52 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA [No. i. 



blurred with a pale brown tint, so as to nearly obscure the ground color. The 

 eleven eggs average .74X.57. 



Jiinco hyoiialis (L,inn.). 

 vSlate-colored Junco. 



At the time of our arrival at our winter camp on the Kowak, and up to the 

 9th of September, juncos were seen nearly every day, though not more than five 

 at a time. They were always met with in the deep spruce woods, where their 

 succession of faint "peeps," uttered as they took short flights from one log or fall- 

 en branch to another, would give the first intimation of their presence. The last 

 junco was seen on the 12th of September. The first in the following spring was 

 noted on May 23rd. They were never numerous, two pairs being the most that 

 were seen in a half day's hunt. A pair was seen on May 28th in the spruces at 

 the base of the Jade Mountains. This species was not noted further down the 

 Kowak than near the mouth of the Squirrel River, where a pair was seen on 

 June 8th. 



Passerclla iliaca (Merr.). 

 Fox Sparrow. 



I did not discover the presence of the Fox Sparrow at Cape Blossom until the 

 evening of July 31, '98. As we were landing at Mission Inlet, I heard its beautiful 

 song from the opposite hillside. By considerable searching through the brush 

 patches, I caught sight of several of the birds and secured two. They were quite 

 shy, and to chase them out of the brush was almost impossible. But by hiding 

 and making a squeaking noise 1 could attract them into plain view. All but one 

 observed were juveniles. Fox Sparrows were seen or heard all along the lower 

 course of the Kowak; and at our winter camp they were quite common up to the 

 23rd of August, when they abruptly disappeared. Until the day of their depart- 

 ure, their clear ringing songs were to be heard almost every hour of the day. 

 With the exceptions of the Fox and Gambel's Sparrows, birds were silent at this 

 season, save for simple call-notes. In the spring Fox Sparrows were first observed 

 on May 21st, and thereafter were met with wherever brushy tracts afforded them 

 congenial haunts. 



Hiriindo erythrogastra Bodd. 

 Barn Swali^ow. 



This swallow was seen almost daily during my summer visits at Cape Blossom. 

 It was usually seen singly or in pairs, coursing back and forth over the lagoons 

 and ponds, where there was certainly an abundance of food among the swarms 

 of gnats and mosquitoes. The notes of these Barn Swallows, as they skimmed 

 over the water or mounted upwards at the end of a course, seemed to me to be 

 quite different from those we hear in the States. They sounded to my ear exactly 

 like the " peet-weet" call of the Spotted Sandpiper. I was told by the mission- 

 aries that the swallows nested in the deserted eskimo igloos, building their mud nests 

 against the sides near the roofs. On July ist, '99, I found a Barn Swallow's nest 

 built on a beam in the house of a small river steamer stranded at the side of Mission 



