30 Chapman, The Eastern Forms of Geothlypis trichas. [j'an 



(Am. Mus. No. 84610), an adult male collected July 21, 1880, at 

 Lomita Ranch, Hidalgo Co., Texas. It has a few black feathers 

 in the pectoral region and many in the back, the specimen being in 

 ■moult from the immature to the mature plumage. The female 

 type (Am. Mus. No. 84611) is an adult female in fresh spring 

 plumage, taken at Lomita, March 19, 1880. 



THE EASTERN FORMS OF GEOTHLYPIS TRICHAS. 



BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. 



Seventeen years ago, under the above-given title, 1 I described 

 a Florida form of Geothlypis trichas as Geothlypis trichas ignota, 

 which was later shown by W. Palmer 2 to extend through the coast 

 region westward to Texas (Jackson County, Jan. 6) and northward 

 to the Dismal Swamp in Virginia. 



At the same time Mr. Palmer restricted the name trichas of 

 Linnseus to the Yellow-throat breeding from southern New England 

 southward through the Piedmont region into Georgia, while to the 

 Yellow-throat breeding from southern New England northward 

 he applied the name brachidactyla of Swainson. 



This ruling was accepted as correct by the A. O. U. Committee 

 on Classification and Nomenclature, and we have had, therefore, 

 east of the Alleghanies, three forms of Yellow-throat, a southern, 

 a middle, and a northern. Many ornithologists, however, regarded 

 this view of the nomenclatural status of these birds as far from 

 satisfactory. That there was a Southern Yellow-throat and a 

 Northern Yellow-throat was beyond doubt, but that an intervening 

 form was also deserving of recognition by name has been frequentlv 

 questioned. This opinion is voiced by Mr. Brewster 3 who says: 

 "The characters by which the two forms are said to be separable 

 seem to me trivial and I fear they are also inconstant ... . " 



i Auk, VII, 1890, 11. 



2 Ibid., XVII, 1900, 223. 



3 Birds of the Cambridge Region, 1906, p. 354. 



