An Interesting Specimen of Helminthopila.— Mr. E. Carleton Thurber, 

 of Mon-istovvn, New Jersey, lias kindly sent me forexamination a Helmin- 

 thophlta, which differs considerably from anything that has been hitherto 

 described, and which is apparently a hybrid between the hybrid //. la%v- 

 reiixi'i -AnA the typical //. piuus. It is most like the adidt male If. finu$, 

 the wing- and tail-markings and general coloring, both above and beneath, 

 being essentially the same. But across the jngnlnm there is a broad band 

 of heavy black spots, and the black eye-stripe, short and well defined in 

 piiittf, is in this bird narrowed to a mere line anteriorly, and posteriorly 

 extends to the auriculars, over a portion of which it spreads, forming a 

 ihiskv or blackish patch more or less broken or overlaid by a plentiful 

 mixture of yellow. The black-spotted space on the jugulum is widest in 

 the middle, narrowing gradually as it approaches the sides. Its greatest 

 width is rather more than one-quarter of an inch. The spots are sub- 

 terminal, all the feathers being tipped, and many of them edged as well, 

 with the rich yellow of the underparts generally. This, of course, tends 

 to conceal the black, but it cannot be entirely concealed by any arrange- 

 ment of the feathers, and when they arc disarranged ever so slightly it is a 

 conspicuous feature. Its effect is not unlike that seen in young autumnal 

 males of Z?e?/rfrazca w/re?<s, which have the black of the throat and jugu- 

 lum more or less similarly overlaid with yellow. 



In briefer terms, this interesting bird may be said to be about inter- 

 mediate in color and markings between typical finus, with its short, nar- 

 row eye-stripe and uniformly yellow underparts, and the so-called H. laiv- 

 rencei, which has a broad, black patch extending from the bill through 

 and behind the eye, and the chin, throat, and forepart of the breast 

 solidly black. It forms an important link in the chain of evidence sup- 

 porting ray theory* that H. fimis and H. chiysopiera frequently inter- 

 breed, and that their offspring perpetuate a variously-characterized hybrid 

 stock by breeding back into one or the other parent strains. That this 

 is the only possible way of accounting for the now almost complete 

 series of intermediate specimens connecting the obviously distinct species 

 H. finus and //. chrysoptera is to my mind certain, despite the able argu- 

 ment to the contrary lately publishedf by Mr. Ridgway. 



Mr. Thurber tells me that the specimen just described, was shot about 

 May IS, 18S4, two miles from Morristown, and exactly four and one-half 

 miles from the place where the type of laivrencei was obtained. The 

 sex was not determined, but it is undoubtedly a male. The collector, 

 Mr. Frank Blanchet, has also taken another hybrid of the leucobro7i- 

 chialis' type in the same locality [as above recorded by Mr. Thurber].— 

 William Brewster, Cambridge, Afo.w-^uk, 3. JuIy, 188Q, V'i/l'H- 



* Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, Vol. VI, 1881, pp. 218-225. 

 t Auk, Vol. II, 1885, pp. 359-363- 



Becent Additiona to North Atuerican 

 Avif auaa, J. A. AUeni 



7. Helminthophaga lawrencii, Herrick, sp. nov. Lawrence's 

 Warbler. — Proo. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1874, 220, pi. xv. New 

 Jersey. 



BuUUN.O.O. 5,AprUil880, P.se 



Bull N.0.0. e.Jaiir, 1881, p. 6 



