Читать книгу Life Histories of North American Jays, Crows, and Titmice - Arthur Cleveland Bent - Страница 11

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At long last the A. O. U. (1944) committee on nomenclature has decided to admit to the new Check-list this fairly well marked subspecies, which Robert Ridgway (1882) described many years ago as “similar to P. canadensis fumifrons in darkness of coloration, but forehead, lores, chin, throat, and sides of neck distinctly white, in marked and abrupt contrast with the dark color of adjacent parts; crown, occiput, and upper part of auricular region decidedly black, with little or no admixture of slaty anteriorly. Differing from true canadensis in much darker coloration throughout, much blacker crown, black auriculars, less extensive white area on forehead, and more marked contrast of the white portions of head and neck, with adjacent darker colors.”

Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1914) proposed the name P. c. sanfordi for the birds of this species found in Newfoundland, but this name has never been recognized by the A. O. U. committee. I have collected birds of this species in both Newfoundland and Labrador and have examined large series of both in the museum at Cambridge, where we all agreed that the Newfoundland bird is not sufficiently different from that of the Labrador Peninsula to warrant its recognition in nomenclature.

What we know about the habits of this race in Newfoundland and Labrador is included in our life history of typical canadensis, which was written before nigricapillus was formally recognized.