UN ALASKA WREN 169 



TROGLODYTES TROGLODYTES PETROPHILUS (Oberholser) 

 UNALASKA WREN 

 HABITS 



Dr. Oberholser (1919) gives this new name to the wrens found on 

 Unalaska Island and the neighboring islands of Amaknak and Akutan. 

 On the basis of 15 specimens from these localities, he describes the 

 new subspecies as similar to the Pribilof bird, "but wing shorter ; bill 

 longer; upper parts lighter, much more rufescent; lower parts decid- 

 edly paler, and posteriorly with narrower and lighter bars." 



We noticed nothing different from the habits of these wrens else- 

 where in the wrens we saw on these islands, but Dr. Nelson (1887) has 

 this to say about the haunts and habits of this subspecies : 



On May 13, 1877, I landed, during a heavy gale, on the island of Akoutan, just 

 east of Unalaska, and was making my way cautiously along the rock-strewn 

 beach, half expecting a fall of fragments from the beetling cliffs above to join 

 the rocky mass which had already fallen. While occupied in searching cautiously 

 for a firm footing, a faint, wiry, note struck my ear and brought me to a sudden 

 standstill. All about lay huge blocks of riven lava, from which arose the over- 

 hanging crags ; a little back a more sloping bluff presented its face, the inequalities 

 of which were dotted by scattered grass and other vegetation, now dead and 

 yellow, or in spots were flecked with patches of snow. As my eye scanned this 

 abrupt slope, the author of the notes was seen clinging to a dwarf willow bush at 

 the very brow of the bluflE, over which the wind came with great force, beating 

 the bush back and forth as if it would uproot it. 



* * * The last of September and first of October, 1881, while the Corwiu 

 lay at Unalaska, I had still further opportunities for studying this little-known 

 species in its home. They were very common everywhere on the lower portions 

 of the island, wherever the rank grass and other plants, combined with the 

 stunted bushes, offered a fitting shelter. Here the birds were seen repeatedly, 

 swinging on the projecting sprays or flitting busily from point to point, and 

 showing a peculiar sprightliness and activity common to it and its kind. 



TROGLODYTES TROGLODYTES SEMIDIENSIS (Brooks) 



SEMIDI WREN 



Only two specimens of this wren from the Semidi Islands, on the 

 south side of the Alaska Peninsula, to which it seems to be confined, 

 were available for study when Dr. Oberholser (1919) described it as 

 similar to the Unalaska bird, "but wing, tail, and bill somewhat longer ; 

 upper parts less rufescent (more grayish) and somewhat darker; 

 under surface paler, less deeply ochraceous, and posteriorly rather 

 more heavily barred." He says that it differs from the Pribilof bird 

 "in its decidedly longer bill and somewhat longer tarsus and middle 

 toe; somewhat lighter, less rufescent upper parts; and paler, less 

 ochraceous lower surface." 



Nothing seems to have been recorded about its haunts or habits. 



