2J.2 Oberholser, Forms of Vermivora celata. I rH 



THE FORMS OF VERMIVORA CELATA (SAY). 



BY HARRY C. OBERHOLSER. 



Three forms of the North American warbler, Vermivora 1 

 (= HelminthophUd) celata (Say), are at present commonly recog- 

 nized. An examination of the pertinent material in the Biological 

 Survey of the Department of Agriculture and in the United States 

 National Museum, some 280 specimens in all, shows conclusively 

 that an additional race should be defined, and that the ranges, as 

 well as, to slight extent, also the characters of the already known 

 forms readjusted. This is attempted in the succeeding paragraphs. 



Vermivora celata celata {Say). 



Sylvia celatus Say, Long's Exped. Rocky Mts., I, 1823, p. 169. 



Helminthophaga celata var. obscura Ridgway, in Baird, Brewer and 

 Ridgway, Hist. North Am. Birds, Land Birds, I, 1S74, p. 192, pi. xi, fig. 6 

 (Georgia and Florida). 



Chars, subsp. — Of medium size ; palest and most grayish of all the 

 forms of the species. 



Type locality. — Engineer Cantonment, Council Bluffs, Iowa. 



Geographical distribution. — Alaska, excepting the coast region from 

 Cook Inlet southward ; Canadian territories of Yukon, Mackenzie, Atha- 

 basca, and central Keewatin ; in migration south to Washington, Ari- 

 zona, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, New England, and eastern Mexico 

 to the state of Hidalgo. 



Specimens from the neighborhood of the western base of the 

 Alaska Peninsula are quite typical celata, though of rather large 

 size ; the only example from Kadiak, an adult male in perfect 

 plumage, taken June 7, 1893, is of maximum celata dimensions, 

 and is much too grayish for lutescens or even the Rocky Mountain 

 race. This form of the species is, like all the others, noticeably 

 more grayish in fall and winter than in summer. The bird de- 

 scribed as Helminthophaga celata var. obscura by Mr. Ridgway 2 



1 For the use of this generic name, cf. Oberholser, Smithson. Quart., Ill, 

 1905, p. 66. 



2 Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Hist. North Am. Birds, Land Birds, I, 1S74 

 p. 192, pi. xi, fig. 6. 



