THE OREGON NATURALIST. 19 
ALEUTIAN SONG SPARROW. 
Melospiza Cinerea. 
But little has been written of the life history 
of those few hardy birds that make the no-th- 
ern latitudes their constant home for the simple 
reason that the few ornithologists that hive 
visited these regions, did so for but brief periuds 
during the summer months, and contented 
themselves by compiling local lists, someti nes 
with, but oftener without annotations. 
For the last three years it fell to the writers 
lot to reside on Kodiac Island, Lat. 57. 30, N. 
Long. 153. W. Alaska, and it was 
there and during that period that the follow- 
ing observations were made. 
January finds the Island of Kodiak covered in 
a deep mantleof Snow, not even a house-fly 
is to be seen; then for subsistence the Aleutian 
Song Sparrow takes to the Ocean beach and 
when the tide is out hunts along the surf line 
turning over bunches of sea-weed and smill 
Stones under which he finds sand-fleas ard 
small sea-worms, these, with what scraps be 
picks up near the dwellings of men, constitute 
his food during the winter months; but al- 
though his lot is hard his spirit is never daunt- 
ed and his clear sweet song rings out amidst 
the blinding snow-storm and ice-Jaden gale, 
thus his life continues through February and 
March until April when brief glimpses of sun- 
shine aided by the wind have laid bare a few 
patches of grass ou the southern hillsides, Then 
with his mate from whom he never parts he 
gathers dry fine grass and in some level shelter- 
ed nook close to the ocean beach, hidden from 
the sight of man, constructs a compact nest on 
the frozen ground using this as his only avail- 
able material, Five eggs of a pale bluish 
color, heavily blotched with brown are laid and 
by the first week in May, often before the 
migrants from the South arrive, the young are 
hatched. 
As the length and severity of the Northern 
winters vary, so must the food of the young 
vary. If they are harched, as they often are, 
before the snow is off, then their diet consists 
of Sand Fleas and Sea Worms; but no sooner 
has the snow disappeared than the million 
forms of insect life that abound in these lati- 
tudes appear and the young hirds live in plenty. 
As a summer diet and as food for the young 
when obtainable the Aleutian Song Sparrow 
seems to prefer Spiders and especially the large 
Spiders found in the woods, they were never 
observed to eat wild hersies or seeds but it is 
quite likely that they do. 
As no nests containing fresh eggs were ever 
It is not 
thought that they raise more than one brood, 
found later than the end of May. 
but two sets of eggs may be laid when the first 
set has been taken or destroyed. 
In coloration this bird varies much accord- 
ing to season; being much darken in the winter 
plumage and showing much more of a slaiy 
color in the spring and summer. 
Bernard J. Bretherton, 
Ayian Museum, Newport, Oregon. 
= Who can beat 
this? A Humming- 
birds nest within 
fourteen inches of 
the ground. I 
found one on a 
Black berrry cane in 
a cultivated field. 
The bird had _ be- 
come tangled in the material of the nest and 
was hanging there dead. 
Caw ns: 
