PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 353 



somewhat larger tliau given by Mr. Sclater. Compared witli T. rufes- 

 ccns, tlie bill is longer; the color above is duller, being brownish; the 

 under surface is very much paler ; in riifescens the bands on the tail are 

 more numerous and better defined. 



Fam. SYLYICOLID^E. 



8. DendrcBca ruligula, Bainl. 



'•Yellow Bird. 'L'Oiseau Jaune.' 

 "Length, (?, 5 in.; alar extent, 7^-; wing, 2|. 



"■Is generally distributed throughout the island. In the old fields 

 once cultivated for cane, and now suffered to return to pasturage, where 

 generally the guavas are abundant, this bird will be found, searching 

 about the stems and leaves of the shrub for insects. These same guava 

 bushes are also the chosen hiding places of the venomous spiders — the 

 Tarantula, and many a hairy monster came to grief, while myself and 

 little black assistants were beating the bushes for birds. It is a most 

 thorough exterminator of the small insects of the island." 



This species is surely the one referred to Sylria rnficapiUa, Lath. 

 {MotaciUa ruJicapiUa, Gm.), by Yieillot (Nouv. Diet, xi, 1817, 228), sup- 

 posing it to be the same. They differ very materially, the entire head 

 and throat being rufous in the Martinique bird, and so described by 

 Vieillot ; whereas in D. rvJlcapiUa, the crown only is stated to be rufous. 

 Martinique is the locality given, also, for J>. ruJicapiUa, which prob- 

 ably was the cause of Yieillot being misled. 



As the name of rtificapilla belongs to another species. Prof. Baird 

 (Rev. of Amer. Birds, p. 204) applied to Yieillot's species that of riiji- 

 gula. He then speaks of a specimen in the Museum of the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Sciences, labelled ";S'. nificapiUa,''^ without indication of 

 locahty. He says : '' It agrees very well, especially in the greater exten- 

 sion of the rufous of the throat, with the Sylvia ruJicapiUa of Yieillot, 

 from ]Martinique ; and it may be reallj' a West Indian species." 



Since then, in " Xorth American Birds," p. 217, under I). rnfujuJay 

 there being under examination a bird from Panama, which it was 

 thought might be the species described byA^ieillot, he has in a footnote 

 the followiug remark : " Should Yieillot's species be really from Mar- 

 tinique, in all probability tlie present biid will be found to be different, 

 and therefore not entitled to the name here given." 



It now being established that Martiriique is the true patria of this 

 form. Prof. Baird's name of I), riifigula nuist be used for it. The 

 male agrees with the description given by him of Yieillot's si>ecies, viz, 

 in having "the rufous of entire head extending down the neck to jugu- 

 him." The measurements of the wing and tail aie just the same as 

 given by Prof. Baird, i. e., wing, 2.25 ; tail, 2. 



There is but one specimen of the female in ^h\ 01>ers collection, in 

 Proc. l!^at. Mus. 78 23 Mar. I O, I S 79o 



