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Q 18 ProvinciaL Museum Reporr, 191m 
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OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER (Nuttallornis borealis). 
A common summer resident in the Canadian Zone. Taken on the Nahun Plateau and at 
. 
Shuswap Falls. 
YELLOW-HEADED Brackpirp (Vanthocephalus ranthocephalus). 
Several breeding colonies found at Swan Lake, the only locality in this region where the 
writer has found them breeding. An example of how very local some species are in mountainous 
countries: On May 15th a number of incompleted nests were found, and on June 8th four sets 
of eggs were taken. The nests are more loosely constructed than those of the North-western 
Redwing, and are lined with flat pieces of tule fibre. Those of the North-western Redwing are 
lined with coarse grass. Nests of both species were found close together and they made common 
cause in driving away crows, marsh hawks, and other marauders from the vicinity of the nests. 
In common with other blackbirds, the males of this species have the habit, when uttering their 
harsh grating song, of elevating the shoulders and erecting the feathers until the singer appears 
twice his natural size. 
WESTERN GRASSHOPPER SPARROW (Ammodramus savannarum bimaculatus ) . 
This handsome, unobtrusive little sparrow is common locally breeding on the dry, open hill- 
sides above Vernon. They arrive early in May and remain until the second week in October; 
one of the last sparrows to leave in the fall. Contrary to the published accounts of this bird’s 
habits, it is the writer’s experience that the males generally sing while on the ground or hidden 
in a thick clump of sage-brush. On only two occasions has the writer heard it singing while 
clinging to a weed-stalk or bush in full view. A series of skins collected includes breeding males, 
moulting adults, and juvenals. 
SLATE-COLOURED JUNCO (Junco hyemalis hyemolis) ; SuHureipt’s Junco (Junco hyemalis connec- 
tens) ; MONTANA JuNCO (Junco hyemalis montanus). f 
These three subspecies occur here as migrants; also another form, evidently intermediate ~ 
hetween oreganus and connectens. The breeding form has not yet been determined. 
BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK (Zamelodia melanocephala). 
An adult maletaken on August 24th, 1916, is the only local record. Major Allan Brooks 
found the species breeding in the Shuswap District, but it was not observed by the writer. 
TOWNSEND'S WARBLER (Dendroica toirnsendi). 
Of regular occurrence during migrations at Okanagan Landing; also taken on the Nahun 
Plateau on May 30th, where it appeared to be common. : 
FISHES. 
HRarly in the month of June the Director drew the attention of Dr. C. H. Gilbert, of Stanford 
University (who was visiting the Museum), to a strange fish that had heen caught and presented 
to the Museum by the Bentinck Island fishermen, near Race Rocks, Strait of Juan de Fuca, about 
ten miles south of Victoria. Dr. Gilbert noticed at once that the specimen was one that he had 
never seen in this portion of the Pacific, and identified it as a species of Benthodesmus; also 
suggesting that I send it to him at Stanford University, along with other fishes, which he would 
be pleased to examine and identify for this Department upon his return to California. The 
extract from his letter of November 27th, 1916, is here quoted :— 
“The long silvery fish which you showed me last summer turns out to be a Benthodesmus, — 
as we thought at the time. There are three other species of this genus known—one from New 
Zealand, one from Japan, and one from the Atlantic; each of these is known from a single 
spécimen. <A careful comparison with the brief description indicates that your specimen cannot 
be identified with either of the known species from the Pacific, but the differences from the 
Atlantie species are so small in amount that I do not care to risk describing it as a distinet 
species. This is the more unfortunate that the Atlantic species has received the name 
‘atlanticus.’ ” 

