'SS3-] Jeffries on an Hermaphrodite Bird. \h 



tively claimed by Mr. Ridgway) I find that of Massachusetts 

 specimens captured during the migrations, my series includes five 

 that fall within the extremes assigned to bickiielli^ to which, 

 necessarily, they, with the Mt. Washington examples, must now 

 be referred. 



While it is perhaps unsafe to base any very positive conclusions 

 on the material at present available, there seems every reason to 

 believe that this small race will prove a reasonably constant 

 one, at least as represented along the southern borders of its 

 breeding range. However this may be, the long-disputed ques- 

 tion of the character of the relationship boi"ne by T. alicice to 

 T. swainsoni^ is, as Mr. Bicknell has pointed out, at length 

 definitely settled. Those who from the first have maintained 

 their specific distinctness have surely good reason to exult in this 

 final victory. 



Our satisfaction at the acquisition of this Thrush, new specifi- 

 cally to the summer fauna of New England, and, as a variety, 

 previously unrecognized from within its limits, can scarcely fail 

 to be tempered with chagrin that so interesting a stranger has 

 all this time existed among us undetected. Yet'when we pause 

 to reflect, there "is the consolation — barren though it be — that our 

 higher mountains have never been adequately explored by ornith- 

 ologists ; and who can say that they do not hold further surprises .? 

 With their Alpine flora and cold climate they ofler conditions 

 favorable to the requirements of many northern-breeding birds, 

 and it is by no means improbable that several such, at present 

 known only as migrants through New England territory, may 

 eventually be found to pass the summer in their remote fast- 

 nesses. At all events -the field is well worth further investi- 

 sation. 



NOTES ON AN HERMAPHRODITE BIRD. 



BY J. AMORY JEFFRIES. 



A short time ago I received the body of a Green-tailed Tow- 

 hee ( Plpilo chloritrus)^ which forms the subject of the following 

 description. The bird was shot by Mr. Brewster, at Colorado 



