- 

 cludes twelve species, while all the rest together only include 

 sixteen. Sclater gives an elaborate plumage key, but remarks 

 that it will not always hold good for the females and young. The 

 tail is marked with white in Dendroica (with yellow in D. aestiva), 

 Mniotilta, Compsothlypis, Protonotaria, and in the Golden-winged 

 Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera), the last known from one speci- 

 men taken at Yuma. There are no marks on the tail in the other 

 species of Vermivora, or in Oporornis, Geothlypis, Icteria, Seiurus 

 and Wilsonia. The gape has conspicuous bristles only in Wil- 

 sonia (under parts mainly clear yellow) and Setophaga (under 

 parts white and salmon or yellow). The bill is deep and strongly 

 curved in Icteria virens longicaudata, the Long-tailed Chat. This 

 handsome bird (the sexes practically alike) is much larger than 

 the warblers, gray above, with throat and breast most brilliant 

 gamboge yellow. It is a common summer resident. The Ameri- 

 can Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla), with its black and salmon 

 colors in the male, is extraordinary for its resemblance to the 

 European Redstart, which actually belongs to a different family. 

 The female is very different, with crown and sides of head gray, 

 back olive green, and the salmon of the wings, tail and breast of 

 the male replaced by yellow, as is fully described by Sclater. Pro- 

 fessor Alfred Newton, contemplating the American and European 

 Redstarts, was led to reflect: "The wonderful likeness, coupled 

 of course with many sharp distinctions, between the birds of 

 these two genera of perfectly distinct origin, is a matter that 

 must compel every evolutionist to admit that we are as yet very 

 far from penetrating the action of Creative Power, and that 

 especially we are wholly ignorant of the causes which in some 

 instances produce analogy."* 



No less than fourteen birds of this family are represented in 

 our region only by rare stragglers, so they are omitted here, except 

 the Vermivora already mentioned. Full particulars will be found 

 in Sclater's work. We might perhaps add to these the very rare 



*A Dictionary of Birds (a wonderful compendium of Ornithology) p. 777. 



