Plate 65 – Rathbone Warbler

John James Audubon explored the coast of Louisiana, including the Ile de Barataria, in early April of 1837. Among the birds he identified and documented on the Ile de Barataria was the Blue-eyed yellow warbler (Plate 95). For the later octavo edition of Birds of America, Audubon renamed the Blue-eyed Yellow warbler a Yellow-poll wood-warbler (Sylvia aestiva). Also becoming a Yellow-poll wood-warbler (the female) in the octavo edition was the male Children’s warbler (Plate 35). The female Children’s warbler in the first edition does not reappear in the octavo edition. The Yellow-poll wood-warbler is known today as the Northern Yellow warbler (Setophaga aestiva). The difficulty Audubon had with the Yellow warbler appears to show up again with the Rathbone warbler. Audubon collected the specimen near the Falls of the Ohio in 1808 while living and working in Louisville, Kentucky. Audubon named the bird in honor of his friend and patron, Richard Rathbone. To the rest of the science community, the Rathbone warbler resembles too closely a juvenile Northern Yellow warbler rather than qualifying as a unique species.