100 



NATURAL mSTOKY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA 



PicoiDES AMERiCANUS DORSALis BaircL Alpine Three-toed Woodpecker. 



In examiniug the series of Picoides^in the National Museum collectiou from Southeastern 

 Alaska, I find examples from Fort Kenai which must be referred to this form and others from 

 Kadiak Island which approach it closely. As dorsalu of the Rocky Mountains extends its range 

 north to Forb Simpson, on the headwaters of the Mackenzie River, it is probable that the birds 

 occurring on the southeastern coast of Alaska, in the Kadiak and Sitkan region, intergrade 

 between typical dorsalis and the new northern race described above. Specimens of typical 

 dorsalis are present from the extreme headwaters of the Yukon River, but no examples I'efera- 

 ble to this form are among the series of woodpeckers taken at Fort Reliance and thence 

 down the course of that stream to Bering Sea. We possess no information of the habits of this 

 race, and very little upon its distribution in Southern Alaska, and, in fact, no definite knowl- 

 regarding the extension and limits of its northern range. 



Sphyrapicus ruber (Gmel.). Red breasted Sapsucker. 



Known as an Alaskan bird only from the record of Hartlaub of two males taken at Chilcat 

 River April 12. (Jonr. Orn., July, 1883. 275.) 



179. CoLAPTES AURATUS (Linn.). Flicker. 



This handsome woodpecker breeds from one side of the Territory to the other wherever 

 wooded country occurs. In the winter of 1880 I secured a skin from a native on the shore of 

 Bering Straits, and was told by an Eskimo there that in summer it occurred not uncommonly among 

 the spruces a few milos in the interior. From this vicinity it is found to the eastward in all 

 suitable places, and has even been recorded from Greenland. It has been sent to the National 

 Museum from the Lower Anderson River, and is well known to breed along the entire 

 course of the Yukon, reaching to the mouth of the latter, whence I received several skins. It is 

 a regular summer resident at the head of Norton Bay, and reaches the Arctic on the shore of 

 Kotzebue Sound, where the natives told me the bird was not rare during the summer. 



