280 HISTORY OP DENDECECA COEONATA 



ward along the Pacific side to Washington, and probably Oregon and Cali- 

 fornia. North to the Arctic coast ; Greenland. West to the Eocky Mountains 

 in the latitude of Colorado, where common. West in the Missouri region 

 into Dakota, and nearly across that Territory in the Mouse Eiver area. 

 South into Mexico and Central America and various of the West India 

 Islands. Breeds mostly north of the United States, but also in Northern 

 New England ; and also in Jamaica. Winters anywhere in the United States 

 from the latitude of Southern New England southward, and also in the sub- 

 tropical and tropical countries just mentioned. 



Ch. sp. — 3 Similis prcecedenti ; lateribiis capitis nigris, super- 

 ciliis albis ; guld alba / pectore nigro alboque iniermixto ; alis 

 albo bifasciatis. 



$ : Like the last species, excepting in the following points : — Throat white. 

 Breast black, mixed with white. Sides of the head definitely pure black ; 

 edges of eyelids, and long, narrow superciliary line, white Wings crossed 

 with two broad white bars, which, however, do not fuse into one white 

 patch, owing to narrowness or deficiency of white edging along the outer 

 webs of the great coverts. Size of the last. 



The seasonal sexual changes nf plumage, and those dependent upon age, 

 are precisely parallel with those of D. auiuboni. 



A sketch of the literary vicissitudes which the YeUow-rumped Warbler has 

 suffered may not unprofitably occupy some of the space which would other- 

 wise be given up to an account of its habits, already familiar to most per- 

 sons, especially as I am not aware that the intricate history of the matter 

 has ever been fully brought out, though the bare names coronata, canadensis, 

 virginianus, uml>ria,pingui8, cincta,flavopygia, and xanlhorhoa are all currently 

 and properly quoted in the present connection. We are too much in the habit 

 of unconsciously supposing that when we have once "hunted down" a Latin 

 binomial name we have got at the root of the matter; when, in fact, pinning 

 a Gmelinian or even a Linnsean name, in many cases, should be but the pre- 

 liminary to determining the actual basis of the species. Gmflin, in particu- 

 lar, was a turbid stream, generally several removes from the fountain-head ; 

 while Linnsens himself seems to have known comparatively little of birds 

 other than of his own country, and his accounts are for the most part at 

 second hand. In the cases of very many North American birds, known in 

 the last century, the real authors of species were Catesby, Edwards, Brissou, 

 Buffon, Latham, and Pennant, who are too often ignored, because they had 

 the misfortune to write before 1766, or failed to accent the shibboleth of sci- 

 ence; Linnaeus was the original describer of very few of our birds, and 

 Qmelin perhaps not of a single one. The state of the case is very well illus- 

 trated in the instance of Dendrcsca corovata. The synonymatic digest of the 

 whole matter, as given above, looks singularly involved ; but the bird is one 

 of such marked characters that it is not difficult, exercibing due care, to 

 make it perfectly plain. 



To begin with the Motaeilla coronata Linn., which has come down to us 

 through a chain of genera, — Sylvia, Sylvicola, Mniotilta, Ehimanphus or Ehi- 

 mamphus, and Dendroica or Dendrceca : This was based solely upon Edwards's 

 plate 298 of the "Golden-crowned Flycatcher", which became Buffon's 

 "Figuier couronn^ d'or", and the "Golden-crowned Warbler" of Pennant 



