CHARACTERS OF HELMINTHOPHAGA RUFICAPILLA 225 



R. Ridgway), and California (Lake Tahoe, F. Gruber; Fort Tejon, J. Xantus) ; 

 " Columbia River" (auct. Audubon) ; not yet detected in intervening ground. 

 Mexico (numerous quotations). Not in West Indies or Central America? 

 Breeds from Massachusetts (and probably much farther south in the Alleghany 

 Mountains) northward. 



OH. SP. 3 flavido-oliraceci) uropygio magis flamcante, capHe 

 cinereo, pileo castaneo plus minusve cclato; infra ex toto flava. 

 9 sat similis, obscurior, capite aliquantulum olivascente. 



<J, in summer: Upper parts olive-green or yellowish-olive, clearer and 

 brighter on the rump and upper tail-coverts. Top and sides of the head and 

 neck ashy, with a more or less veiled chestnut patch on the crown, and a 

 white ring round the eye. No superciliary stripe. Lores pale. Wings and 

 tail fuscous, edged with the color of the back. Entire under parts yellow, 

 including under wing-coverts and edge of the wing, the sides somewhat 

 shaded with olive. Length, 4-4f ; extent, 7$ ; wing, 2f-2} ; tail, lf-2. 



9 , in summer: Similar to the male. Head less purely ashy. Crown-patch 

 smaller and more hidden, if not wanting. Yellow of under parts paler, 

 whitening on the belly. 



Autumnal specimens, of both sexes, though quite as yellow below as in 

 summer, have the ash of the head glossed over with olivaceous, and in birds 

 of the year the crown-patch may be entirely wanting. 



This species is distinguished from any other by the rich clear yellow of the 

 under parts at all seasons. In H. celata, which is next most yellow below, 

 the color has a greenish cast; the head is little, if any, different from the 

 rest of the upper parts, and the crown-patch is orange-brown. 



LONG supposed to be a bird of the Eastern Province, the 

 Nashville Warbler has gradually come to be known from 

 nearly all portions of North America, and the extensive distri- 

 bution I here attribute to the species is fully attested. Wilson 

 described it, probably for the first time, from the vicinity of 

 the city whose name it has since borne, and it was a rarity to 

 the early school ; Audubon speaks of a few specimens of his 

 from Kentucky and Louisiana ; Richardson records it from the 

 Fur Countries; and Swainson figures a specimen from Cumber- 

 land House. Nuttall speaks of it as a Southern bird, and sub- 

 sequently as occurring in Labrador. Its occurrence in Green- 

 land in two instances, in 1835 and 1840, is attested by Reinhardt 

 and A. Newton. In 1858, Baird gave its general distribution 

 as u Eastern North America to the Missouri". Audubon had 

 long before ascribed it to the Columbia River; and though 

 such ascription may not have been confirmed by later ob- 

 servation, it is probably correct. At any rate, we have now 

 many Western records. Xantus got the bird at Fort Tejon in 

 California, and Gruber soon found it at Lake Tahoe; Allen 

 15 B c 



