716 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



WILSONIA CANADENSIS (Linnaeus). 

 CANADIAN WARBLEE. 



Upper parts gray tinged with olive in young and autumnal speci- 

 mens; under tail-coverts white. 



Adult maZe.^— Forehead and crown black, the feathers (except some- 

 times those on forehead) margined with gray, producing a scaled ap- 

 pearance; forehead sometimes with a median line (more or less distinct) 

 of yellowish; rest of upper parts, together with sides of neck and 

 posterior portion of auricular region, plain gray (nearly slate-gray); 

 upper and anterior portion of lores, malar region, and under parts 

 (except under tail-coverts) lemon or canary yellow, the outer portion 

 of sides and flanks slightly tinged with olive; under tail-coverts white, 

 sometimes tinged with yellow toward anal tegion; a conspicuous orbital 

 ring of white or yellowish white, more decidedly yellowish on upper 

 portion; loral spot, suborbital region, together with anterior and lower 

 portion of auricular region, black; this continued (sometimes brokenly) 

 along sides of lower neck (between the gray and the yellow) and con- 

 tinued across the chest in a series of spots or streaks;^ bill dusky horn 

 color, the mandible paler, except (sometimes) at tip; iris brown; legs 

 and feet pale buffy brown (in dried skins); length (skins), 121-131.3 

 (125.7); wing, 64.5-67.1 (66.3); tail, 54.6-57.1 (56.1); exposed culmen, 

 10.2-11.2 (10.7); tarsus, 18-19.6 (19); middle toe, 10.7-11.9 (11.2).' 



xidiilt female. — Above, including auricular region and sides of neck, 

 plain gray, tinged with olive, especially on back and pileum, the latter 

 often showing darker centers to feathers of forehead or forehead and 

 crown; upper and anterior portion of lores and conspicuous orbital 

 ring pale yellow or yellowish white; loral spot and suborbital region 

 dusky olive-gray, this sometimes continued posteriorly along lower 

 portion of sides of neck; malar region and under parts, except under 

 tail-coverts, lemon or canary yellow (slightlj' paler and duller than in 

 adult male); under tail-coverts white; chest streaked with olive, the 

 streaks sometime partly black;* bill, iris, and feet as in the adult male; 

 length (skins), 116.1-124.7 (119.6); wing, 60.4-64.5 (62.5); tail, 51-53.3 



' Judging from Central and South American specimens, the plumage of the adult 

 male is apparently the same in autumn and winter as in spring and summer. 



'^ The amount of this black spotting or streaking of the chest varies greatly in differ- 

 ent specimens, some having the whole chest so heavily spotted with black (the spots 

 being deltoid in shape) that they overlap and almost form a "solid" patch, while 

 others have only a few small guttate spots or streaks across the anterior portiou; 

 usually, the markings, in amount and character, are about halfway between these 

 extremes. 



' Eight specimens. 



* In adult females having black streaks on the chiest the feathers of forehead and 

 crown are distinctly centered with black. Such specimens are very much like those 

 adult males having the least amount of black streaking or spotting on the chest. 



