2 12 Batchelder, vV^t;/-/// Carolina JMoutilains t?i Winter. [Ju'y 



gate in the fields and open places below, but apparently never go 

 farther from their homes than they are compelled to. I found 

 them abundant at the base of the Balsam Mountains, and of the 

 Black, but in the valley of the French Broad near Asheville, I 

 did not find one, and even at Black Mountain Station, not half a 

 dozen miles from the foot of the Black, I looked for them in vain. 

 yu?ico liyemalis^ on the other hand, was everywhere, at the foot 

 of the higher mountains in company with its Southern cousins, 

 and in the lower open valleys as well. 



Another bird that does not apparently stray far from its native 

 mountains is the Winter Wren. I did not meet with it at all at 

 Asheville, but found a few at Balsam Gap. Here it seemed to 

 find the rhododendron thickets as attractive as brush heaps or 

 fallen trees, and but for its fondness for them, might perhaps have 

 seemed more common. The only specimen obtained does no' 

 difl'er from northern ones. 



A careful examination of my series of twenty-six specimens of 

 yunco hycnialis carolinensis confirms the opinion I formed in 

 the field, that this bird, recently described* by Mr. Brewster, is 

 at least a very distinct race. Geographical considerations, how- 

 ever, lead us to expect that it will not prove to be specifically dis- 

 tinct. My specimens in the autumn plumage differ remarkably 

 little from Mr. Brewster's series of six spring birds which he has 

 kindly lent me for comparison. The former are slightly paler 

 and bluer on the back and head, and the wings and tail are a dull 

 black with aslight plumbeous tinge instead of a brownish shade as 

 in the spring birds. My females are not so deeply colored as the 

 males, and their backs are tinged with brown, of which color the 

 males have little or none. Most of the females have, too, a slight 

 brownish tinge on the flanks. These sexual diflerences, however, 

 are not great, very slight indeed compared to those of y. hyemalis. 

 The color of the iris, noted in twenty-five individuals, was a warm 

 reddish brown. The color of the bill, which I noted carefully in 

 twenty-five fresh specimens, varies slightl}' in a few cases. With 

 no well marked exception, the bill was of a light bluish horn 

 color, the tip, and a streak over each nostril, being dark brown- 

 ish. These dark markings varied in extent, and there was in 

 some cases a slight pinkish tinge near the gonvs. Roughlv 

 speaking, the bill is colored much as in y. hyeinalis^ — except 



*Auk, Vol. Ill, p. io8. 



