372 bULLliilN lyl, UNiTiiD STATliS NATIONAL MUSBUM 



only recognized form of the species. The characters by which other 

 recognized subspecies have been separated will be mentioned under the 

 respective races. This type race has the widest breeding range of the 

 three races recognized in the 1931 Check-list, from northwestern 

 Alaska to Hudson Bay and south to central Manitoba and central 

 Ontario, whence it wanders farther south in winter. 



Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1900a) says of its status in the Kotzebue Sound 

 region of Alaska: "At our winter camp on the Kowak this species was 

 common up to the middle of September. After that date and up to the 

 first of April, but one or two at a time were seen and then only at long 

 intervals. Early in September groups of four to seven were noted nearly 

 every day in the spruces around our cabin. * * * Those chickadees ob- 

 served during the winter were all in the dense willow thickets along 

 Hunt River, They were there quieter and, by nature of their retreat, 

 hard to find. It may have been that at the advent of cold weather all 

 the chickadees left the spruces and betook themselves to the shelter of 

 the willow-brush ; but I am rather inclined to believe that there was a 

 partial migration to the southward. By the first of May the chickadees 

 were back again roving through the woods in pairs." 



Lee R. Dice (1920) says that in the interior of Alaska "they occur 

 in willows and alders and in white spruce and paper birch forest." 



I cannot find that the Hudsonian chickadee differs materially in any 

 of its habits from the better-known Acadian chickadee, to which the 

 reader is referred. 



Nesting. — Dr, Samuel S. Dickey (MS.) tells of a nest probably of 

 this race that he found while exploring along the Moose River, west 

 of James Bay. It was in "a singular glade, along the moist north 

 terrace of Moose Island, It was hedged in with black spmce trees of 

 moderate size and a natural fence of speckled alder and mountainholly 

 shrubs (Nemopanthus mucronata). The green moss carpet that lay 

 beyond was seen to contain in its midst several short, weathered, bark- 

 less spruce stubs, and in the side of one of them a dark hole loomed up. 

 It was about the size of a 25-cent piece. With a stout pocket ax I 

 parted the hard resistant wood opposite the entrance. Thus I could 

 view the interior. It contained a compactly woven nest, in whose cup 

 lay a clutch of six somewhat incubated eggs. The nest was better 

 composed than are those of the eastern cliickadees. Its foundation was 

 a mass of dead and also green cedar moss (Hypnmn cristatum). Upon 

 this was the soft bed of fur of the snowfoot hare. The eggs were nicely 

 adjusted in the cup in the center of this mass. Further examination 

 of this nest showed that at its base was decayed moss and hair of former 

 nests of other years. Evidently the much worn cavity and entrance had 

 served this pair for many seasons. 



