498 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



(for example, D. ivtjorHii and D. dom mica) are expert creepers, recalling' 

 in their movements along the branches of trees the genus Mniotilta; 

 others (as I), palmarum) keep much upon the ground, where they 

 walk in the graceful manner of a Pipit, accompanying their movements 

 by the same wagging of the tail and tilting or " teetering" motion of 

 the body; some of them combine these characteristics to a greater or 

 less degree, while others possess none of them to a pronounced extent. 

 All are expert "flycatchers," when the occasion demands, but this is 

 a trait shared by many groups of birds. 



The bill of D. tigrlna is peculiar in the decided attenuation and 

 acuteness, as well as slight but very obvious downward curvature, of 

 the tip, but I can not discover any other character wherein this 

 species differs from other members of the genus. This species was 

 separated by Professor Baird as the type of a new genus, Perissoglossa, 

 through an error, the tongue of a Ccerebine bird (probably a species 

 of Cynn.erpes) having been examined, described, and figured as that of 

 D. tigrina. This matter has been quite fuUj' discussed by Mr. Lucas,' 

 who finds " that while the tongues of the various species [of Dendroica] 

 are constructed on the same plan, . . . there is great specific varia- 

 tion in the execution of details, the extremes, so far as I have examined, 

 being marked bj^ Dendroica 'maculosa and D. tigrina, and that while 

 these extremes are widely separated, yet the gap between them is 

 bridged over by other species which show intermediate stages." 



D. maculosa, D. discolor, and D. pahnarum, are the only continental 

 species in which the wing-tip is decidedly shorter than the tarsus, all 

 the other species having the wing-tip at least as long as the tarsus. 

 The first named (Z>. maculosa) is unique in having the ninth primary 

 decidedly shorter than the sixth instead of equal to it or longer, and is 

 peculiar, so far as coloration is concerned, in the position and pattern 

 of the white spots on inner webs of the rectrices. D. dmnvnica is the 

 only species in which the bill is nearly as long as the head, or in which 

 the tarsus is but slightly longer than the middle toe with claw. 



With the exception of those allied to D. CBstiva, D. pityophila, and 

 the Bahaman representatives of JD. vigorsii {D. v. achrustera and B. v. 

 aiacoensis), the peculiarly West Indian species {D. phimbea, D. pha- 

 retra, D. adelaidce, and Z>. delicata) have the wing much more rounded, 

 the ninth primary being shorter than the fifth (shorter than the fourth 

 in I). ])ha/retra), and the wing not more than three times as long as the 

 tarsus. Otherwise they are not, collectively, different from the more 

 normal species, and probably should not be separated from them. 



'The Tongue of the Cape May Warbler. By Frederic A. Lucaa. The Auk, xi, 

 1894, 141-144, figs. 1-5. 



