224 



KEELER 



a sweet, lively ditty which I transcribed into these inade- 

 quate phrases: pea-quit! quit! tsit-a-iuie! pea-a- 

 quit-quit-quit-a-tuie! Its call note was a thick-billed 

 sparrow chirp. 



I spent some time listening to the thrushes in order to 

 distinguish the songs and calls of the gray-cheek from those 

 of the dwarf hermit. The two birds may be readily told 

 apart by the paler and grayer brown of the former species 

 contrasted with the warm rufous of the tail and coverts 

 of the latter. The gray-cheek sang more like a russet- 

 backed thrush, although its strain was not so full and rich. 

 Its song may be represented thus : qui-quit-~vji! qui-qult- 

 qultl the quit always with the characteristic liquid gurgle 

 of a thrush. At other times it sang, tsi-tsi-qull' tsi- 

 quil' ! or qui-quil 1 ! qui-quil' ! Its call note was a liquid 

 pe'-a! pe'-a! In contrast with this was the call of the 

 dwarf thrush, a peevish cat-call chee! chee! The charac- 

 teristic nervous flirt of the wings accompanied this call. 

 At times I heard them utter the note so commonly sounded 

 during the winter months a low, emphatic chuck! 

 chuck! 



Here also the summer warbler was in song, and the 

 Kadiak pine grosbeak. In these same woods I met for 

 the first time the long-tailed chickadee, a western race of 

 the familiar eastern species, from which it differs in its 

 slightly paler coloration, and, as its name implies, in the 

 possession of a longer tail. 



Upon another occasion Mr. Burroughs and I went for a 

 ramble in the forest on Wood Island, opposite the town of 

 Kadiak. It was a warm, beautiful day, and the woods 

 were in a peculiarly inviting mood. We started off from 

 the end of a little pond at the site of an old Russian saw- 

 mill, and took a cow trail into the timber. The first song 

 to attract our attention was that of the western winter 

 wren a merry sustained little jingle, but without any 



