THE AUK: 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 

 ORNITHOLOGY. 



Vol. xxxvi. January, 1919. No. 1. 



THE BIRDS OF THE RED DEER RIVER, ALBERTA. 



BY P. A. TAVERNER. 1 



Plates I-IV. 



The region about Red Deer and Calgary, Alta., has received 

 the attention of several ornithological observers; but while indi- 

 vidual notes and specimens from there are scattered through many 

 publications and various collections no attempt has been made to 

 correlate or bring them all together. During the summers of 

 1915 and 1916 the Geological Survey of Canada had parties col- 

 lecting large fossils in the Edmonton and Belly River formations 

 in the bad-lands of the Red Deer River. Incidental to this work 

 Mr. George Sternberg of this museum collected a number of inter- 

 esting birds. His account of the country and the ornithological 

 specimens he secured, added to the fragmentary references in 

 literature, proved so interesting that it was decided to make a more 

 intensive ornithological investigation of the river during the sum- 

 mer of 1917. 



June 18 found the writer and C. H. Young in Red Deer, where a 

 rough scow-shaped boat was built, sixteen feet long and four and 

 a half feet wide, capable of carrying ourselves and a comfortable 

 amount of camp and collecting equipment. An outboard motor 

 was attached and the descent of the river begun on June 25. While 

 on the subject it may be well to state that this outfit was eminently 



1 Published by permission of the Geological Survey, Ottawa, Ont. 



1 



