HUDSONIAN CHICKADEE 373 



"The eggs were light creamy white in ground color and were 

 sprinkled nearly all over the entire shell surface with light reddish 

 brown. They resembled more closely the run of eggs of the winter 

 wren (Nanniis hieinalis) than of specimens from other eastern chick- 

 adees." 



The stub was 30 inches high, and the entrance to the nest was 18 

 inches above the bog surface; the cavity was 6 inches deep. 



A. D. Henderson has sent me two photographs of nesting stumps 

 of this chickadee. One was an old tamarack stump in a muskeg ; the 

 entrance hole was only 5^^ inches above the moss, and the nest was 

 practically at ground level. The other was a stub in an old cutting, 13 

 inches high, and the bird was seen to enter through a hole in the ax cut. 



Eggs. — The eggs are apparently similar to those of the Acadian 

 chickadee. The measurements of 22 eggs average 15.3 by 12.3 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 16.3 by 12.2, 15.4 

 by 12.7, 14.9 by 12.4, and 15.2 by 11.7 millimeters. 



Fall. — Frank L. Farley writes to me from Camrose, Alberta: "This 

 species is partially migratory in this latitude. It is a common summer 

 resident of the spruce forests along the foothills of the Rockies and in 

 much of the territory north of the Saskatchewan River. Numbers of 

 them, at the approach of winter, wander south and east to scattered 

 areas of spruce, which persist on the northern exposures of the larger 

 rivers in central Alberta. Here they remain until early in March. 

 It has been noted that these visitors always feed in the higher branches 

 of the spruces, while the black-capped chickadees hunt the lower parts 

 of the trees. During very severe cold spells, when the thermometer 

 shows 50° below zero, I frequently find dead blackcaps in the woods, 

 no doubt as a result of intense cold or inability to secure food, but I 

 have never known the Hudsonian to succumb at such times. They 

 are, no doubt, the hardier of the two species." 



Numerous reports of periodic southward migrations of Hudsonian 

 chickadees have been recorded. The latest one comes to me in a letter 

 from O. E. Devitt, of Toronto, who writes: "In October 1937 a rather 

 remarkable influx of these northern titmice occurred in this area. They 

 were first noted at Nancy Lake, near King, on October 29, by R. D. 

 Ussher; several turned up at Ashbridges Bay, Toronto, on October 31, 

 and on this date I saw several near Bradford and collected a male. 

 This specimen was later submitted to P. A. Taverner, of Ottawa, with 

 the view that it might be the Acadian race. However, it was identified 

 by him as the 'nigrescens' type of the brov/n-headed chickadee (Pen- 

 thestes hudsonkiis hudsonicus). Individuals remained about Nancy 

 Lake well on into the winter." 



667497— 4*-a5 



