ALASKA YELLOW WAGTAIL 19 



MOTACILLA FLAVA ALASCENSIS (Ridgway) 

 ALASKA YELLOW WAGTAIL 

 HABITS 



This pretty little bird is our American representative of a wide- 

 ranging species of northern Europe and Asia, from Norway and 

 Sweden to northeastern Siberia. It is one of the few Asiatic species 

 that have wandered across Bering Strait and become more or less 

 firmly established in Alaska, but the yellow wagtail has become more 

 firmly established than the others and is now really abundant in its 

 limited range on this continent, from Point Barrow and Kotzebue 

 Sound to the mouth of the Nushagak River, on the Bering Sea coast 

 of Alaska. It probably breeds also on St. Matthew Island and per- 

 haps on other islands in Bering Sea. On the tundra back of Nome, 

 in July 1911, we were surprised to find the yellow wagtail to be one 

 of the most characteristic and most conspicuous of the small land 

 birds of the region. The young were on the wing then and were 

 much in evidence everywhere, especially in the willow patches and 

 around the small ponds on the tundra, but also on the outskirts of 

 the town. Except near the town they were quite shy, especially 

 when on the ground, but they were constantly flitting about over us, 

 with their peculiar, buoyant, billow^y flight and continuous twittering 

 notes. 



Dr. Nelson (1887) says that "in the vicinity of Saint Michaels it 

 is one of the most familiar and common land birds, and as one walks 

 over the open tundra its familiar clinking, metallic note strikes pleas- 

 antly on the ear. It usually has a preference for the boggy, moss- 

 grown portions of the country." Dr. Grinnell (1900) found it to be 

 "an abundant summer bird of the coast region of Kotzebue Sound." 

 The first specimen he secured "was flushed from the weedy border of 

 a dwarf alder thicket near a pond." 



Our Alaska race of this species was once supposed to be identical 

 with the form found in eastern Siberia, M. f. leucostriatus, which is 

 decidedly duller in coloration than the brightly colored, olive-and- 

 yellow type form that is found in northern Europe. Our bird is 

 now regarded as distinct from the Siberian race, and is even duller 

 in coloration; Mr. Ridgway (1904) describes alascensis as similar 

 to M. /. leucostriatus, "but slightly smaller, especially the bill ; colora- 

 tion duller, the yellow of the under parts paler and less pure, the 

 chest more distinctly clouded or blotched with grayish, the olive- 

 green of rump, etc., less pronounced." 



/Spring. — By just what route the Alaska yellow wagtail reaches its 

 summer home on the Bering Sea coast of Alaska does not seem to be 

 definitely known ; and it never will be known until enough specimens 



