ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 1& 



CAPTURE OF A SECOND SPECIMEN OF HELMINTHOPHAGA 

 LAWKENCEI. 



BY HAROLD HERRICK. 



In 1874 I had the pleasure of publishing in the " Proceedings of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia " (p. 220, pi. xv) 

 a description of a new species of Uelminthophaga that I had just 

 been fortunate enough to unearth. It has remained unique up to 

 the present time, and although its friends have stoutly maintained 

 itn validity, the " hybrid " theorists have sorely tried their faith ; 

 therefore I am more than pleased to be able to set the matte? per- 

 manently at rest by announcing the capture of a second specimen 

 of Helmmthophaga lav/rencei. The specimen, oddly enough, was 

 secured by Mr. Lawrence himself, who sends it to me with a letter 

 of explanation, from which the following is an extract : — 



" I obtained the specimen of H. Lawrencei last fall from a dealer, who 

 called my attention to it as having a black throat, differing in that respect 

 from any species he had ever before met with. He said it was sent to him 

 last spring from Hoboken, N. J., with a miscellaneous lot of "Warblers. 

 I think the acquisition of a second specimen of this species should put at 

 rest all doubt of its validity." 



This specimen agrees precisely with the type, with this slight ex- 

 ception, that the type is an adult male, probably in the second or 

 third year, while the bird under consideration is unquestionably a 

 yearling male, and still has the immature yellowish tips to the 

 coal-black feathers of the throat-patch. A slightly similar effect is 

 seeu in the yearling males of Dendroeca vireits. I cannot better 

 describe it than by republishing the description of the type. 



probably one of eight specimens wliich escaped from the grounds of a gentleman 

 in Halifax in the fall of 1871 or 1872. 



From Mr. Lawrence's record (Am. Naturalist, Vol V, p. 10) we find this 

 Goose was captured on OctoLer 31, 1870, one or two years previous to the es- 

 caping of the Halifax birds. 



In view of this fact may not Mr. Lawrence's speximen still remain aa the 

 first authentic instance of the occurrence of the Barnacle Goose in the United 

 States ; at all events, until we hear of a confined specimen having escaped pre- 

 vious to that date ? — Rutuven Deane. 



