VOl 1906^ n ] Anthony, Stray Notes from Alaska. 181 



in the interior of the peninsula I concluded this species was a 

 regular winter resident and made general use of these shelters. 

 During the month of March two or three Richardson's Owls were 

 seen, all in the thick willow growth along the Kruzitrin River. 



A few Parns were found at long intervals in the willows; their 

 presence being usually announced by their call, and it was not often 

 that one could be seen near enough for identification. I think that 

 all I saw were P. cinctus alascenis. 



Extending up from Grantly Harbor, toward the northeast, is an 

 extensive basin but very slightly elevated above the sea. The tides 

 are noticeable 75 miles by the river from the head of Grantly Harbor, 

 and with a south wind the waters are distinctly salt even thus far 

 from the coast. Running back from the several rivers which drain 

 into this basin are numberless sloughs and bayous, forming a net- 

 work of water ways, a veritable swamp in summer, well nigh im- 

 passable, but furnishing ideal nesting grounds for water birds, while 

 the thickets of willow and alder growing over a large part of the 

 dryer ground furnished better cover for land birds than I met with 

 in any part of the peninsula. Flanking this region on the south 

 is the Kigulik Mountains, their ragged peaks rising abruptly to 

 elevations ranging from 3000 to 4700 feet and extending about 60 

 miles east and west. At the base of the range, on the north side, 

 are found several hot springs within an area of a few acres, and 

 surrounding them a growth of cottonwoods of perhaps a mile in 

 extent. In this region I camped several times and found more 

 bird life than in any part of the region covered. As the Eskimos 

 assured me that about the warm springs the water fowl are first 

 seen in the spring migration, I returned to this point to watch the 

 arrivals as late as I safely could and return across the mountains 

 before the ice broke up in May. Most of my time was spent along 

 the northern base of the Kigulik Mountains, and the valleys of the 

 Krugamapa and Kruzitrin Rivers. 



Two or three Redpolls were seen and heard singing March 7 

 in the willows along the Kruzitrin, and on the same day two Hawk 

 Owls were recorded. These arrivals marked the first of the spring 

 movement, but it was several weeks before any real migration could 

 be said to have commenced. Redpolls became gradually more 

 common, coming in flocks by April 15. It was not until April 12 



