206 University of California Publications in Zoology ["^ol. 24 



Of the specimens collected, the adult male (no. 39740, August 7) 

 had virtually completed the annual molt. There are partly grown 

 feathers over various parts, but the old plumage is all discarded. The 

 adult female (no. 39739, August 4) is still mostly in the worn, last 

 year's plumage, though feather renewal is in progress in some tracts. 

 The two young (no. 39741, male, Glenora, July 5; no. 39738, female. 

 Flood Glacier, August 4) are at precisely the same stage of develop- 

 ment, though taken just a month apart. The natal down persists upon 

 head, throat and belly, and the juvenal feathers clothe the back, breast, 

 flanks, and wings. 



The two adults are noticeably different from examples of Canachites 

 c. osgoodi from points in the interior. Of the latter I have had for 

 comparison specimens from various points in northern British Colum- 

 bia, Yukon, and Alaska. Osgoodi, described from Lake Marsh, some 

 250 miles north of Telegraph Creek, is a grayish colored bird, com- 

 pared with other races of C. canadensis, a character that becomes more 

 and more accentuated to the northward. Birds from the Kowak River 

 region reach the extreme of differentiation in this regard (see Grinnell, 

 1900, p. 30). Our Flood Glacier adults are extremely dark colored, 

 matching exactly examples of the coastal race, Canachites c. atratus, 

 from Prince WiUiam Sound, Alaska (Grinnell, 1910, p. 380). C. c. 

 atratus was not admitted to the Check-List by the A. 0. U. Committee 

 (1912, p. 385), its characters being deemed "insufficient for recog- 

 nition, ' ' but it seems to me to be a recognizable form. The inference 

 resulting from the capture of our Stikine birds is that that race of 

 spruce grouse will prove to be of continuous distribution in the coastal 

 district between the Stikine RivA- and Prince William Sound. 



The two young birds, from Glenora and Flood Glacier, respectively, 

 are somewhat different in appearance. The Glenora bird is more gray- 

 ish in coloration, the Flood Glacier specimen more rufeseent and with 

 more extensive black areas upon individual feathers. These differ- 

 ences might pass unnoted, perhaps, were it not for the peculiarities of 

 the Flood Glacier adults as compared with typical adult osgoodi. As 

 it is, I believe the observed differences in the juvenals to be of signifi- 

 cance, for they are just the sort of differences that would be expected 

 to distinguish the young of atratus and osgoodi. The Glenora juvenal 

 may be an example of Canachites c. osgoodi. This indicates the pos- 

 sible presence of two forms of Cana>chites canadensis in the Stikine 

 Valley (as is the case with so many other species of birds), C. c. osgoodi 

 of the interior extending westward at least to Glenora, C. c. atratus 

 of the coast extending inland at least to Flood Glacier. 



