2 22 Rhoads on the Hudsonian Chickadee and its Allies. foct 



expected substantial aid, had not seen the bird in life and their 

 testimony develops the rather unexpected fact that this 

 Chickadee is a rare visitor in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, 

 and for that matter, in any non-mountainous locality south of 

 Hudson's Bay. 



The total result of my search for skins is a suite of eighty-one 

 specimens, the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the 

 American Museum of Natural History, and the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences supplying fifty-six, and private individuals 

 twenty-five of these. To the gentlemen who have done me 

 service in this connection I would here again express my sincere 

 thanks. 



The great extent of the habitat of Partis hudsonicus and the 

 fact that three subspecies and one species, of slight differentia- 

 tion from the type form, from Alaska, British Columbia and 

 Nova Scotia, have been described by authors, make it impera- 

 tive that a complete study series should contain many times the 

 number I have collected, and come from many times the number 

 of localities represented. Were it probable that any considerable 

 additions of this kind would be made in the next decade it would 

 be advisable to postpone this paper, but the regions from which 

 specimens are most needed give no promise in this direction. 

 There is, however, enough evidence in the present series to 

 throw considerable light on points in question, and the value of 

 such testimony, incomplete and circumstantial as much of it is, 

 is too great to be thrown away and may justify some risks taken 

 on the theoretical side. Undoubtedly there are many specimens 

 of this bird in America which are yet available, and it is hoped 

 that anyone having such will forward them to the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences at an early date in order that they may be 

 examined, with the original series, at the next meeting of the 

 A. O. U. Committee on Nomenclature. 



The Hudsonian Chickadee, Parus hudsonicus, was first 

 described by J. R r Forster in the Transactions of the London Phil- 

 osophical Society for 1 77 3 • ^' s description was based on speci- 

 mens sent him from the Hudson's Bay post at Fort Severn, on 

 the southwest coast of Hudson's Bay, at the mouth of the Severn 

 River. Since that time three races of Pants Jtudsunicus and 

 one closely related species, now classed by the A. O. U. as a 

 subspecies, have been described. 



