224 Brewster on Helminthophaga leucobronchialis. 



sake of argument, that it is always impaired in such cases — of the 

 original hybrids, would soon be restored by this breeding back 

 into one of the parent stocks, and the descendants would hence 

 stand a good chance of being numerous, while it would certainly 

 require the succession of many generations to wholly eliminate 

 the traces of their mixed ancestry. And if this state of affairs 

 exists in one genus of birds, why may it not be looked for in 

 others? There are some puzzling instances of the occasional 

 cropping out of respective characters among allied but apparently 

 perfectly distinct species which cannot be explained by any of the 

 known laws of geographical variation. The possibilities opened 

 by this field are bewildering, but for the present we are safer to 

 lay them aside and apply the direct analogy furnished by the case 

 of the Helminthofhagce to a few obviously similar ones. 



Until very recently there was not a single established example 

 of hybridity among North American Passeres, and many of our 

 leading ornithologists were incredulous as to its occurence in a 

 state of nature save among the Grouse and some of the Swimming- 

 Birds, while no one seems to have considered the possibility of its 

 explaining some of the standard puzzles* that have been handed 

 down to us by Audubon and other of the earlier ornithologists. 

 But Mr. Trotter's hybrid Swallow (described in Vol. Ill, pp. 135, 

 136 of this Bulletin) gave us an undoubted instance, and now we 

 havfe startling evidence that some of the Helminthophagce-\ have 

 been regularly contracting misalliances under the very noses of the 

 scientists who were insisting that such things could not be. Who 

 can say where this entirely in-egular state of aflairs will be found 

 to end ^ Cuvier's Kinglet, with its Vermillion crown-patch bor- 

 dered by black stripes^ its black eye-stripe and xvhite wing- 



* From a review in a recent number of " Nature " I learn tliat Mr. Seebohm in his 

 late worlc on the Turdidee, forming Vol- V, of the " Catalogue of the Birds of the 

 British Museum," has lately recognized hybridity as accounting for certain obscure 

 Old World species ; but up to the time of placing the present article in the printer's 

 hands I have been unable to obtain a copy of his book or to ascertain the precise 

 nature of his investigations. 



t Mr. Ridgway has lately shown (this Bulletin, Vol. V, p. 237) that Helmintliophaga 

 cincinnatiensis, Langdon (originally described in Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., July, 1880, 

 pp. 119, 120, PI. VI — description and plate reproduced in this Bulletin, Vol. V, pp. 

 208-210, PI. IV) perfectly combines the characters of Hdm'mtlwpluiga pimis with those 

 of Oporornis formosa. If, as seems highly probable, he is right in considering it a hybrid 

 between these species, it affords another striking example of the tendency of H.pinus 

 to seek alien connections. 



Merriam on Birds of the Adirondack Region. 225 



bands., very closely reproduces the prominent characters of 

 Regulus calendula and R. satrapa ; the Carbonated Warbler 

 similarly combines the black crown, streaked back and double ' 

 wing-bands of Dendrmca striata with the general coloring 

 of Perisoglossa tigrina, and possesses no individual characters 

 which might not have been derived frojn such a parentage ; 

 ^giothus brewsteri is very nearly intermediate between 

 linaria and Chrysomitris pinus ; and there are still others 

 among the doubtful or " lost" species which show strong traces 

 of a hybrid origin. But for the present we rest the case here : 

 the bars are down ; the gate stands open; "he who runs may 

 read." (f)^, 



BuU. N.O.O. a.Mr. 1881. p. AJ^- 22 6": 



