1918 ] Wright, Labrador Chickadee in Migration. oi 



LABRADOR CHICKADEE (PENTHESTES HUDSONICUS 



NIGRICANS) IN ITS RETURN FLIGHT FROM THE 



FALL MIGRATION OF 1916. 



BY HORACE W. WRIGHT. 



The extraordinary southward migration of Penthestes hudsonicus 

 nigricans into New England and still farther south in the fall of 

 1916 was described with some detail in the issue of 'The Auk' for 

 April, 1917. Almost all the individuals which had been noted 

 in the vicinity of Boston had passed on by the middle of January. 

 Mr. H. L. Barrett, however, recorded four remaining birds in the 

 conifers of the Arnold Arboretum in the months of February, 

 March, and April, his latest observation of these birds having been 

 on April 19. Presumably, therefore, these four birds became winter 

 residents, remaining from a flock of twelve birds noted in December. 

 Other March records of P. hudsonicus, which have been furnished 

 me, are those of one bird heard at Ipswich by Dr. C. W. Townsend 

 and Dr. A. A. Allen on March 11, which was so elusive that by 

 their best endeavors they were unable to get a glimpse of it; and 

 one bird taken at Providence, R. I., by Mr. Harry S. Hathaway 

 on March 18. This bird was sent to Dr. Townsend for identifica- 

 tion and proved to be nigricans. 



Some few, but definite data of the return flight of ' hudsonicus ' 

 were obtained in May, when other northern breeding birds were 

 appearing, such as Crossbill, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and northern 

 nesting warblers. On May 4, as I passed through the centre of 

 Belmont, the characteristic calls of two brown-capped Chickadees 

 answering one another were heard in conifers on private grounds 

 bordering the village street. I was not able to obtain a view of 

 these birds, but their presence in trees of the village indicated that 

 they were migrating. Again, on May 14, when I was in the Fresh 

 Pond Reservation in Cambridge, four brown-capped Chickadees 

 were seen in the deciduous trees of that portion known as Kingsley 

 Park, occasionally flying out over the pond, but returning suc- 

 cessively to the trees and giving their characteristic calls. These 

 birds were in comparatively open park lands entirely removed 



