1922] Swarth: Birds and Mammals of the Stikine Region 247 



one species. Eidgway (1901, pp. 278, 283) regards them as specifically 

 distinct, each divided into several subspecies. Dwight (1918, pp. 285, 

 291) also considers them as two species. Dwight, however, regards 

 as of hybrid origin several forms of Junco that are accorded subspecific, 

 or even specific, rank, by Ridgway and others. All "confusing 

 plumages, ' ' found in the borderlands where different species of Junco 

 come together, he regards as the result of hybridism. 



In view of these different opinions, it is of interest to secure speci- 

 mens and study conditions at places where two distinctly characterized 

 forms meet. The upper Stikine Valley is such a place, and, with these 

 points in mind, the junco of that region received special attention in 

 our field work. Though anticipating some interesting discoveries in 

 the distribution of the forms involved, it could hardly be foreseen that 

 this borderland should be occupied by a race so curiously combining 

 the characters of the eastern hyemaUs and the western oreganus. "With 

 the ascertaining of this fact there now remains the proper application 

 of it, and in this I fancy there will be difference of opinion. 



Pirst, is the occurrence of birds of this description (in a sense, inter- 

 mediate between hyemMis and oreganus) to be taken as indicative of 

 intergradation between the two ? Are hyemalis and oreganus therefore 

 to be regarded as two subspecies of the same species? I think not. 

 There is no adult specimen in the connectens series that could for a 

 moment be confused with the coastal junco {Junco oreganus oreganus), 

 the subspecies geographically most closely adjacent to the upper Stikine 

 race. There are no doubtful specimens as between these two forms, 

 hence no intergradation. The measurements of connectens do not show 

 intergradation between Junco h. hyemalis and Jur^co o. oreganus (see 

 table, p. 254). The resemblance of the female comuectens is toward 

 Jimco o. shufeldti (= Junco h. connectens of the A. 0. U. Check-List), 

 a pale colored form of Junco oreganus occurring to the southward. 

 There may be intergradation between connectens and shufeldti farther 

 south in British Columbia, but as yet we do not know that to be the 

 case. 



Then, as to the theory of hybridizing, used to a great extent in 

 comparable cases by Dwight in his study of the juncos (1918) . Such a 

 decision in the present case (as in certain others so disposed of by 

 Dwight) seems to me to distort the meaning of the word hybrid out of 

 all recognition, and to apply it to facts and conditions it is. not com- 

 monly called upon to cover. I am willing to admit that a name such as 

 Junco annectens Baird may have been applied to an individual bird 



