UKIOTILTID^ — THE AMERICAN WARBLEBS. 169 



Geothlypis philadelpMa (Wils.) 



MOURNING WAEBLEa 



Popular synonym. Black-throated Ground Warbler. 



Sylvia Philadelphia Wils. Am. Oru. ii, 1810, 101, pi. H,flg. 6.— Nutt. Man. 1,1832,404.— AuD. 

 Orn. Biog. v.1839,78. 

 Trichas Philadelphia Ji.T3.-D.—A.VD. Synop. 1839,6.5; B. Am.ii,1841,T(5,pl. 101.— Nutt. Man. 



2d ed. 1.1840,459. 

 (Jenthlypis Philadelphia Baird.B. N. Am. 1858,243; ed. 1860, pi. -9,flg. 3; Cat. N. Am. B. 

 1859, No. 172; Keview, 1865, 226.— CouES, Key, 1872, 107; Cheek List, 1873, No. 98; 2d 

 ed. 1882, No. 142: B. N. W. 1874, 75; B. Col. Val. 1878, 313.— B. B. & R. Hist. N. Am. B. 

 1,1874, 301, pi. 15,ng. 6.— ElDGW. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 120. 

 Hab. Eastern North America, breeding from northern United States (New England 

 to Minnesota and eastern Dakota), northward; more rare in Atlantic States. Winters in 

 southeastern Mexico and Costa Rica, and thence south to Colombia (no Guatemalan or 

 West Indian record). Casual in Greenland. 



"Sp. Chab. Wings but little longer than the tail, reaching but little beyond its base. 

 Adult male. Head and neck all round, with throat and forepart of breast, ash-gray, paler 

 beneath. The feathers of the chin, throat, and fore breast in reality black, but with nar- 

 row ashy margins more or less concealing the black, except on the breast. Lores and 

 region round the eye dusky, without any trace of a pale ring. Upper parts and sides of 

 the body clear olive-grci/ii ; the under parts bright yellow. Tail-feathers uniform olive ; 

 first primary, with the outer half of the outer web nearly white. Female with the gray of 

 the crown glossed with olive ; the chin and throat paler centrally, and tinged with fulvous ; 

 a dull whitish ring round the eye. Length, 5.50; wing,2.45; tail, 2.25. 



"Specimens vary in the amount of black on the jugulum, and 

 the purity of the ash of the throat. The species is often confounded 

 with Oporornis ar/ilis, to which the resemblance is quite close. They 

 may, however, be distinguished by the much longer and more pointed 

 wings, and more even tail, shorter legs, etc., of agilis. The white 

 ring round the eye in the female Philadelphia increases the difficulty 

 of separation. 



"The adult male in autumn is scarcely different from the spring 

 bird, there being merely a faint olive-tinge to the ash on top of the 

 head, and the black jugular patch more restricted, being more con- 

 cealed by the ashy borders to the feathers ; the yellow beneath 

 somewhat deeper." {Hist. N. Am. B.) 



In the Bulletin of the Nvttall Ornithological Club (Cambridge, 

 Mass., April, 1878, p. 61) Mr. Brewster gives the following descrip- 

 tion of the immature stages of this species, taken from examples 

 in his unrivaled collection of eastern birds : 



'First plumage. Female. Remiges,rectrices,etc.,as in adult. Kest of upper parts, 

 with wing-coverts and sides of head, dull reddish brown, becoming almost cinnamon on 

 the back, and tinged strongly with ashy on the pileum. Entire under parts light reddish 

 brown, most pronounced on the abdominal and anal regions, becoming lighter on the 

 throat, and darker, with a strong olive suffusion, on the breast and sides. No appreciable 



