LONG-TAILED CHICKADEE 339 



larger." It is their opinion "that a very well marked race is repre- 

 sented in Newfoundland with characters most pronounced in the 

 eastern part of the island and specimens from the western part distinctly 

 intermediate with P. a. atricapillus." 



I saw a few chickadees near Bay of Islands and along Fox Island 

 River in western Newfoundland but did not collect any specimens. 



PAKUS ATRICiVPILLUS SEPTEJNTRIONAJLIS Harris 

 LONG-TAILED CHICKADEE 



HABITS 



For nearly a hundred years the long-tailed chickadee has been recog- 

 nized as a midcontinent race of our familiar little chickadee, ranging 

 from Alaska to New Mexico in the Canadian and Transition Zones. It 

 is described by Ridgway (1904) as "similar to P. a. atricapillus, but 

 larger, with wing and tail averaging decidedly longer; coloration paler, 

 with whitish edgings to greater wing-coverts, secondaries and lateral 

 rectrices broader, more conspicuous." 



P. A. Taverner (1940) has recently made an enlightening study of the 

 Canadian status of this subspecies, based on a series of 99 specimens in 

 the National Museum of Canada, including — 



17 males and 14 females from southern Ontario, eastward to Nova Scotia ; 

 19 males and 17 females from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta; 20 males and 

 12 females from the interior of British Columbia. Specimens from coastal areas 

 of British Columbia referable to P. a. occidentalis were not included. These were 

 all taken within two hiuidred miles of the international boundary and can reason- 

 ably be assumed to be of local breeding stock. They are from areas separated 

 from each other by some eight hundred miles and include no specimens be- 

 tween. * * * 



In these birds, laid out in comparable seasonal mass groups, a highly critical 

 eye can detect a slight average color distinction as above postulated [by Ridgway], 

 between the prairie and the eastern birds, but not enough to be readily detected 

 and not consistent enough for the recognition of individual specimens. Every 

 individual in one group can be matched in the other, and no single specimen can 

 be confidently identified by this character, though winter and early-spring birds, 

 before the wear and fading of nesting activity, show slightly more color differ- 

 ences than in later season. 



His study of the tail measurements shows that "there is a large over- 

 lap in extreme measurements : the smallest atricapillus is only 0.2 inches 

 (5.08 mm.) smaller than the smallest septentrionalis. The largest septen- 

 trionalis is only 0.05 inches (1.27 mm.) larger than the largest atricapil- 

 lus." The wing measurements give "even less definite results. * * ♦ 

 There is a large overlap in extreme measurements ; the smallest atricapil- 

 lus is only 0.1 inch (2.54 mm.) smaller than the smallest septentrionalis; 

 the largest septentrionalis is no larger than the largest atricapillus." 



