birds are busily engaged in feeding upon the buds. "They pay no 

 heed to a passing party of sleds except, perhaps, that an individual 

 will fly down to some convenient bush, whence he curiously examines 

 the strange procession, and then, his curiosity satisfied or confidence 

 restored, back he goes to his companions and continues his feeding. 

 When fired at they utter chirps of alarm, and call to each other with 

 a long, sweet note, something similar to that of the goldfinch." 



Equally abundant all the year round are the two redpolls both 

 the hoary redpoll and the common "linnet." They are alike in range 

 and habits, and in July come trooping about, young and old, in large 

 parties, with great confidence and a peculiar pertness, taking posses- 

 sion of the premises and using the roofs and fences for convenient 

 perches. "On warm sunshiny days during April they come familiarly 

 up to the very windows and doors, and peer about with an odd mix- 

 ture of confidence and curiosity, examining everything, and scarcely 

 deigning to move aside as the people pass back and forth. By the 

 8th of June their young are frequently hatched, and by the 1st of 

 July are fully fledged." 



The snowflake resorts in summer to the northernmost parts of 

 the interior to rear its young; but as the cold weather comes on 

 nearly all go south to the warmer or less snowy parts of Canada, 

 and the same may be said of the Lapland longspur. 



The western savanna sparrow is not uncommon, Osgood finding 

 many young about Circle City in August ; and Gambell's, or the inter- 

 mediate, white-crowned sparrow is one of the most numerous and 

 familiar of summer birds all over the Territory, beginning to nest 

 about May 20. Its nest ordinarily is placed on the ground, rarely in 

 low bushes, and is lined with deer's hair and feathers, or sometimes 

 with club-moss. The four eggs "have a clayey-white ground-color, 

 thickly covered with small reddish spots," and measure about .87 by 

 .64 of an inch. 



The golden-crowned sparrow is much less often seen in the 

 interior than near the coast. The western tree sparrow is very 

 numerous, but the chipping sparrow much less so. In regard to the 

 tree sparrow Nelson gives many particulars : 



Upon its first arrival it comes about the trading-posts and native villages, 

 frequenting the weed-patches. After a short visit here, and when the snow 

 has melted from portions of their bushy retreats, they leave the vicinity 

 of man and betake themselves to the hill-sides, where . . . the young 

 are hatched and become fully fledged early in July. Toward the last of this 

 month sometimes by the middle the young and old come trooping back 

 to the vicinity of the houses, ready to feast with numbers of their fellows in 

 a motley crowd among the weed-patches and in the garden-plot. During 



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