OF INDIANA. 1039 



263. ( ) Compsothlypis americana usneae. BREWSTER. 



Northern Parula Warbler. 



Averaging slightly larger, but with a shorter bill.* 



Adult Male. With less yellow on the under parts and more black 

 or blackish on the lores and malar region; the dark collar across the 

 jugulum, black or blackish, broad and conspicuous; the chest, mottled 

 or spotted with rich brownish-chestnut. 



BREEDING RANGE. New England, New York and westward along 

 the northern tier of States; northward into the Maritime Provinces 

 and Canada (Brewster), Colorado (?). Winter range, possibly same as 

 last. 



Nest, on both live and dead trees, from near ground to fifty feet 

 high; in bushes in swamps; of bunches of Usnea moss, lined with 

 same, a little wool or grass. Eggs, 4, occasionally 3 and 5, rarely 6 

 or 7; white, or creamy- white, more or. less distinctly speckled and 

 spotted with reddish-brown and lilac; markings generally thickest 

 near large end, around which they often form a wreath; .64 by .47. 



This bird has been separated from the typical southern form by 

 Mr. William Brewster (see The Auk, January, 1896, pp. 44-46). It 

 includes those birds which breed to the northward of the Ohio Valley 

 excepting the lower part and perhaps north of the District of 

 Columbia. 



We do not know the exact limits of the breeding range, nor can the 

 winter range of each of the two races be determined. As the south- 

 ern bird nests among the festoons of "Spanish moss" (Tillandsia), 

 the present birds prefer to nest in bunches of "Old Man" moss 

 (Usnea). Wherever there is damp woods, where this moss grows 

 commonly, these birds may be looked for through the summer. Mr. 

 Robert Ridgway writes me of this form in Indiana, that birds breed- 

 ing in the extreme northern part of the State are probably C. a. usnece. 

 He says both P. americana (breeding birds) and C. a. usnece (mi- 

 grants) are in the United States National Museum, from Vincennes 

 and Wheatland. A small collection of Parula Warblers was sent to 

 Mr. Brewster for examination. He writes: "Most of your skins appear 

 to be intermediate between americana and usnece. Several of them 

 have bills nearly as in the former, but the coloring is about half-way 

 between the two. Two or three are apparently usnece, and were, no 

 doubt, migrants." He tells me those breeding in Michigan in the 



*NOTE. Except the breeding time, nothing is yet determined as to the range of either 

 form. Likewise, in t^e absence of measurements, I can not give them. Therefore, the 

 range, except in breeding season, and measurements, given above, cover both forms. 



