94 General Notes. \^^ 



Note on Junco annectens Baird and J. ridgwayi Mearns. — Although 

 Professor Baird based his Junco annectens ( Ornithology of California, I, 

 1870, p. 564) on several specimens representing the bird which we have 

 been accustomed to call by that name and one example typical oi J. ridg- 

 ivayi Mearns (Auk, VII, July, 1890, p. 243), reference to these specimens 

 and careful comparison with Prof. Baird's description show clearly that 

 the rufous-backed specimen is the type of J. annectens. Junco ridgvjayi 

 Mearns, therefore, becomes a synonym oi J- annectens Baird, and the other 

 form {J. annectens, Auct. nee Baird) being without a name I take pleasure 

 in bestowing upon it the namejunco niearnsi, in compliment to my friend, 

 Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, U. S. A. 



Junco mearnsi is similar to^. annectens, but may easily be distinguished 

 by having the back hair brown, not conspicuously different in color from 

 the gray of hind neck and rump, instead of being bright rusty or i-ufous, 

 as in J. canteen's. • 



The type of y. niearnsi is No. 11164, U. S. Nat. Mus., (J ad.. Fort I>ridger, 

 Wyoming, April 12, 185S; C. Drexler. The type of y. annectens is No. 

 10701, U. S. Nat. Mus., ? ad.. Fort Bridger, May 28, 1858; C Drexler.— 

 Robert Ridgway, Washington, D. C. 



Rectifications of Synonymy in the Genus Junco. — The Junco hyenialis 

 </««^j/ which I described in the Nidiologist, III, No. 2, Oct. 1895, p. 14, 

 as a provisional new subspecies from the Black Hills, and named for 

 Prof. Durward E. Danby, principal of the high school of Custer, S. D., 

 proves to be simply the young of ,/. aikeni, the characteristic representa- 

 tive of the genus in the said region. The type specimen, lacking the 

 white wing-bars of the adult, has lately been deposited in the U. S. 

 National Museum. The naming of the supposed new form will prove to 

 have been not entirely in vain if it serves to emphasize the fact that 

 J. aikeni is so thoroughly distinct fromy. hyenialis that it can be recog- 

 nized at any age, apart from the presence of its supposed chief distinctive 

 characters — the white wing-bars. These are wanting at first, in birds of 

 the year, and first appear as two rows of white dots on the ends of the 

 median and greater coverts, respectively; these dots enlarge to spots by 

 degrees, and finally coalesce as complete bars. The bird could not be 

 mistaken for hyenialis at any age; the 'aspect' in life, even at gunshot 

 rano'e, is distinctive; for one receives the impression of a large gray bird, 

 more like caniceps than like hyemalis. 



J. h. connectens of my 'Key', 2d-4th eds., 1S84-90, p. 378, is a good sub- 

 species which has been accidently overlooked by the A. O. U. Committee 

 on Classification and Nomenclature in preparing both the editions of our 

 Check-List, 1886 and 1895. In fact it also escaped my own memory, until 

 it was brought to mind by the description of J. h. shufeldti by Mr. Coale. 

 in The Auk, IV, Oct. 1887, p. 330; since which time I have been intending 

 to bring up the case for final readjustment, but have meanwhile been 

 much preoccupied with other than ornithological affairs. Mr. Coale's 



