Vol 'l9of m ] Anthony, Stray Notes from Alaska. 183 



some minutes spent in circling the pond disappeared in the north. 

 A little later large flocks of Little Brown Cranes began to arrive 

 from the east and passed on toward Cape Prince of Wales. All 

 the rest of that day they were passing by and the air was filled with 

 their bugle-like notes. With them came flocks of geese, numbering 

 each from four to twenty-five. Many of the geese came from the 

 west, suggesting the possibility of their having come from Siberia. 



Most of the flight seemed to be Branta canadensis minima, but 

 a few Anser albifrons gambeli were noted as well. Each flock of 

 geese, on arriving, made direct for the open water but after being 

 disturbed they retired to the open spots on the tundra or lit on some 

 of the many frozen lakes. This date also brought us the first gulls; 

 several, the size of the California Gull, lit on the ice or hovered 

 over the open water but were so wild that they could not be identi- 

 fied with certainty. Wilson's Snipe also was noted for the first 

 time on the 10th and rapidly became common. 



On May 11a Robin was heard singing. At the pond I found 

 a flock of ducks, consisting of Pintails, Green-winged Teal, and 

 Scaups. Three Least Sandpipers were probing the mud for their 

 breakfast. Later in the day flocks of Tringa and Larus arrived 

 from the east. In a small cotton wood near the hot spring a nest 

 of the Northern Shrike was found with seven fresh eggs. The 

 nest was large and bulky, composed of sticks and twigs outwardly, 

 somewhat loosely put together; inside of fine dry grass, lined with 

 a large quantity of the pure white feathers of the ptarmigan, which 

 gave to the structure a most artistic effect. 



On the 12th Robins were plenty, and Tree Sparrows had also 

 arrived in numbers. The flight of water birds had somewhat 

 abated though but few ducks had arrived. The geese had paired 

 and were looking into the merits of the nesting sites offered in the 

 open spots on the tundra. After I reached the coast I learned 

 that this region was visited by heavy and prolonged rains that so 

 swelled the streams that a large part of the nesting water birds 

 were driven from their nests ; the geese gathered in flocks and were 

 said to have made little or no attempt to raise a brood. 



On the southern slopes of the Kigulik Mountains I met with the 

 first Fox Sparrows and Golden Plovers on May 16, and the follow- 

 ing day noted the first Titlarks and Red-backed Sandpipers. The 



