THE EASTERN FORMS OF GEOTHLYPIS TRICHAS. 
BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN. 
Seventeen years ago, under the above-given title, 1 I described 
a Florida form of Geothlypis trichas as Geothlypis trichas ignota, 
which was later shown by W. Palmer 2 to extend through the coast 
region westward to Texas (Jackson County, Jan. 6) and northward 
to the Dismal Swamp in Virginia. 
At the same time Mr. Palmer restricted the name trichas of 
Linnaeus to the Yellow-throat breeding from southern New England 
southward through the Piedmont region into Georgia, while to the 
Yellow-throat breeding from southern New England northward 
he applied the name brachidactyla of Swainson. 
This ruling was accepted as correct by the A. O. U. Committee 
on Classification and Nomenclature, and we have had, therefore, 
east of the Alleghanies, three forms of Yellow-throat, a southern, 
a middle, and a northern. Many ornithologists, however, regarded 
this view of the nomenklatura] status of these birds as far from 
satisfactory. That there was a Southern Yellow-throat and a 
Northern Yellow-throat was beyond doubt, but that an intervening 
form was also deserving of recognition by name has been frequently 
questioned. This opinion is voiced by Mr. Brewster 3 who says: 
“The characters by which the two forms are said to be separable 
seem to me trivial and I fear they are also inconstant ... . ” 
1 Auk, VII, 1890, 11. 
2 Ibid., XVII, 1900, 223. 
3 Birds of the Cambridge Region, 1906, p. 354. 
i j 
tinues: “J. Petiver, in his Gazophylacium, plate VI. has given 
the figure of a bird, which I believe to be the same with this; for 
which reason I continue the name he has given it: all he says of 
it is, ‘Avis Marylandica gutture luteo, the Maryland Yellow-Throat. 
This the Rev. Mr. Ii. Jones sent me from Maryland.’ Petiver’s 
1 Gleanings of Nat. Hist., 1758, I, p. 56, pi. 237. 
2 Syst. Nat., ed. 12, 1766, 293. 
