^°l'9'?8^^] TowNSEND, Status of Brewster's Warbler. 65 



ON THE STATUS OF BREWSTER'S WARBLER (HEL- 

 AIIN THOPHILA LEUCOBRONCHIALIS)} 



BY CHARLES W. TOWNSEND, M. D. 



Dr. Louis B. Bishop, in a paper read at the twenty-second 

 Congress of the American Ornithologists' Union, reached the 

 conclusion by means of an admirable series of specimens, that 

 while Lawrence's Warbler (Helminthophila lawrencei) is a hy- 

 brid between the Golden-winged Warbler {H. chrysoptera) and the 

 Blue-winged Warbler {H. pinus), Brewster's Warbler {H. leuco- 

 bronchialis), on the other hand "is merely a leucochroic phase of 

 H. pinus." ^ 



In observing the Brewster's Warbler in the Arnold Arboretum at 

 Boston, reported by Miss Granger in these pages,^ 1 was impressed 

 by two things. In the first place the bird had the Golden-wing 

 patches possessed by chrysoptera and not by pinus, and secondly 

 the bird sang exactly like chrysoptera and not like pinus. These 

 facts are certainly suggestive of a relationship between Brewster's 

 Warbler and the Golden-winged Warbler. 



Three specimens that have come under my observation are 

 worth describing in this connection: 



No. 1. A female warbler, No. 1258 in my collection, in worn 

 plumage taken by me at Ipswich on July 17, 1907. At first sight 

 the throat of this specimen appears to be white, but on closer 

 scrutiny the throat, breast, and sides of the abdomen are seen to 

 be slightly gray, and to contrast faintly with the white center of the 

 abdomen and sides of the neck. The cheek patches are dark gray. 

 On each wing are two narrow wing-bars, pale yellow in color. 

 In the median line of the breast are three new, partly grown yellow 

 feathers. This bird was feeding a young with a black throat, 

 Col. C. W. T. No. 1259, a normal young male Golden-winged 

 Warbler. 



No. 2. A specimen kindly lent me by Mr. Wm. Brewster from 



1 Read at a Meeting of the Nuttall Ornithological Club at Cambridge. December 

 2, 1907. 



2 Auk, Vol. XXII, 1905, p. 24. 



3 Auk, Vol. XXIV, 1907, p. 343. 



