Perissoglossa tigrina, Baird.
CAPE MAY WARBLER.
Motacilla tigrina, Gmelin, Syn. Nat. I, 1788, 985. Sylvia tig. Lath. Dendroica tig. Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 286.—Sclater, Catal. 1861, 33, No. 198. P. Z. S. 1861, 71 (Jamaica, April).—March, Pr. An. Sc. 1863, 293 (Jamaica; breeds).—A. & E. Newton, Ibis, 1859, 144 (St. Croix. Notes on anatomy of tongue).—Gundlach, Cab. Jour. 1861, 326 (Cuba; not rare).—Samuels, 240. Perissoglossa tigrina, Baird, Rev. Am. Birds, 1864, 181. Sylvia maritima, Wilson, Am. Orn. VI, 1812, 99, pl. liv, fig. 3.—Bon.; Nutt.; Aud. Orn. Biog. V, pl. ccccxiv.—D’Orb. La Sagra’s Cub. 1840, 70, pl. x. Sylvicola mar. Jard., Bon., Aud. Birds Am. II, pl. lxxxv. Certhiola mar. Gosse, Birds Jam. 1847, 81.—Ib. Illust. Rhimamphus mar. Cab. Jour. III, 1855, 474 (Cuba.)
Sp. Char. Bill very acute, conical, and decidedly curved. Bill and feet black. Upper part of head dull black, some of the feathers faintly margined with light yellowish-brown. Collar scarcely meeting behind; rump and under parts generally rich yellow. Throat, forepart of breast, and sides, streaked with black. Abdomen and lower tail-coverts pale yellow, brighter about the vent. Ear-coverts light reddish-chestnut. Back part of a yellow line from nostrils over the eye of this same color; chin and throat tinged also with it. A black line from commissure through the eye, and running into the chestnut of the ear-coverts. Back, shoulder, edges of the wing and tail, yellowish-olive; the former spotted with dusky. One row of small coverts, and outer bases of the secondary coverts, form a large patch of white, tinged with pale yellow. Tertials rather broadly edged with brownish-white. Quills and tail dark brown, the three outer feathers of the latter largely marked with white on the inner web; edge of the outer web of the outer feathers white, more perceptible towards the base. Length, 5.25; wing, 2.84; tail, 2.15.
Female. Above olivaceous-ash, most yellowish on rump; no black nor chestnut on head. Wing-coverts inconspicuously edged with whitish. Tail-spots very inconspicuous. Beneath dull white tinged with yellowish on the breast, and streaked as in the male, but with dusky grayish instead of black.
Hab. Eastern Province of United States, north to Lake Winnipeg and Moose Factory; all the West Indies to St. Croix. Breeds in Jamaica. Not recorded from Mexico or Central America.
The chestnut about the head in adult males varies in amount with the individual; sometimes (as in 20,633, May, Moose Factory, Hudson’s Bay Territory) there is an oblong spot of chestnut in the middle of the crown, but generally this is absent. Very frequently the chestnut tinges the throat. All variations in these respects appear, however, to be individual, and not dependent at all on locality. West Indian specimens appear to be absolutely identical with those from North America.
Autumnal specimens are browner, the chestnut markings much obscured.
PLATE XII.