THE BIRDS OF BERING SEA AND THE 

 ARCTIC OCEAN. 



TTJRDID^. THEUSHES. 

 HTLOCICHLA ALICIiC Baird. 



(1.) The Gkay-Cheeked Thrush. 



In middle latitudes where our aequaiutauce is made with this bird we associate it with damp 

 woodlands and sheltered glens, and it wouhl seem almost incongruous to one familiar with it in 

 such surroundings to look for it as an inhabitant of the barren stretches of arctic lands where for 

 many miles not a tree raises its shaft. Such is its northern home, however, and throughout the 

 entire arctic region north of Hudson's Bay to Bering Strait and across into Kamtchatka the bird 

 is found in a greater portion of this range as an extremely abundant species. Wherever clumps 

 of dwarf willows or alder have gained a foothold along the sterile slopes and hillsides in the north, 

 a pair or more of these wanderers may be looked for. Along the entire Bering Sea coast of Alaska, 

 and north around the shores of Kotzebue Sound, it is numerous among the many alder bushes 

 found on these shores, and the record of the bird from Kamtchatka renders certain its presence on 

 the adjoining shores of Northeastern Siberia. It is the most northern species of thrush found in 

 America and its breeding range is limited only by the absence of a bush in which to place its nest. 

 It passes by the groves and farms of the ISTortheru States just as the buds are swelling and the 

 warm, misty rains of spring are quickening into life the sleeping seeds and rootlets ; tilled with 

 buoyant exultation it pauses now and then to pour forth those strange but pleasing cadences which 

 once heard in their full sweetness will never be forgotten. But it has no time to tarry, and ere long 

 it is already far on its way to the north. The strange, wild song which arose but a short time 

 since in pleasant woodland spots and quiet nooks in southern groves is now heard by wandering 

 Indians who seek their summer fishing-grounds by the banks of northern streams. Yet a little 

 later and it troops in abundance near to the shores of the Arctic, where the Mackenzie and other 

 rivers pour their spring floods into the icy sea. Down the Yukon these birds pass, using the 

 densely bush grown bank of the river as their highway, raising now and then their song which finds 

 here fittest surroundings. Reaching the mouth of the Yukon, many wander along the coast of 

 Bering Sea to the north, and some are said to cross the straits. 



They have now reached their summer homes, ami in slieltered thickets among many of their 

 kind they choose their mates and prei)are for rearing their young. Ere long their joyous song is 

 heard no more, but instead the sprightly bird is busily engaged in caring for its gaping brood. In 

 the course of time the young are fledged, ami now the unwary birds fall an easy prey to the untried 

 bows of the native boys, who follow them into their bushy coverts and slay many a helpless victim 

 with their blunt-pointed arrows. The skins of the birds killed by the boys are kept till winter and 

 hung in rows as trophies of the young hunter.s' skill, to be brought out at the great midwinter hunt- 

 ing festival. 



As the cold storms of autumn arise the birds, which have escaped the various dangers, and 

 which are easily affected by cold prepare to return, and retracing their way along the course 

 pursued in spring they pass again to the soutli, now shy and silent, awakening the echoes no longer 

 with joyous melody, but apparently imbued with the saddening spirit of autumn they pass quickly 

 by and are gone. 



H. Ex. 105 8 57 



