NORTHERN VARIED THRUSH 97 



November 24 to December 6, 1936; a specimen taken at Hoboken, 

 N. J., in December 1851 ; and one at a feeding station near Clementon, 

 N. J., from November 26, 1936 to March 20, 1937. The easternmost 

 record is of a specimen collected at Ipswich, Mass., in December 

 1864. 



Egg dates. — Alaska: 36 records, May 15 to July 2; 17 records, June 

 1 to June 12, indicating the height of the season. 



British Columbia: 8 records, April 28 to June 20. 



California: 17 records, April 11 to July 17; 10 records, April 19 to 

 May 5. 



IXOREUS NAEVIUS MERULOIDES (Swainson) 

 NORTHERN VARIED THRUSH 



HABITS 



Swainson and Richardson (1831) first described the varied thrush 

 of the northern interior, under the name Orpheus meruloides, from 

 a specimen taken at Fort Franklin, in northern Canada. The Pacific 

 varied thrush was described from a specimen taken at Nootka Sound, 

 Vancouver Island. Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1901) discovered that two 

 races of this species should be recognized, the difference between the 

 two being most marked in the female. In explaining his contention, 

 he says: 



Well-marked differences exist in the case of the female between the Varied 

 Thrush breeding in the humid Sitkan District and that of the drier interior region 

 of northern Alaska. The Sitkan race is characterized by a predominance of deep 

 browns, restriction of white or light markings, and by a shorter and more rounded 

 wing. The northern and interior race has a much grayer and paler coloration, 

 greater extension of white markings, and a longer and more pointed wing. Un- 

 fortunately I have no male birds from Sitka, except juveniles; but three spring 

 males from the Kowak Valley, when compared with late winter males from north- 

 ern California taken along with females referable to naevia, are of a lighter slate 

 color dorsally and slightly paler tawny beneath. The females of this species 

 appear to be much more subject to protective coloration, so-called, than the 

 males, and it is therefore reasonable to expect climatic variations to be more 

 pronounced in the females than in the males, especially when the climate of the 

 summer habitat is of an extreme nature. In the winter home of the Varied 

 Thrushes there is also a different distribution of the two races, but their latitu- 

 dinal relation is reversed. Thirty-five skins from Los Angeles County, Cali- 

 fornia, are all but one referable strictly to meruloides, while the majority of the 

 winter skins from the coast region of central and northern California are near 

 naevia. So that meruloides, although its summer habitat is northernmost, goes 

 farthest south in winter, and its migration route is much the longest. 



Evidently this subdivision of the species did not impress Mr. 

 Ridgway very favorably, for he (1907) says: "With a series of one 

 hundred and forty specimens (sixty-seven adult males from the coast 



