cae | Wricut, Labrador Chickadee at Boston and Vicinity. 167 
migration that it is herewith presented almost in full with the 
author’s permission. Mr. Kirk writes under date of January 12, 
1917: “Your letter in reference to the Acadian Chickadee came to 
hand this morning....Unfortunately I did not secure any, nor 
have I shot any of these Northern Chickadees during the two years 
I have been collecting bird skins. I very much regret that I cannot 
supply you with material for examination in preparation for your 
paper, especially in view of your statement that the birds which 
visited us in the fall of 1916 were probably the form Penthestes hud- 
sonicus nigricans, but the best I can do is to give you some idea of 
their abundance last fall. 
“For some reason the birds were abnormally shy at this time. 
Heretofore those I have seen were so tame that one could approach 
within five or six feet, if they happened to be feeding low, but this 
year they were constantly on the move and seemed to leave the 
vicinity every time they realized a hunter was near... . 
“The Acadian Chickadee is said to be found rather regularly in 
northern Vermont, but eighteen years of careful observation have 
convinced me that it is rare in this part of the State, even in the 
winter season in the heavy spruce woods of our mountains. With 
the exception of that season, three or four years ago, when you had 
a visit from them in Massachusetts (I have not my notes at hand 
this minute to look up the date), I have seen only an occasional 
single bird until 1916, when they were much more abundant than 
during the flight previously referred to. : 
“During the week of October 22, 1916, I was in the mountain 
woods every day hunting partridges. The Acadian Chickadees 
were then confined almost entirely to spruce timber above 1800 
feet altitude and were so abundant that their notes (so different 
from‘our Black-cap when the two are heard together) were heard 
everywhere. They kept to the thick evergreens so persistently 
that it would be difficult to estimate how many were seen or heard 
each day, but they were as abundant as any species of bird about 
at that time. The troops in which they travelled seemed to keep 
by themselves and not mingle to any extent with the native Chick- 
adee. The following two weeks the birds were seen in the hard- 
woods of the lower country, and the writer and friends who are 
interested in birds saw and heard them a number of times. After 
