18 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 124 



and British Columbia. The present study indicates a more restricted 

 distribution of this population, to which the name guttatus applies, 

 to the vicinity of the coast in Alaska and southward, excluding the 

 outer islands, to middle coastal British Columbia. The southern limit 

 of guttatus in that area is indicated by specimens of this race from 

 Yale Lake, Swanson Bay, head of Kukshua Pass, Calvert Island, 

 Canoona River near Graham Reach, Princess Royal Island, and 

 Aristazabal Island. 



2. Dwarf hermit thrush: Catharus guttatus nanus (Audubon). — 

 Dark, Raw Umber to Prout's Brown. Small: cf (6 specimens), wing 

 85-90 (87.9), tail 62-70 (66.3), culmen 11.5-13 (12.5), tarsus 27.5-30 

 (28.7), midtoe 15.5-17.5 (16.8); 9 (9 specimens) , wing 83-87.5 (85.1), 

 tail 61-65.5 (63.2), culmen 12-13.5 (12.9), tarsus 27-30 (28.3), midtoe 

 15-18 (16.7). 



Darker and more rufescent than guttatus; more rufescent than 

 vaccinius; smaller and flanks more grayish than crymophilus; more 

 rufescent and shorter wing and tarsus than oromelus; much darker, 

 shorter bill, and longer wing than slevini. 



Breeds on the outer islands of the Alexander Archipelago in south- 

 eastern Alaska and the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia. 



Winters on the Pacific Coast from southwestern British Columbia 

 (Victoria) south to California (Humboldt Bay). 



Osgood (1901) accurately described the hermit thrush population 

 of the Queen Charlotte Islands, distinguishing it from that of the 

 coast of southern Alaska, and named these dark, rufescent birds 

 "Hylocichla guttata verecunda." In so doing he disposed of the name 

 nanus Audubon (1839) by referring it to the eastern population. He 

 did this chiefly on the grounds that Audubon's (1838) folio plate, on 

 which the original description of nanus was based, showed a bird with 

 "brown sides," a characteristic considered by Osgood to be restricted 

 entirely to eastern birds. This view has been supported by Phillips 

 (1962). 



In the course of the present study, I have compared both fresh and 

 worn plumaged hermit thrush specimens representing different 

 recognizable populations with Fig. 1, Plate 419, of Audubon's (1838) 

 folio edition, which depicts the "Little Tawny Thrush, Turdus minor, 

 Gmelin" that Audubon (1839) later said represented his newly de- 

 scribed "Turdus Nanus." The plate I used, which is in the set of 

 Audubon's folio in the library of the Smithsonian Institution, shows 

 a relatively dark brown-backed hermit thrush with fairly dark gray 

 flanks tinged with buff, not the light grayish buffy characteristic 

 of eastern populations. Of the specimens used in the comparison, 

 it matches most closely in color those from the Queen Charlotte 



