Vol. 5, p. 221-222. December 10, 1926. 



Occasional Papers 



OF THE 



Boston Society of Natural History. 



A NEW MARSH WREN FROM ALBERTA. 

 BY FRANCIS HARPER. 



In June and July, 1920, a series of Telmatodytes palustris was 

 collected on the Athabaska Delta by Hamilton M. Laing, J. Alden 

 Loring, and myself, while carrying on field work in behalf of the 

 U. S. Biological Survey and Dr. John C. Phillips. These speci- 

 mens appear to represent a distinct new subspecies, which may be 

 known as 



Telmatodytes palustris laingi, * subsp. nov. 

 Alberta Marsh Wren. 



Type locality. — Athabaska Delta, Main Branch (9 miles above mouth), 

 Alberta, Canada. 



Type specimen. — No. 231790, Museum of Comparative Zoology; adult male; 

 collected June 3, 1920, by Francis Harper and J. Alden Loring; orig. no. 142. 



Subspecific characters. — Nearest to T. p. iliacus, but paler on scapulars, rump, 

 upper tail-coverts, and flanks; median area on forehead and crown more dis- 

 tinct. (T. p. plesius is a much browner and duller bird than laingi.) 



Geographic range. — In summer, Alberta and western Saskatchewan. 



Description of type. — Pileum dull black, with a fairly well-defined median area 

 of Dresden brown on forehead and crown; interscapulars black, streaked with 

 white; scapulars buffy brown; rump and upper tail-coverts cinnamon-brown; 

 rectrices buffy brown, the middle pair faintly barred with dusky, the others 

 broadly barred with dull black; wing-coverts buffy brown, the greater faintly 

 barred with dusky; outer webs of tertials dull black, serrated exteriorly with 

 buffy brown; remiges otherwise Chaetura drab, edged with Hght drab; a narrow 

 supercihary stripe of white, streaked with blackish above and in front of orbit; 

 under parts dull white, passing on sides and flanks into pale buffy brown; 

 breast tinged with light buff; under tail-coverts indistinctly barred with cin- 

 namon-buff. 



Measurements. — Type: length (skin), 114; wing, 53; tail, 41; exposed culmen, 

 13.5; tarsus, 20. Extreme and average measurements of four adult males 

 (including type) from Athabaska Delta: length (skin), 100-114 (106.5); wing, 

 50.5-54.5 (52.6); tail, 35.5-41.5 (39.8); exposed clumen, 13.5-14 (13.9); tarsus, 

 19-20 (19.6). 



Specimens examined. — Alberta: Athabaska Delta, Main Branch (9 miles 

 above mouth), 6;^ Athabaska Delta, Egg Lake (15 mi. NW. of Chipewyan), 



^ Named for Hamilton M. Laing, in appreciation of his writings on the bird 

 life of western Canada. 



2 Biol. Surv., 4; Mus. Comp. Zool., 2. 



JAM U) :927 



