iSS6.] Batchelder, North Carolina Mountains in Winter. 313 



that its general tint is bluish instead of pinkish or yellow. The 

 feet, with little variation, were grayish brown, the toes being con- 

 sidei-ably darker than the tarsus. The average measurements in 

 centimetres, taken from the dried skins, of fifteen males are : 

 wing, S.oo; tail, 7.05; culmen, 1.12; tarsus, 2.17; of eight 

 females: wing, 7.53; tail, 6.67; culmen, 1.13; tarsus, 2.12.* 



A trip to the top of Jones's Knob, one of the high summits 

 of the Balsam range (elevation, 6223 feet), December 30, gave 

 me an opportunity to spend several hours in the heavy balsam 

 growth that covers the higher parts of this range. There were 

 few birds here, however; a small flock of Black-capped Chicka- 

 dees and a Brown Creeper were the only ones seen. Along the 

 lower edge of the balsams Rufted Grouse were not uncommon, 

 some half a dozen were flushed. Their favorite resorts are the 

 'old fields.' Tliese are large open spaces high up on the moun- 

 tains, which, owing doubtless to their barren soil, bear only a 

 scattered growth of bushes and low trees, and have much the look 

 of abandoned fields. The Grouse do not confine themselves to 

 these places, for among the balsams, even on the summit of the 

 mountain. I found their tracks in the snow that lies .unmelted in 

 the thick shade of these dark forests. In coloring they differ 

 little from birds from Northeastern Virginia, and are of the ex- 

 treme form of B . ujubcllus farthest removed from the northern 

 B. u. t Ogata. 



Some more Black-capped Chickadees were brought me two 

 days later, shot from a flock of about twenty in the balsams. 

 From what I can learn I do not think they ever go out of these 

 woods. With them I received a Hairy Woodpecker {^Dryobates 

 vlllosus) also shot in the balsams, and as it happened I shot one 

 of the southern race (/?. villosus audiiboni) the same day in the 

 valley below, among a iiard-wood growth at an elevation of about 

 thirty-three hundred feet. 



The Black-capped Chickadees, of which I have a series of thir- 

 teen, differ but slightly from the noilhern representatives of the 

 spiicies. They average a little smaller, and show slight difter- 

 ences in the form of the bill, but unless there may be differences 

 in plumage not observable at this season, they do not seem to be 

 sufficiently unlike to warrant separation, in spite of their isolated 

 situation. 



* Average of seven specimens. 



