BULLETIN 
or THE 
NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
Vol. IV. OCTOBER, 1879. No. 4. 
NOTE ON THE BLACK-CAPPED GREENLET, VIREO ATRI- 
CAPILLUS OF WOODHOUSE. 
BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S. A. 
% 
We are enabled to present our readers with a colored plate with 
this number of the Bulletin, through the liberality of Mr. J. C. Sin- 
clair, the well-known lithographer of Philadelphia, who very kindly 
offered to engrave for us the pretty little study in water-colors of 
the pair of Greenlets made by Mr. W. H. Werner, as noted by Mr. 
Brewster in his interesting article on Vireo atricapillus (anted,, p. 
101). The birds were taken, with the nest and four eggs, on the 
6th of May, 1878, in Comal County, Texas, about twenty-three 
miles northwest of New Braunfels, by Mr. Werner, to whom is due 
the credit of bringing to notice the first authenticated nest and eggs 
of the species. We would refer to Mr. Brewster’s article (l. c. pp. 
99-103) for the full particulars of this capture, including the de- 
scription of the subjects of Mr. Sinclair’s plate, and a review of 
what had before been known of the species. 
It is a singular but well-attested fact in the history of several 
of our birds, that they remained so long unnoticed after their dis- 
covery that they were in danger of being relegated to the list of 
“lost species,” and then suddenly became notorious. Baird’s and 
LeConte’s Buntings, and Sprague’s Pipit, and the Black-capped 
Greenlet, are illustrations of this. How little we really learned of 
this species during the period from 1852 to 1878 may be seen by 
referring to our “ Birds of the Colorado Valley ” (pp. 533, 534), 
where a fair statement of the case is given, with a full index to the 
VOL. iv. 13 
