368 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



parts and that this becomes revealed by loss of the superficial pigment- 

 bearing portions through the gradual progress of feather abrasion. 

 Inyoensis shows nearly as long a tail as does gamhelL Its bill is some- 

 what smaller." 



He gives as its range "the higher mountains of eastern California 

 lying east and southeast of Owens Valley, from the vicinity of the 

 Mono Craters and the White Mountains, in Mono County, south to 

 the Panamint Mountains, in Inyo County." 



I cannot find anything in print about the haunts, nesting, eggs, food, 

 or other habits of this subspecies, which are probably similar to those 

 of mountain chickadees elsewhere. 



The measurements of 9 eggs average 16.8 by 12.8 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 17.1 by 12.9, 17.0 by 13.0, 

 15.7 by 12.8, and 17.0 by 12.5 millimeters. 



PARUS CINCTUS ALASCENSIS (PraziK) 

 ALASKA CHICKADEE 



HABITS 



The Alaska chickadee is our representative of an Old World species, 

 widely distributed in northern Siberia and Russia, that has crossed 

 Bering Strait and become established, as an American subspecies, in 

 the Hudsonian Zone of northern Alaska and northwestern Mackenzie. 

 Closely related races occur in eastern Siberia (P. c. obtectus) and in 

 northern Europe (P. c. cinctus). The range of our subspecies extends, 

 so far as known, from the Kowak River and St. Michael, Alaska, on 

 the west to the Anderson River, Mackenzie, on the east. Dr. E. W. 

 Nelson (1887) wrote: "Its range does not appear to extend to the 

 south along the Upper Yukon, as a considerable series of Titmice, 

 brought me from that region by the fur traders, does not contain a 

 single example. From the vicinity of Nulato, thence down the Yukon, 

 and to the north and northeast, this form appears to be as abundant 

 as the Hudsonian Titmouse, whose range it shares in this region." 



Olaus J. Murie (1928) writes of the haunts of this chickadee in the 

 Old Crow River district, Yukon, as follows: 



The habitat of the Alaska Giickadee was spruce and willow woods covering the 

 valley of the Old Crow River, about a mile in v/idth, but much more in some 

 places. The edge of this valley rises abruptly about 75 feet above the stream to 

 the level of the flat tundra, which stretches away for many miles on either side. 

 The tundra is covered with numerous ponds and lakes, and except for a few small 

 groups of spruces here and there it is practically treeless, although near the 

 mouth of the river, where it enters the general wooded area of the Porcupine 

 River district, there is a more general distribution of forest. The wooded valley 



