156 RECENT HUNTING TRIPS. 



we passed high mud banks along the Yukon, 

 PeUy or Macmillan Rivers they were riddled 

 with the nesting holes of large colonies of sand- 

 martins which Mr. Osgood told me were identical 

 with our familiar English bird, I have found 

 these dainty little creatures nesting in many 

 parts of Europe and also in the banks of the 

 Meander River in Asia Minor, but I never 

 expected to come across them near the Arctic 

 circle in the wild Yukon country. We, how- 

 ever, saw none of the birds themselves. Thev 

 had all reared their families and gone away 

 southwards before the 20th August. We also 

 passed some rocks near the canyon of the 

 Pelly, where a number of gulls had nested, but 

 these too had all reared their young and gone 

 off with them to the sea, before the date of our 

 visit. These gulls, Mr. Osgood thought, were 

 the American herring gull (Larus argentatus 

 smithsonianus) which, unlike the European 

 form, seems to go far inland to breed. 



The most interesting birds we had actually 

 seen up to this date were a pair of ospreys, a 

 pair of peregrine falcons, several rough-legged 



