170 NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS tN ALASKA. 



During the migrations it is a rather common visitant to this coast; but I found it abundant 

 only at the Yukon mouth, where the widely-extended areas of bush-grown country otiered it suit- 

 able shelter, and where it consequently nested in considerable numbers ; thence being found along 

 this river throughout its entire length. Wherever the bushes on the streams flowing into Bering 

 Sea or the Arctic Ocean afford shelter, it delights to make its summer home, and the males may 

 be seen on all sides mounted upon projecting branches uttering their cheerful but not musical 

 notes, or busily searching for food around the shallow pools and along the muddy banks of streams, 

 and they even become so familiar as to Join with the snowbirds and fox colored sparrows in search- 

 ing about the fur-traders' doorsteps for food. In autumn they remain until well into September, 

 and are still more frequently found in the vicinity of the houses at this season than in spring- 

 time. 



In May, 1879, while I was living for a time with a fur trader at the mouth of the Yukon, 

 these blackbirds were very common in the vicinity, frequenting the dense growth of willows and 

 alders which stood a few yards from the log huts. They were very indifferent to the presence of 

 the natives and others, who were continually passing about, and here they annually came to 

 carry on their love aifairs and rear their young, as I was assured by the residents. I did not remain 

 there long enough to investigate their housekeeping, so I can only quote what Dr. Brewer tells 

 us concerning some eggs sent to the National Museum from Fort Yukon. These eggs measured 1.03 

 by .75 of an inch, and were scarcely distinguishable from the eggs of Brewer's Blackbird. He 

 aiso informs us that all the Fort Yukon eggs of this bird he had seen had a ground color of 

 very light green, very thickly covered with blotches and finer dottings of a mixture of fer- 

 ruginous and purplish brown. There appears to be very little individual variation in these birds, 

 as was shown by an examination of a considerable series of skins from the north. 



riNicoLA ENUCLEATOR (Liiiu.). Pine Grosbeak (Esk. Ni-l-ubv-iigliaM-ti'ikh-tuk). 



Along the entire west and northwest coast of America, from Vancouver Island north to 

 within the Arctic Circle, this bird occurs iu greater or less abundance. The only breaks in this 

 range are the treeless areas which occur along the coast of Bering Sea. Throughout the interior 

 of the above region it is an abundant species. On the Kaviak Peninsula, iu the vicinity of Bering 

 Straits, it is found among the stunted spruces to longitude 165° west, thence through the entire 

 Territory of Alaska to the British boundary line it is abundant; at Sitka and Kadiak it was found 

 numerous by Bischoff, during the Western Union Telegraph Expedition, and specimens were 

 brought me from points along nearly the entire course of the Yukon. It is limited by the range 

 of spruce, pine, and cotton-wood forests. Dall found the crops of these Grosbeaks filled with 

 cotton-wood buds at Nulato, on the Yukon. During winter, while traveling along the frozen 

 surfaces of the water-courses of the interior, it is common to note a party of these birds busy among 

 the cotton-wood tops uttering their cheerful lisping notes as they move from tree to tree. I have 

 frequently passed a pleasant half hour on the wintry banks of the l^ukon while making a mid-day 

 halt, and waiting for the natives to melt the snow for our tea, listening to the chirping and 

 fluttering of these birds as they came trooping along the edges of the snow-laden woods in small 

 parties. They rarely paid any attention to us, but kept on their way, and were, ere long, lost to 

 sight in the midst of the bending tree-tops, and silence again pervaded the dim vistas of the low 

 woods. These birds withstand the severest cold iu these forests, even within the Arctic Circle, 

 and appear to be about equally distributed throughout the wooded region. Unfortunately my 

 opportunities for observing them were confined entirely to the short glimpses obtained in the 

 manner cited, and lean add nothing to their history during the summer and breeding season. 

 Beyond the faint, soft call-note uttered as the birds trooped along through the forests, I never 

 heard them make any other sound. The American authors appear to have overlooked, or not 

 noted, the song of this species, which is said to be— especially in the European bird — very pleasant 

 and musical. 



In their Monographic des Loxiens, Bonaparte and Schlegel say they can only find that the 

 American birds difler from the European by having " les teintes tant soit peu plus vives que eeux 

 d^Europe." They also inform us that the song of the European bird is exceedingly " agreeable. 



