ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 81 



being successively taken, and the remaining seven hatched. I have 

 not seen any evidence of a second brood being raised here after the 

 first, very few birds of any kind doing this, on account of the 

 scarcity of insect-food after the dry season is advanced, or in July. 



The first brood left the nest June 5; the second on the 16th, 

 which also consisted of six. 



ON GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN DENDRCECA PALMARUM. 



BY ROBERT RIDGWAT. 



A very remarkable variation in colors, accompanied by less 

 striking difference of size, from east to west, in this species, was 

 first brought to my notice by a casual examination of the specimens 

 contained in the National Museum, specimens from the Atlantic 

 States appearing at first sight to be very much brighter colored than 

 those from the Mississippi Valley, with somewhat different markings, 

 and also larger in size. Examples from the West Indies, where, in 

 part, the species passes the winter, are, so far as seen, entirely re- 

 ferable to the western form, as are also those from Western and 

 Southern Florida. The circumstance that West-Indian specimens 

 are identical with those from the Mississippi Valley is conspicuously 

 in contrast with the case of D. dominica, in which the relationship 

 is reversed, West-Indian specimens being identical with those from 

 the Atlantic States, while examples from the interior States agree 

 with those taken in Mexico and Honduras. The D. dominica, how- 

 ever, is resident in the southern portions of its range, while D. 

 palmartim is one of those species which pass mainly north of the 

 United States to breed.* Another fact in connection with the present 

 bird is the notable exception which it constitutes in the matter of 

 climatic variation to certain laws under this head, it being usual for 

 specimens from the Mississippi Valley to be, if any different, brighter 

 than those from corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic Coast. 

 The variation would therefore appear to be entirely with longitude, 

 so far as geographical considerations are concerned, and not to be 

 explained by any known climatic laws. 



This is written with the most positive assurance that such a wide 



* D. palmarum has not been recorded from any part of Mexico or Central 

 America. 



