Jeffries on an Hermaphrodite Bird. 
x 7 
m-] 
tively claimed by Mr. Ridgway) I find that of Massachusetts 
specimens captured during the migrations, my series includes five 
that fall within the extremes assigned to bicknelli , to which, 
necessarily, they, with the Mt. Washington examples, must now 
be referred. 
While it is perhaps unsafe to base any very positive conclusions 
on the material at present available, there seems every reason to 
believe that this small race will prove a reasonably constant 
one, at least as represented along the southern borders of its 
breeding range. However this may be, the long-disputed ques- 
tion of the character of the relationship borne by T. alicice to 
T. swainsoni , is, as Mr. Bicknell has pointed out, at length 
definitely settled. Those who from the first have maintained 
their specific distinctness have surely good reason to exult in this 
final victory. 
Our satisfaction at the acquisition of this Thrush, new specifi- 
cally to the summer fauna of New England, and, as a variety, 
previously unrecognized from within its limits, can scarcely fail 
to be tempered with chagrin that so interesting a stranger has 
all this time existed among us undetected. Yet when we pause 
to reflect, there is the consolation — barren though it be — that our 
higher mountains have never been adequately explored by ornith- 
ologists ; and who can say that they do not hold further surprises? 
With their Alpine flora and cold climate they offer conditions 
favorable to the requirements of many northern-breeding birds, 
and it is by no means improbable ±hat several such, at present 
known only as migrants through New England territory, may 
eventually be found to pass the summer in their remote fast- 
nesses. At all events the field is well worth further investi- 
gation. 
NOTES ON AN HERMAPHRODITE BIRD. 
BY J. AMORY JEFFRIES. 
A short time ago I received the body of a Green-tailed Tow- 
hee ( Pipilo chlorurus ), which forms the subject of the following 
description. The bird was shot by Mr. Brewster, at Colorado 
