GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW 1353 



come in immense flocks, much larger, apparently, than any appearing on the 

 mainland. Some of the birds come to grief against the light; Lien counted 29 

 golden-crowns killed in this way between April 24 and May 26, 1916. Between 

 April 28 and May 7, 1918, Bailey found golden-crowned sparrows common about 

 Port Angeles and all through the valleys of the Elwha, Soleduck, Bogachiel, and 

 II oh rivers, often in considerable flocks wherever grain was to be found by the 

 roadside or weed seeds in the open. Their cheery songs, he writes, were generally 

 the loudest of the morning chorus. 



Eastern Washington is evidently off the main path of migration of the golden- 

 crown, though there are a few scattered records for that part of the state. 



The birds reach their Alaska breeding grounds in May, according to 

 Ira N. Gabrielson and Frederick C. Lincoln (1959), "early dates 

 being Kiglauik Mountains, May 18; Hooper Bay, May 22; Nushagak, 

 May 10; Chignik, May 14; and False Pass, May 5." George Willett 

 (1920) reports from Forrester Island, "Golden-crowned Sparrows 

 were usually plentiful from May 8 to 19." Brinda Kessel writes 

 in a letter from College, Alaska, of observing birds there between 

 May 2 and May 20, 1956. Joseph Grinnell (1900) first noted one 

 May 23 in the Kotzebue Sound region, where he did not consider the 

 species common. Harry S. Swarth (1934) collected one at Sitkalidak 

 Island May 15, and Charles Sheldon (1909) reports seeing one May 

 26 on the upper Toklat River near Mount McKinley. 



At the west end of the Alaska Peninsula Olaus J. Murie (1959) 

 writes: 



"May 22, near Moffet Cove on Izembek Bay, I heard the first 

 golden-crowned sparrow. Next day there were many * * * . They 

 were common among the alders, as far as these bushes grow up the 

 valley toward Aghileem Pinnacles. They were noted in the alder 

 patches at the base of Frosty Peak, at False Pass, and Ikatan. While 

 not as numerous as some other sparrows, the golden-crown nests 

 commonly throughout the region covered, though local range is 

 naturally governed by the boundaries of the alder patches, which are 

 by no means universally distributed." 



Nesting. — In its Alaskan summer home the golden-crown occupies 

 the high Hudsonian and Alpine-Arctic zones of the coastal regions 

 rather than of the interior. Francis S. L. Williamson sent me the 

 following unpublished notes from Anchorage in October, 1956: 



"The species arrives at this latitude around the middle of May 

 when there is frequently deep snow on its mountain nesting grounds. 

 Nesting commences fairly promptly, toward the end of May, and 

 reaches a peak in mid or late June. The birds are found on all the 

 local mountains, primarily in the deep stream-carved canyons above 

 timber line. They are abundant in both alder thickets and in the 

 extremely dense herbaceous vegetation between timber line and the 

 more alpine, heath-rovered slopes of the higher county. They 



646-737 — 68 — pt. 3 8 



