26 G. H. Merriam — Birch of Connecticut. 



has since been denied by both Coues* and Baird,f wlio positively, 

 assert that the female has no })lack on the head. Concerning it, Mr. 

 Sage favors me with the following note : " When collecting at Say- 

 brook, Conn., with Mr. J. N. Clark, May 30th, ISVV, he shot a female 

 M. mitratus in a plumage not mentioned in our Ornithological works, 

 and thinking a description would be interesting, I send the following: 

 Bill black. Feet flesh-color. Head and fore part of l)reast black (but 

 not so pure as in the adult male), with slight indications of black on 

 the throat. A broad patch on the forehead, extending down on the 

 cheeks, with the under parts briglit yellow. Ear-coverts tinged with 

 olive. Upper parts olive-green. Wings iinmarked. Greater part of 

 inner webs of outer three tail feathers white. The ova oi' this speci- 

 men were large. We took the nest with four eggs." 



I have lately seen, in the cabinet of Mr. Sage, the bird from which 

 the above description was taken, and have now before me another 

 female (killed by Dr. ¥. W. ?Iall, near New Haven, June 2, 18V4) 

 which agrees well with the description of Mr. Sage's specimen, but 

 has the crown of the head, or " hood," deep black — as rich as in the 

 male. The lores also, in this specimen, are black, and the auriculars 

 lack the olive tinge, being bright yellow. Since the birds from 

 which Prof Baird and Mr. Ridgway, and Dr. Coues, took their 

 descriptions were dried skins, and not " in the flesh," it is not so 

 surprising that the mature females were mistaken for young males. 

 From the limited amount of material I have been able to examine, 

 and from the notes given me by Mr. Sage and Mr. Bicknell, I am 

 inclined to believe that the female bird, like the male, is several 

 years — at least three — in attaining its full plumage ; and that the two 

 sexes, when fully adult, can only be distinguished by the fact that, 

 in the female, the throat, though strongly tinged with black, is never 

 pure hlach as in the male. 



56. Myiodioctes pusillus (Wilson) Bonaparte. Green Black-capped 



Fly-catching Warbler. 



A tolerably common spring migrant, arriving a1)Out the middle of 

 May. Have not taken it later than the 25th. This species is by no 

 means so common here as it seems to have been formerly. 



X Coues' Key to N. Am. Birds, p. 109. 1872. 



§ Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, History N. Am. Birds, vol. i, p. P.M. 1874. 



