^°^i^T^'n BiRTWELL, Description of a new Chickadee. 165 



of the Hawaiian Islands are migratory. I have little doubt, as 

 stated above, that the island strigine stock was derived from Amer- 

 ica; probably from Alaska. The occmrence of the bird above 

 mentioned, 500 miles at sea and under the circumstances narrated, 

 is most reasonably accounted for on the supposition that it had 

 flown from the Alaskan coast, from which, at this season, thousands 

 of plovers, turnstones, ulili, and ducks are migrating to the islands. 

 An owl might readily follow the track of these birds, and be 

 piloted directly to the islands which, otherwise, there would be 

 small chance indeed of its reaching. 



Once here, however, the wanderer is likely to remain, though, of 

 course, it is impossible to say that a stray bird from the mainland 

 might not choose to return home in the spring when it would find 

 plenty of plovers and other birds bound for its own home. 



It must not be forgotten, however, that the Short-eared Owl 

 breeds abundantly upon the islands, where its distribution is local 

 and the pairs seem to inhabit the same locahty indefinitely. New 

 additions from America (and these probably are few in number and 

 arrive at long intervals) are much more likely to mate with the 

 island birds already established than to part company with them 

 and to undertake the hazardous experiment of a return. The 

 islands appear to be well adapted to the habits of this, the only owl 

 that so far has reached them, and although persecution of late 

 years has diminished its numbers it is still far from uncommon. 



DESCRIPTION OF A SUPPOSED NEW SUBSPECIES 

 OF PAR US FROM NEW MEXICO. 



BY FRANCIS J. BIRTWELL. 



In the valley of the Rio Grande, about Albuquerque, New 

 Mexico, during a residence covering two winters, the writer has 

 noticed a peculiarity existing among the chickadees which pass 

 through in the brief migrations from the high mountains and 

 those wintering in the valley. 



