ornithological club. 
19 
CAPTURE OF A SECOND SPECIMEN OF HELMINTHOPHAGA 
LAWRENCE! 
BY HAROLD HERRICK. 
In 1874 I had the pleasure of publishing in the “ Proceedings of 
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia” (p. 220, pL xv) 
a description of a new species of Ilelmmthophaga that I had just 
been fortunate enough to unearth. It has remained unique up to 
the present time, and although its friends have stoutly maintained 
its validity, the hybrid ” theorists have sorely tried their faith ; 
therefore I am more than pleased to be able to set the matter per- 
manently at rest by announcing the capture of a second specimen 
of Helniinthophaga lawrencei. The specimen, oddly enough, was 
secured by Mr. Lawrence himself, who sends it to me with a letter 
of explanation, from which the following is an extract : — 
I obtained the specimen of H. Lawrencei last fall from a dealer, who 
called my attention to it as having a black throat, differing in that respect 
from any species he had ever before met with. He said it was sent to him 
last spring from Hoboken, N. J., with a miscellaneous lot of Warblers. 
I think the acquisition of a second specimen of this species should put at 
rest all doubt of its validity.” 
This specimen agrees precisely with the type, with this slight ex- 
ception, that the type is an adult male, probably in the second or 
third year, while the bird under consideration is yin questionably a 
‘yearling male, and still has the immature yellowish tips to the 
coal-black feathers of the throat-patch. A slightly similar effect is 
seen in the yearling males of Dendroeca virens. I cannot better 
describe it than by republishing the description of the type. 
probably one of eight specimens which escaped from the grounds of a gentleman 
in Halifax in the fall of 1871 or 1872. 
From Mr. Lawrence’s record (Am. Naturalist, Vol V, p. 10) we find this 
Goose w^as captured on October 31, 1870, one or two years previous to the es- 
caping of the Halifax birds. 
In view of this fact may not Mr. Lawrence’s specimen still remain as the 
first authentic instance of the, occurrence of the Barnacle Goose in the United 
States ; at all events, until we hear of a confined specimen having escaped pre- 
vious to that date ? — Ruthven Deane. 
