Nov., 1900] BIRDS OF THE KOTZEBUE SOUND REGION. 43 



loose foundation of slender spruce twigs. The walls and bottom consist of a close- 

 ly felted mass of a black hair-like lichen, many short bits of spruce twigs, feathers 

 of ptarmigan and hawk owls, strips of a fibrous bark and a few grasses. The in- 

 terior is lined with the softest and finest-grained material. The whole fabric is of 

 such a quality as to accomplish the greatest conservation of warmth. Which 

 certainly must be necessary where incubation is carried on in below-zero weather! 

 The dimensions of the nest are: Diameter of cavity, 3.00; depth, 2.00. External 

 diameter, 7.50; depth, 5.00. The contents of the nest were three eggs, one of 

 which was infertile, and the other two incubated to an advanced stage. Their 

 ground-color is a pale gray, almost white, finely freckled with lavender-gray, drab- 

 gray and hair-brown. They thus resemble in color a common type of shrikes' 

 eggs. Their shape is ovate, and they measure 1.12X.81, 1.13X.82, i.i6x.8i. On 

 May 19th I secured a brood of four nearly-fledged juvenile jays. They were fly- 

 ing about the woods in the wake of their parents, with many harsh cries. During 

 the last week of May several more full-grown young were noted, all of which seems 

 to show that the Alaskan Jay in this region begins nesting about the ist of April. 

 The set secured was surely much later than the average. The eskimo name of the 

 jay is Ke'robk. My series of 41 skins of P. c. fumifrons from the Kowak Valley 

 exhibits a large amount of variation in the plumage characters assigned to this 

 race. The width and color of the frontal light patch is no criterion for separation 

 from true canadensis, though there may be a slight average difference. I find that 

 the Alaskan birds average .20 inch shorter in wing and tail measurements than 

 birds from Minnesota and Nova Scotia. One of the best characters oi fumifrons 

 seems to be the extension of the black anteriorly from the nape to include the eye 

 and the upper edge of the ear-coverts, almost as in nii^ricapilhis. The Kowak 

 River jays are slightly greyer dorsally than Yukon Valley specimens, and both 

 are somewhat ashier than true canadensis. 



Corvus corax principalis Ridgw. 

 Northern Raven. 



I saw a pair of ravens at Cape Blossom on August ist, '98, and several were 

 noted along the lower course of the Kowak from iVugust 13 to 18. In the vicinity 

 of our winter quarters, ravens were seen in small but unvarying numbers during 

 our entire stay there. Even on the coldest or windiest days of mid-winter we 

 would seldom fail to see an individual or pair flying silently along the course of 

 the river. In the fall, up to the time of deep snow, there was plenty of dead 

 salmon to be found along the .streams. But after the snow came I failed to discover 

 what regular source of subsistence the ravens had. I found evidences that the 

 ravens were ever on the lookout for disabled birds and mammals, and did not 

 hesitate to attack such as they were sure of. Several instances came under my 

 notice of their preying on ptarmigan caught in snares set by the natives. The 

 natives of this region, in common with most uncivilized tribes, have many super- 

 stitious beliefs concerning this bird. Their name for the raven is Tob-lo'b^ak, a 

 vocal imitation of the bird's note. 



