COLUMBIAN CHICKADEE 375 



PAKUS HUDSONICUS COLUMBIANUS Rhoads 

 COLUMBIAN CHICKADEE 



This extreme western race of the Hudsonian diickadee ranges from 

 the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, through the Rocky Mountain region of 

 western Canada, southward to southern British Columbia, Alberta, 

 and northern Montana, but the limits of its range are not accurately 

 outlined. 



According to Ridgway (1904), it is "similar to P. h. hudsonicus, 

 but slightly darker and less brown above, especially the pileum and 

 hind neck ; chin and throat more decidedly black ; bill relatively larger." 



Nothing seems to have been published on any of the habits of this 

 race, which are probably similar to those of the other rac.es. The type 

 specimen was taken at Field, British Columbia, in the heart of the 

 Canadian Rockies, at an elevation of about 5,000 feet. 



PARUS HUDSONICUS LITTORALIS Bryant 

 ACADIAN CHICKADEE 



Plates 58, 59 



HABITS 



The eastern race of the Hudsonian chickadee breeds in the spruce 

 and balsam forests, north to the limits of these forests, east of Hudson 

 Bay, in Ungava, Labrador, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. 

 The 1931 Check-list sa}'s that it breeds south to Maine, "the mountains 

 of northern Vermont and central New Hampshire, and the Adirondacks 

 of New York." But there is some evidence to indic.ate that it may 

 breed, at least occasionally, in some of the mountains farther south. 

 It has been seen in June in Plymouth County, Mass., and at least twice 

 during that month in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. 



As to the Massachusetts evidence, Dr. Arthur P. Chadbourne (1896) 

 wrote many years ago: "While walking through some dense old-growth 

 pine v.-oods (Pinus strobus and P. rigid a) * * * j ^^^ls greeted by tlie 

 snarl cliee-dt-c-e-::~c-ah of a Hudson Bay Titmouse, . . . The woods in 

 which I saw the Chickadee were only a few rods from a large cedar 

 swamp, said to be a couple of miles wide, which is seldom visited ex- 

 cept by lumbermen in winter ; and in many portions the original growth 

 of huge white c.edars (Ciiprcssus thyoides) and hemlock (Abies cana- 

 densis) has never been cut. In this old timber one seems to be in 

 northern Maine or New Hampshire, instead of in Tvlassachusetts ; — the 

 subdued half twilight of tlie damp cool forest, with its rocks and fallen 

 trees, covered with a rich carpet of green moss and ferns might well 

 tempt this and other northern birds to make it their summer home.'* 



