20o Correspondence. [ July 



At the first meeting of the A. O. U. Committee on the Classification and 

 Nomenclature of North American Birds I was honored by having the re- 

 quest made of me by the Committee to make a report upon the en- 

 tire structure of Chamoea fasciata with the view of throwing, if possi- 

 ble, some light on its position in the system, and although that is 

 several years ago, all my continued efforts failed in securing the necessary 

 material to the carrying out of such a task. Recently, however, through 

 the great generosity of Mr. G. Frean Morcom, of Chicago, and the timely 

 assistance of Mr. F. Stephens, of San Bernardino, Cal., thanks to both, I 

 can now report that I have in my possession for the aforesaid piece of work, 

 an exceptionally fine series of alcoholic specimens of the Chanuca fasciata. 

 During the years of waiting I have not been idle myself, and I have alcohol- 

 ics of many desirable forms to compare with our subject, but still man}' are 

 among my desiderata and will be acknowledged with gratitude, as well as 

 duly so in the Memoir, if sent to me. Such a bird as Accentor modular is* 

 would come into play, perhaps, or some of the Old World forms of the 

 Timeliidse; any species of the genus Lophophanes will be acceptable, and 

 Wrens and Tits generally. Just as soon as other unfinished work will per- 

 mit me, I will now put forth my best endeavor to render a full account of 

 the structure of this interesting species, and that will fall within the year, 

 — the powers permitting. 



Very respectfully and faithfully yours, 



R. W. SlIUFELDT. 



Fort Wingate, N. Mexico. May 21, 1SS7. 



'Scarcity of Adult Birds in Autumn.' 



To the Editors of the Auk : — 



Sirs: In a late (January) number of 'The Auk' Mr. Beckham asks for 

 an explanation of the fact that out of three hundred and sixty-seven birds 

 collected by him in Colorado and Kentucky between Sept. 1 and Nov. 22, 

 1SS6, three hundred and forty-eight were birds of the year, leaving only 

 nineteen adults, of which eleven "were species resident where collected." 

 The question thus raised was anticipated and answered in my recent paper 

 on Bird Migration f by the following: 



" IV. That with most North American birds the majority of adults 

 either precede or accompany the first flights of young in the autumnal 

 migration I am convinced by a long field experience, during which, 

 moreover, I have failed to find any proof that the young of a single spe- 

 cies precede the old. My evidence in support of this statement is of two 

 kinds : (1) Observations made on the departure of birds from their breed- 

 ing stations. (2) Observations on flights arriving from localities north 

 of the stations of observations. The first class of evidence, in my opin- 



* Professor Alfred Newton, F. R. S., writes me from Cambridge University that he 

 has had collected for me a full series of this bird, for which my most sincere thanks 

 are gratefully tendered. 



tMem. Nutt. Orn. Club, No. I, March, 1886, pp. 15-16. 





