m AUDUBON'S LABRADOR 



over a small and insignificant-looking bird, a 

 Hudsonian chickadee that at once struck me 

 as unusually dark and sooty in appearance. 

 This tendency to darkness of plumage is 

 shown in several of the Labrador birds, and 

 is due, I believe, to the damp , climate. As 

 Siebold says, in "The Birds of Siberia," "It 

 seems too bad to shoot these charming little 

 birds, but as the 'Old Bushman' says, 'What 

 is hit is history, and what is missed is mystery,'' " 

 and in order to be sure to make a real addition 

 to knowledge it was necessary to procure speci- 

 mens. It was apparently an undescribed sub- 

 species and on my return I had the pleasure 

 of describing it and adding it to the list of birds 

 known to science.^ 



The moon was nearly full that night, and the 

 next morning was clear and calm. A white 

 mist filled the valleys among the hills and gave 

 the appearance of glacial ice leading down 

 to the water's edge. A fox sparrow sang from 



' In The Auk of January, 1916, I gave a description of this 

 race of chickadees, naming the bird Penthestes hudsonicus 

 nigricans. Strangely enough, this Labrador chickadee was 

 so kind as to return my visit, for a large migration of them 

 occurred throughout the New England States and even to 

 New Jersey and Staten Island in the winter of 1916-17. (See 

 The Auk for April, 1917.) 



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