1883.] 
Merriam on a Bird new to Northern America. 
213 
ON A BIRD NEW TO NORTHERN NORTH 
AMERICA. 
BY C. HART MERRIAM, M. D. 
Among some birds sent me by Mr. Napoleon A. Comeau from 
Godbout, Province of Quebec, Canada, is a specimen of the 
YelloQ-green Vireo ( Vireo Jlaviviridis Cassin). Mr. Comeau 
writes me that he found it, dead, near his home at Godbout, May 
13, 1883.Q The specimen agrees well with Baird, Brewer and 
Ridgway’s description of this species except in size, it being con¬ 
siderably smaller than the measurements there given./its meas¬ 
urements are : v^ing, 72 mm. (2.83 in.) ; tail. 48 mm/ (1.88 in.jy- 
bill, 10 mm. (.40 in.) ; while Baird, Brewer am % Ridgway, in 
their diagnosis (Hist. N. Am. Birds, I, p. 359), give: wing, 
wing formula in 
3.15 in. ; tail, 2.55X41. ; and bill, .41 in. 
the Godbout specimeb is as follows : 2d and' 3d primaries sub¬ 
equal ; 4th shorter; isf between 4th and/5th, but much nearer 
4th (2 = 3, 4, 1, 5). The sides of the lyreast, axillars, and par¬ 
ticularly the crissum, are ofja bright sulphur yellow, much more 
brilliant than in the brightestXfall specimens of V. olivaceus. 
Mr. Robert Ridgway of the'Smithsonian Institution, to whom 
I submitted the specimen, writesfes follows concerning it: “ The 
Vireo sent for examination seems 4 o be true V. JiaviviricUs but 
is unusually small for that species, the smallest example in our 
series of fourteen skins ha/ing the Ring 2.90 inches long, the 
average being a little meme than 3 inchest” 
The northernmost record of V. Jlaviviridis that I have been 
able to find is that of/a specimen procured afeFort Brown, Texas, 
August 23, 1877, by Dr. James C. Merrill, U\ S. A. (Proc. U. 
S. Nat. Mus., Vbl. I, p. 125, 1878). 
The route by which this little waif reached fee Gulf of St. 
Lawrence is /pen to conjecture. My opinion is that it was car¬ 
ried to sea m. a storm, and, chancing to fall in with/ northward 
bound vessel, remained about the rigging till within siglyt of land ; 
and wyfre the vessel bound for Quebec the first land neared would 
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