Sp. Char. ♂ ad., 61,329, Amaknak Island, Unalaschka, Oct. 21, 1871; W. H. Dall. Above umber-brown, more rufescent on the wings, rump, and tail; secondaries and tail-feathers showing indistinct transverse dusky bars; primaries about equally barred with blackish and dilute umber or brownish-white; middle-coverts tipped with a small white dot, preceded by a black one. Lower part, including a rather distinct superciliary stripe, pale ochraceous-umber; sides, flanks, abdomen, and crissum distinctly barred with dusky and whitish on a rusty ground; crissum with sagittate spots of white. Wing, 2.20; tail, 1.60; culmen, .65; tarsus, .75.
Hab. Aleutian and Pribylow Islands, Alaska.
The specimen above described represents about the average of a large series obtained on Amaknak Island by Mr. Dall. They vary somewhat among themselves as regards dimensions, but all are very much larger than
any specimens of T. hyemalis, from which it also differs in longer, straighter, and more subulate bill (the gonys slightly ascending). The type specimen from St. George’s Island was immature, and we embrace the opportunity of giving the description of an adult sent down with several others in the autumn of 1871 by Mr. Dall from Unalaschka.
This form bears the same relation to T. hyemalis that Melospiza unalaschkensis does to M. melodia; T. pacificus, like M. rufina, being an intermediate form.
Habits. Of this new variety, the Alaska Wren, but little is as yet known as to its personal history. Mr. Dall states that it is found in abundance all the year round on St. George’s Island, and that it breeds in May, building a nest of moss in the crevices of the rocks, and, according to the Aleuts, lays six eggs. Mr. Dall subsequently found it quite common at Unalaschka in the summer of 1871.
Genus CISTOTHORUS, Caban.
Cistothorus, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1850, 1851, 77. (Type, Troglodytes stellaris.)
Telmatodytes, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1850, 1851, 78. (Type, Certhia palustris.)
Thryothorus, Vieillot, Analyse, 1816, according to G. R. Gray.