CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 65 
LANIUS CRISTATUS. 
(25.) THE CRESTED SHRIKE. 
As the last boat came off from Wrangel Island and the captain began to prepare for getting 
clear from the ice that the strong tide was bringing about us with too much force for safety, a 
sailor came up to me in a shamefaced manner and held out a dried specimen of this bird which he 
said he had picked up on the hillside and wished to know if I eared for it. As might be supposed 
the mummy was taken in hand and is among the prizes secured during the cruise of the Corwin. 
By the aid of alcohol it came safely to Washington, and Mr. Ridgway has carefully reproduced 
it in the accompanying plate. It has been represented as perching upon a fragment of drift-wood 
frozen in the ice, with the shores of Wrangel Island in the distance, the latter being from sketches 
taken by myself as we were leaving that place. I may refer to the fact that we found fragments 
of drift-wood, not only upon this island but in the water about it, as several who have seen the 
drawing have supposed that the perch must necessarily have been introduced solely by a flight of 
the artist’s imagination. This is strictly an Asiatic bird, and its occurrence here upon the hillside 
far above the tide-mark shows that it must have reached here alive, probably during some storm, 
and died subsequently of starvation or exposure. Although the bird was obtained the 12th of 
August, yet it is a young of the year in its first plumage, of which the following is a description: 
The crown and upper part of the back is slightly dull rufous or chestnut; back lighter toward 
rump where it is grayish and yellowish brown with dark bars. The upper tail coverts are russet 
or reddish brown with dark barring near the end and tipped with grayish. The feathers of crown 
and back are edged slightly with grayish, showing the immature plumage. The wings are brown 
with color of the back extending over the shoulders, but with the coverts brown, edged with dull 
buffy and grayish and becoming reddishin some instances. The tertiaries are edged broadly with 
pale brownish yellow. The tail is reddish brown, nearly uniform, except the outer feather, which 
is lighter than the inner. Belly nearly a uniform yellowish white, marked on breast and sides 
with fine, wavy, and irregular bars of brownish or blackish, giving a loosely vermiculated appear- 
ance to the lower surface. The throat is immaculate yellowish white. The lores are grayish white, 
shaded with buffy, which color extends back as an imperfect supraorbital line, and the cheeks and 
auriculars are yellowish white or pale buffy, finely maculated with dark edges to the feathers. 
The measurements of the bird are: 
Inches. 
DV oa a ee eS eS ee Fe ee 28 Se es. Se 3. 40 
SSE ee ye as a ee en ee Scene oan na bales sasecte+— = 2i5-- 5 3.70 
@uiMen ea ae see cee aos =e eee tas Sab eee te oot ecb bec o le See ae - 50 
Dench toi D Ube by DASC ia sete are ei wr Se ee .28 
WNarSuS 2 ose ae oo ee ee ee amen soon coe See ss San cea Slee oneasnesnse . 98 
The graduation of the tail is nearly seventy-hundredths of an inch. 
HIRUNDINIDA. SWALLOWS. 
HIRUNDO ERYTHROGASTRA Bodd. 
(26.) THE BARN SWALLOW. 
One of the most pleasant sights that meet the traveler’s eye on landing at Saint Michael’s is 
the large number of common Barn Swallows which make their homes about the buildings. These 
birds extend their range to the shores of Bering Sea and the Arctie Ocean. Their cheerful 
twitterivg and graceful motions as they circle and glide in wayward flight about the small collection 
of log houses recall scenes of a far different character than those which fill the eye at this place. 
Here they nest in deserted native houses or under the eaves of the few frame or log houses, and in 
some instances seek the shelter of rocky caves and hidden spots on the faces of the cliffs, as was 
seen on the north shore of Kotzebue Sound, where two nests were found placed far inside of a deep 
cleft extending into a rocky cliff reaching out into the sea. The nests were in close proximity 
upon a rocky shelf, while below them the waves dashed back and forth, breaking into spray within 
a few inches of the nests. In the Aleutian Islands the swallow is scarce, and is said not to occur 
H. Ex. 105 9 
