402 General Notes. \^ 



makinw a patch of buff-colored stain that would be mistaken for the pre- 

 scribed yellow wash by any but a very close observer. This, however, 

 might perhaps be removed with turpentine. 



When it has been proved that Brewster's Warbler does, as was to be 

 expected, achieve a perfectly pure coloration, it is obvious that the descrip- 

 tion of true Brewster's Warbler should be taken from a bird thus purely 

 colored. For, granted that it is sometimes entirely white-breasted, it 

 would be exactly as rational to take as a type a strongly yellow-tinged 

 specimen, or one from any point in the gradation toward pinus, as one 

 with a faint, concealed yellow wash. 



The extreme form is of course the best representative of this obscure 

 race ; and the form best representing the race is, except in the narrow 

 technical significance of the word, most typical. 



There is another point which does not seem to have received due con- 

 sideration in discussion about Brewster's Warbler. It is the fact that, 

 though the bird is most generally believed to be a hybrid betvveen finus 

 and chrysoptera, and the gradation between the former and pure leuco- 

 bronchialis is cited as corroborative of this theory, there are absolutely no 

 intergrades between pure lencobronc/iiali's and chrysoptera. Until such 

 specimens are found, the evidence in favor of this view is at best extremely 

 incomplete. On the other hand, there are several points that tell against 

 it, and one of the most important of these is the existence of Lawrence's 

 Warbler. This bird is very evidently a hybrid between the two common 

 species already mentioned, and is itself extremely rare, as such a hybrid 

 would naturally be. 



Typical specimens are nearer in general aspect 1o pinus than to chrysop- 

 tera, though they have the black head-markings of the latter; and the 

 remarkable parti-colored bird shown at a recent meeting of the A. O. U. 

 is intermediate between la-jureticei and chrysoptera ; while none of these 

 shows any affinity with any plumage of leiicob rojichialis, which has always 

 a light throat and a narrow black eye-line. 



It seems scarcely possible that two species of Warbler should produce 

 together two perfectly distinct types of hybrid. If it depended on which 

 species furnished the male parent, one type of offspring could only be 

 much commoner than the other if one combination of parents were much 

 commoner or more prolific, which in this case seems very unlikely. 



All this leads one to believe that Brewster's Warbler is either a distinct 

 species whose normal habitat has yet to be discovered, but whose hybrids 

 with the Blue-winged Yellow have frequently been found, or that it is an 

 independent color-phase of the latter species. 



This last explanation seems to me hy far the most plausible of all. — 

 Gerald H. Thayer, Monadtiock, N. H. 



Rare Birds for Eastern Long Island, Nev^r York. — Two Summer 

 Tanagers (Piranga erythromelas) were seen, and one taken on the 9th 

 of April, 1902. The specimen taken was somewhat emaciated, but the 



