1354 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 paet 3 



also occur locally in several places at sea level, usually where brush- 

 covered slopes extend abruptly down to the shore as at Potter and 

 Hope on Turnagain Arm. Farther down the Kenai Peninsula they 

 are found along Cook Inlet at several low localities as at Deep Creek. 

 During the last two nesting seasons on the Kuskokwim River near 

 Bethel I saw only one bird, but the Eskimos tell rne they are common 

 in the dense alder and willow thickets bordering the numerous sloughs 

 farther down the river toward the coast at Kwinhok." 



No studies of the nesting habits of this species have ever been made, 

 and little is known of its courtship, territoriality, incubation, or 

 natal care. Donald D. McLean wrote me in a letter from Sacra- 

 mento, Calif. "Courtship just barely begins before they leave for 

 the north and I doubt if any actual choice of mates takes place. I 

 have seldom heard their song in California sung at what I would 

 consider full power." Persons familiar with the species in Alaska 

 during June comment often on the continuous singing of males perched 

 on the top of low bushes or matted birches, alders, and balsams. 



Sidney B. Peyton wrote me: "A number of nests were found on 

 June 18, 1955 in the Little Susitna Canyon about 60 miles north of 

 Anchorage. The nests were quite bulky and well made of dry fern 

 leaves and stems, dry grass, and willow leaves. Some were lined 

 with grass alone, others with mixed grass and moose hair. The only 

 nest above the ground was on the horizontal branch of a small willow 

 tree and well hidden under last year's dry ferns. The others were 

 sunk in the ground at the base of small willows and were very well 

 hidden. * * * The nests contained equal numbers of four and five 

 eggs, and all were about the same stage of incubation of about a 

 week. * * * The same territory was covered June 23, 1956 and only 

 one nest was located and only one other pair was seen. The time of 

 the melting snow seems to govern their nesting in this locality." 

 The average dimensions of several nests were: inside depth 2 inches, 

 inside diameter 2% inches, walls 2 inches. 



Harry S. Swarth (1934) writes: "A nest was found on Kodiak 

 Island on June 11, containing three heavily incubated eggs. It was 

 placed in a depression in the ground on a steep bank and was fairly 

 well concealed by overhanging grass. On Nunivak, July 3, a nest 

 was found containing young a week old. This was in a willow thicket 

 on the top of a mound, the nest on the ground, almost entirely hidden 

 by a dense network of tangled wallow branches. Both parents Mere 

 feeding the young." Alfred M. Bailey (1943) collected a nest at the 

 end of the Seward Peninsula June 9, 1940 "in the moss on the ground 

 along the foundation of an abandoned igloo." 



In British Columbia Louis B. Bishop (1900) writes, "Osgood found 

 an almost finished nest in a conifer at Summit Lake June 12. It was 



