196 NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



will repeat the soug after a very short sikiice. At this time it is almost iiupossible to get within 

 guushot of theiu, but while thej' are about the houses they are tame and unsusijicious, aud will 

 allow one to approach very close without taking alarm. 



At the mouth of the Yukon, the last of May and the first few days of June, 1ST9, they were 

 extremely common, and every pleasant day the bush-covered banks of the numerous chaunels 

 cutting the delta of this stream re-echoed with the beautiful uotes of these birds; by the 7th of 

 June, however, they were mated and had their uests; after this their uotes ceased suddenly and 

 were not heard again. 



On June 5, 1880, a pair was shot iu a thicket near Saint Michaels and the nest secured. The 

 uest obtained is a very strong, compact structure, 4i inches across by 2£ inches high, having a 

 central cavity If inches deep by 2^ across. The outer part of the nest is made of a thin, compact 

 layer of green moss with a few dead leaves. Inside is a thin layer of dry grass running circularly 

 up the inside of the nest ; this again is lined with a handsomely cross-woven layer of wii-y black 

 moss fibers and chestnut club-moss stems, the whole being a very well made and handsome struct- 

 ure, iu which were three eggs with a clayey greenish ground-color ; two of them are thickly 

 and uniformly dotted with dull reddish-brown; between the dots the groundcolor shows plainly 

 iu many places. The third egg is so densely dotted with reddish-brown aud chocolate that the 

 ground color can barely be traced iu a few places. This egg measures .90 by ,70 ; the other two .89 

 by .08, and .90 by .08. 



^ Towards the end of July and first of August the males renew their songs aud are less shy 

 than in the spring,\but by the end of July the young are ou the wing, and, with their parents, come 

 about the houses. They have now much tbe same skulking ways as the cat-bird iu southern lati- 

 tudes. They come boldly about, but skurry away into the midst of the weed-patches and other 

 convenient shelter at the first alarm, only to come back again the moment danger has passed, 

 flirting their tails, apparently as bold and as defiant as ever. It leaves the coast of Bering Sea 

 by the last of August. At Fort Simpson, British America, they arrive the middle of May aud 

 leave the middle of September, and it is an abundant species along the entire northern extreme 

 of British America. MacFarlane and Kennicott found it nesting either on trees, sometimes 8 feet 

 from the ground, or upon the ground. Its known range is apparently limited only by the limit 

 of the bushes. There is a cousidei-able variation among the North Alaskan series in the exact size 

 and shape of the bill, as well as in the exact shade of color; but this is merely individual, and 

 Alaska specimens show no apparent intergradation with their southern relative. 



Owing to its in-edilectiou for bushy places, this fine spari'ow is unknown from any of the 

 ^Bering Sea Islands, but It occurs ou the southeastern coast in the Sitkan region, and may be 

 classed as a summer resident on all the Alaskan mainlaud. nacliiug Bering Straits ou the west 

 aud the bush limit on the north iu about latitude G9°. 



Passerella tliaca unalaschensis (Gmel.). Townsend's Sparrow. 



But very little is known of this bird's habits, aud nothing of its nesting. 



There are four specimens in the National Museum collection from Sitka and several from 

 Kadiak, and the species undoubtedly occurs along the coast to the north of Kadiak, where the 

 surroundings aud climate are similar, and thence along the mainland coast to Sitka. It was found 

 at Cook's Inlet and Kadiak by Bean aud also ou the Shumagius, where it was associated with 

 Titlarks and Snow Buntings. It appears to have its breeding range north of Washington Territory, 

 and passes south to Central California during the winter season. 



A young male taken at Kadiak, April 26, 1868, has the crown and back, to the rump, dingy 

 rusty brown. The tail-coverts are a lighter rusty. Wing-coverts a dusky shade of rusty brown 

 to the tail. Tbe wings dark brown, edged with a dark reddish-brown shade. The tail is almost 

 exactly as in the adult. The wings have more rusty reddish. Sides of head dark brownish, mottled 

 lightly with vrhitish. Throat and breast grayish-white, with feathers tipped and edged with brown, 

 and a reddish shade on the breast. Abdomen fulvous white. The sides of the body heavily 

 washed with a dingy fulvous brown; the central shaft-streaks of pale dingy reddish brown. 



