MAMMALS AXD BIRDS OK ALASKA 



33 



SONG BIRDS 



The song birds of Alaska include an unusual number and variel}' 

 of thrushes, the most common of whicli is imdoubtedly the western 

 robin. Bird students are generally amazed to find in these latitudes 

 such a wide assortment not only of thrushes but also of warblers, 

 sparrows, vireos, swallows, wrens, kinglets, crossbills, chickadees, 

 flycatchers, finches, juncos, red polls, waxwings, woodpeckers, blue- 

 birds, hununingbirds, snow bimtings, longspurs, pine grosbeaks, 

 flickers, phoebes, blackbirds, pipits, and siskins. The sprightly 

 water ousel, or dipper, is a common sight along the mountain streams. 

 Among the distinctive birds of somewhat larger siz(^ are the bole 

 Alaska jay, the dark-blue Steller's jay, and the black-and-white mag- 



Figure 34. — Contraband beaver pelts valued at $7,000 seized by wildlife agents 

 of the Alaska Game Commission. (Photo by Homer Jewell.) 



pie. The northern shrike and the kingfisher are well distributed. 

 Around the villages, the northern raven and northwest crow are 

 common scavengers. 



PROTECTION GIVEN WILDLIFE 



For many years, game-law enforcement in Alaska was a somewhat 

 haphazard undertaking, divided among several Federal agencies dele- 

 gated by Congress to administer laws that were inadequate and had 

 gradually become obsolete and impracticable of enforcement. Under 

 these conditions, both game and land fur animals were dimniishing in 

 numbers in many sections. The intensive killing of beavers (fig. 34) 

 and the overtrapping of martens endangered the future of these 

 valuable species. It was highly important that the Government 



