Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 124 1968 Number 3637 



Population Characteristics and Nomenclature 

 of the Hermit Thrush 



By John W. Aldrich x 



Research Associate, Department of Vertebrate Zoology 



My interest in the geographical variation in the hermit thrush, 

 Catharus (=Hylocichla) guttatus, was aroused while investigating 

 marked differences among populations of the Pacific Northwest 

 (Jewett, Taylor, Shaw, and Aldrich, 1953). Since that time I have 

 examined specimens from the entire range of the species that seem 

 to give a somewhat different picture of the subspecific relationships 

 from that of my previous arrangement as well as from that of the most 

 recent previous revision (Phillips, 1962) and such recent standard 

 manuals as "American Ornithologists' Union" (1957) and Ripley 

 (1964). 



Many of the specimens utilized in the study are in the U.S. 

 National Museum, but a considerable number were borrowed from 

 other institutions. For the loan of critical material I am indebted 

 to the curators of the following collections: Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, Harvard University; National Museum of Canada; Cleve- 

 land Museum of Natural History; British Columbia Provincial 

 Museum; Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California; 

 Field Museum of Natural History, H. H. Bailey Collection; Ira N. 

 Gabrielson Collection; San Diego Natural History Museum; 

 Charles R. Conner Museum, Washington State University; Museum 

 of Zoology, University of Utah; Museum of Zoology, University of 

 Michigan; University of Alaska; American Museum of Natural 

 History; Washington State Museum, University of Washington; 

 Collection of Alex Walker; and Denver Museum of Natural History. 



'Research Staff Specialist, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, U.S. 

 Department of Interior, Washington, D.C. 



1 



