Labrador Chickadee (Penthestes hudsonicus nigricans) in Its Return Flight from the Fall Migration of 1916

Abstract

THE extraordinary southward migration of Penthestes hudsonicus nigricans into New England and still farther south in the fall of 1916 was described with some detail in the issue of 'The Auk' for April, 1917. Almost all the individuals which had been noted in the vicinity of Boston had passed on by the middle of January. Mr. H. L. Barrett, however, recorded four remaining birds in the conifers of the Arnold Arboretum in the months of February, March, and April, his latest observation of these birds having been on April 19. Presumably, therefore, these four birds became winter residents, remaining from a flock of twelve birds noted in December. Other March records of P. hudsonicus, which have been furnished me, are those of one bird heard at Ipswich by Dr. C. W. Townsend and Dr. A. A. Allen on March 11, which was so elusive that by their best endeavors they were unable to get a glimpse of it; and one bird taken at Providence, R. I., by Mr. Harry S. Hathaway on March 18. This bird was sent to Dr. Townsend for identification and proved to be nigricans. Some few, but definite data of the return flight of 'hudsonicus ' were obtained in May, when other northern breeding birds were appearing, such as Crossbill, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and northern nesting warblers. On May 4, as I passed through the centre of Belmont, the characteristic calls of two brown-capped Chickadees answering one another were heard in conifers on private grounds bordering the village street. I was not able to obtain a view of these birds, but their presence in trees of the village indicated that they were migrating. Again, on May 14, when I was in the Fresh Pond Reservation in Cambridge, four brown-capped Chickadees were seen in the deciduous trees of that portion known as Kingsley Park, occasionally flying out over the pond, but returning successively to the trees and giving their characteristic calls. These birds were in comparatively open park lands entirely removed