226 KEELER 



thrush sounded sweet and pure, chiming afar off in silvery 

 tones. After breakfast Mr. Burroughs and I went for a 

 brief stroll ashore, and discovered in addition to the birds 

 previously heard, the redpoll and Townsend's sparrow. 

 A mother song sparrow started up suddenly at our feet, 

 and a search of the neighborhood revealed the little grass 

 nest skillfully tucked away in a niche under an overhang- 

 ing bank. The greenish brown-spotted eggs seemed large 

 for a song sparrow's. We noticed a bald eagle soaring in 

 the air suddenly poise on fluttering wing like a hawk look- 

 ing for a mouse, and then float serenely on. Later we 

 saw a pair sitting on the rocks on the beach. 



Our hasty survey of the birds was interrupted by a 

 summons to return to the ship and ere long we were steam- 

 ing on toward Unalaska. Here our stay was so brief that 

 I noted only three birds among the grassy plains and hills 

 that glowed with innumerable wild flowers the Alaska 

 Lapland longspur, the Aleutian leucosticte or rosy finch, 

 and the raven. The longspur is a summer resident of 

 boreal fields, where it tarries while the flowers bloom, and 

 then reluctantly retires southward, keeping pace with the 

 advance of the drifting snow. Its head and breast are 

 black, its back is black streaked with buff, and its under- 

 parts white, the sides streaked with black. A broad buffy 

 streak above the eye interrupts the black of the head, and 

 a collar of chestnut extends over the back of the neck. 

 The song of the longspur is loud, sweet, and clear, and 

 uttered upon the wing, reminded some of our party of the 

 rapturous strain of the bobolink. 



The Aleutian rosy finch is a large, dark chocolate-col- 

 ored sparrow with an ashen hood on the back of the head 

 and a black forehead. The rear portions of the body are 

 more or less tinged with rose. Ravens were about the 

 settlement in great numbers and as tame and impish in 

 their manners as at other coast settlements. 



