!56 
Allen and Brewster on Colorado Birds. 
[July 
beneath confined to the tail-coverts and an isolated patch on the breast or 
jugulum. With the specimens before me, however, this is the exception 
rather than the rule. In the majority the yellow extends uninterruptedly 
from the breast to the chin, paling anteriorly until it fades into white near 
the base of the lower mandible. In a few examples it is nearly as bright 
on the throat as over the middle of the jugulum. In one very highly-col- 
ored bird a narrow ashy collar passes across the jugulum separating the 
yellow into two distinct patches, one of which occupies the throat, the 
other the upper portion of the breast and the lower part of the jugulum. 
This bird is peculiar also in having the orbital ring strongly tinged with 
yellow. 
Mr. Ridgway says* that the chestnut patch on the crown “is obsolete 
in the female”; Dr. Coues, that it is present but “more restricted than in 
the $ \ The latter statement is the more nearly correct, for among the 
twelve females that I have examined not one has the crown entirely plain, 
although with a few the chestnut is pale and restricted to the central feath- 
ers. In the fully adult bird it is not less deep and extended than with 
average males, and the yellow of the breast and under tail-coverts is some- 
times quite as rich as in some of the duller males. The latter, however, 
can be usually if not always distinguished by the darker ash of the head 
and the brighter yellow of the rump. 
The crown-patch of the male varies little in color or extent, but it may 
be nearly or quite concealed, or conspicuously exposed, according to the 
condition of the plumage. The feathers of the crown, when fresh, are 
tipped with ashy, so that when each is in its proper place the chestnut be- 
neath is perfectly covered. With the advance of the season, however, the 
ashy tips rapidly wear away, and with birds taken after the middle of May 
the crown-patch is a conspicuous feature. It may be always seen by dis- 
arranging the feathers. 
24. Helminthophila celata. Golden-crowned War- 
bler. — First met with April 28. A few were seen almost daily 
till late in May. 
Among a fairly extensive series of Orange-crowned Warblers I find two 
well-characterized and readily separable races, one a dark greenish-olive 
bird coming from Florida and Georgia, the other a bright yellowish form, 
the extreme of which is represented by specimens from California. The 
latter, it is perhaps needless to say, is variety lutescens , supposed to be re- 
stricted to the Pacific Slope. 
Specimens from Texas and Minnesota are paler and less yellowish 
than California ones, but on the whole more nearly like them than 
they are like the Florida examples. Still closer to lutescens are my 
Arizona and Colorado representatives, several of which are so nearly 
identical with even the brighter California birds that it is practically 
impossible to distinguish them. The general evidence of this series 
shows a barely appreciable paling of the yellow in the Colorado and 
* North Am. Birds, Vol. I, p. 199. 
f Birds Col. Val., Vol. I , p. 221. 
