PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



by the 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 84 Washington : 1937 No. 3021 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE BIRDS OF WEST VIRGINIA 



By Alexander Wetmore 



Assista^U Secretary, Smithsonian Institution 



Examination of specimens of eastern birds in recent years has 

 brought constantly to attention the few specimens available from the 

 State of West Virginia, not only in the National Museum collections 

 but elsewhere. Much of what has been known of ranges in the group 

 concerned in this area has been based on assumption, or on material 

 obtained somewhat casually from scattered points. In the spring of 

 1936 it was decided to take up a definite program of field work in the 

 State, made possible through funds provided in part by the National 

 Museum and in part by the Smithsonian Institution. The work was 

 planned to include collection both of birds and of small mammals. 

 W. M. Perrygo was assigned to this work with Carleton Lingebach as 

 assistant, while Dr. Remington Kellogg, assistant curator of mammals, 

 accompanied the party for the first two weeks in the field to give in- 

 struction in the trapping of small mammals and in the general tech- 

 nique of other work. 



The party left Washington on April 16, 1936, and continued work 

 until July 10, when through the advance of the season birds were in 

 poor plumage. Work began in the fall on September 16 and continued 

 until November 7. 



The accompanying account gives in detail the birds collected, with 

 pertinent data concerning them. In it I have included additional 

 information from my own observations made in West Virginia at 

 v^arious times during the past five years, as well as records from the 

 few specimens previously in the National Museum that have come 

 from scattered sources, including the grouse taken by E. A. Preble, 

 who visited the Cranberry Glades in 1909. and specimens obtained by 



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