Bird-Lore's Seventeenth Christmas Census 



THE Census for 1916 shows that this winter will go down into ornithologi- 

 cal history as memorable for its great southward flight of the irregular 

 winter visitors from the North. The most interesting of these is Penthes- 

 tes'hudsonicus, which has come further south and in greater numbers than it 

 has ever before been known to do. So far, the 'farthest south' reported for it is 

 the Moravian Cemetery at New Dorp, Staten Island, New York City, with 

 others nearly as far south just north of Scotch Plains, near Plainfield, N. J. 

 Till this season there had been no record of this species for the Hudson Valle}' 

 below Poughkeepsie, for Long Island or for New Jersey. The name I have used 

 for it throughout the Census is 'Hudsonian Chickadee,' as that is the accepted 

 name of the species; the subspecies visiting us not having been fully determined. 

 Individuals taken (some about Boston, one at New Dorp and one at Scotch 

 Plains) are not Acadians, but belong to the subspecies* from the forests of Labra- 

 dor recently described by Townsend. The use of 'Hudsonian Chickadee' for the 

 species and also for one of its subspecies is confusing, and I take this occasion 

 to propose that the species (P. hudsonicus) be called the 'Brown-cap Chickadee' 

 (the extra -ped is superfluous; note 'Black-poll Warbler'), that P. h. hudsonicus 

 be called the 'Hudsonian Brown-cap Chickadee,' P. h. nigricans the 'Labrador 

 Brown-cap Chickadee,' etc. Even though the specimens taken belong to the 

 Labrador form, some Acadians may have come down, too, especially to locali- 

 ties near their summer home in the mountains of New England and New York, 

 and northward. The plate labeled 'Acadian Chickadee' in Bird-Lore for 

 January-February, 1916, is much nearest nigricans, but the crown should be 

 distinctly brownish. In the other subspecies the crown is a rather light brown, 

 and there are other differences. 



The writer knows that Pine Siskins were unusually abundant throughout 

 northern New Hampshire and adjacent Maine last September, and Mr. Horace 

 W. Wright told him that White-winged Crossbills were more common in the 

 White Mountains then than in any of his previous thirty-four seasons' resi- 

 dence there, but Red Crossbills were scarce. The Siskins reached the vicinity of 

 New York in October, and the Census shows them south to Georgia, Wisconsin, 

 Missouri, Nebraska and Oregon. White-winged Crossbills have appeared in 

 Virginia (near Washington), but seem to have skipped much territory, as the 

 Census shows none between Poughkeepsie and southern New Jersey. The most 

 generally abundant of the irregular species is the Redpoll, and its southernmost 

 record (Currituck Sound) is the second for North Carolina. Evening Grosbeaks 

 have again visited the East, and further south than ever (southern New Jersey), 

 and Red Crossbills, Pine Grosbeaks and Northern Shrikes have appeared in 

 small numbers. There has been a remarkable flight of American Goshawks, 

 with individuals as far south as southern Pennsylvania and Arizona. Black- 

 capped Chickadees, which seemed rather unusually abundant last season, are 



*P. h. nigricans; 'The Auk,' Volume XXXIII, 1916, page 74- 



(II) 



