BIRDS 



355 



Certhidea cinerascens cinerascens Rothschild and Hartert, Novit. Zool., 

 VI, p. 151, 1899. 



Range. — Hood Island. 



Almost no olivaceous shade anywhere. Upper parts, including the 

 wings and the tail, brown, sometimes with an almost inperceptible 

 shade of olive on the rump and upper tail coverts. Feathers of the head 

 and back with grayish shafts. Wing feathers all edged with grayish. 

 Below dull, dirty grayish, tinged with buff on the throat and middle 

 of the breast, slightly washed with brownish along the sides and on 

 the flanks. Auriculars light brown. Superciliary stripe gray. Bill 

 of adults entirely black. 



This variety, together with the next, form a well marked species 

 distinguished from C. olivacea by the pallid grayish color. 



We have fourteen adult males and three immature males of this form 

 taken on Hood and the neighboring small Gardner Island in May. 

 We did not obtain a female. The birds were very abundant about 

 Gardner Bay on Hood. The young associated with one another 

 in small flocks, much resembling thus in habits and appearance 

 the Bush Tits {Psaltrifarus) of California. Although the breeding 

 season was over, the adults were still singing a great deal. Their or- 

 dinary notes consisted of monosyllabic twits. The adult males were 

 generally found solitary, not associating with the flocks of young. 

 One song that they sang resembled tweet" tt'fi-tweet' . . tweet . . . 

 tweet, the second and third syllables being short and but briefly sepa- 

 rated from the one before. The first and fourth syllables were ac- 

 cented, while the fifth and sixth were separated by successively longer 

 intervals. Another song resembled tweet' ti-twee-u. 



MEASUREMENTS OF ADULT SPECIMENS OF Certhidea cineras- 



cens cinerascens. 



