298 ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



a ucw name, which may later turn out to be a synonym. The Pcecile * 

 kamtschatkensis of Taczanowski should stand as Parus baicalensis 

 (SwiNH.), Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, 1871 (p. 257).t 



Parus kamtschatkensis Bp. is one of tlie most striking looking birds 

 in the group of the Chickadees. Its light color looks almost pure white 

 when the lively fellow, busily engaged in the search for insects at the 

 end of the green branches, flits from birch to birch, and the pretty black 

 cap gives it a most exquisite appearance. 



In spring and summer they were rather scarce, and, therefore, I sup- 

 pose them to breed only in the pine woods, but during my stay in Petro- 

 paulski, in September and October, I found them uumerous in all the 

 birch and elder groves of the surroundings. They were usually met in 

 small flocks of from four to ten individuals, rajiidly jjassiug through the 

 woods, announcing their approach by the vigorous call-note by which 

 the trouii managed to keep together. Whenever any of them had been 

 too deeply absorbed in the search for food or in a struggle with a big 

 si)ider, and found himself left behind, he would sing out an anxious and 

 inquiring tCv, to;, which immediately was answered by one Or more of 

 liis comrades with a similar but more rapidly uttered sound, if within 

 hearing range, whereupon he, with a satisfied tcv, tw w-cc-cv-w ! , would 

 hurry off to join them. In all the numerous flocks I met there never 

 was a single bird of a different kind. 



No specimen of this bird has been obtained from the islands, but it 

 may sometimes be met with as a straggler from Kamtschatka. The 

 Cossak, Aleksander Selivanofi', on the 4th of May, 1883, informed me that 

 in the neighborhood on the village on Bering Island he had seen a small 

 bird of the size of a Red-poll, but quite white, and with a black head. 

 While he was fetching his gun, in order to secure it for me, it disap- 

 peared. It can hardly have been any other bird than the Kamtschat- 

 kau Chickadee. 



* TaczauowsVi writes Pcecilia, but Fcecile is the original spelling of Kaup. Besides, 

 Pwcilia is preoccupied in 1801 for a tisli and in 1802 for a lepidopterous insect. I have 

 been unable to find any structural character which will separate these birds from 

 Panis. 



t The synonymy would then be: Pcecilia 'kamtscliatlensis Taczan. , J. f. Orn., 1872, 

 p. 44:3 {nee Bp., nee Blakist., quxe japonica). — Id., Orn. Fauna Vost. Sibir., ji. 33 bis 

 (1877). — Id., Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1876, p. 163. — Parus jmlustris subsp. camtschat- 

 keiisis Seeb., Ibis, 1879, p. 32. — Pwcilia horealis ? Taczan., Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 

 1882, p. 392. 



