FAUNA OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS AND ALASKA PENINSULA 221 



Family TROGLODYTIDAE 

 Troglodytes troglodytes: Winter Wren 



Attu : Kach-tai-ach Kit-rich 



Atka: Kat-chrai-uh 



Russian, Commander Islands: Limaschinka (Stejneger) 



The name given by Stejneger is undoubtedly Russian, mean- 

 ing "Little chew of tobacco," which has been adopted by many 

 Aleuts. This bird is the "limmershin," as reported from the 

 Pribilofs. 



Oberholser (1919) proposed that all of the winter wrens be 

 combined under the European species troglodytes. After examin- 

 ing the forms from the Bering Sea region, I found no difficulty 

 in bridging the gap between the Old World and the New World 

 via the Aleutians. Pallescens, of the Commander Islands, and 

 meligerus, of Attu, are not much different; in fact, they have 

 more characters in common than have meligerus and wrens of 

 the more eastern Aleutians. 



On the other hand, the most difficult gap to bridge to make 

 them all conspeciflc, is the gap between helleri of Kodiak Island 

 and either semidiensis of the Semidis, or petrophilus of the Fox 

 Islands group. The Aleutian wrens, and the one on the Semidis, 

 are comparatively long billed. Helleri and its nearest relatives, 

 pacificus and hiemalis, are short billed. In this character, the 

 two groups do not intergrade. Coloration may approach more 

 closely in the two groups, but color comparisons in the winter 

 wrens (in the plumages usually available) are rather complex, 

 and it is difficult to know what factor constitutes real inter- 

 gradation. It should be pointed out, however, that there is a 

 long distance between Kodiak and the end of Alaska Peninsula; 

 in fact, there are many hundreds of miles of territory from which 

 specimens are not available, and one could assume intergradation 

 there. Furthermore, petrophilus from Unalaska, and alascensis 

 from the Pribilofs, are the closest in color and measurements to 

 helleri, though they do not intergrade. It could be reasonably 

 argued that these two at least show a trend toward helleri and 

 that intermediate areas will eventually produce the intergrades. 

 Furthermore, helleri has the longest bill of the hiemalis group. 

 Yet, the Semidi wren, whose habitat is not far from Kodiak 

 (relatively speaking), is decidedly of the long-billed group. 



The three short-billed wrens, helleri, pacificus, and hiemalis, 

 naturally fall into one group, possibly into one species, and the 

 other forms throughout the Aleutians and the west side of Ber- 



