58 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA [No. i. 



hundred yards back from the coast. But at least a mile back in the hills, I dis- 

 covered a solitary pair of adult wagtails. They were in a dwarf alder thicket in a 

 ravine and were very seclusive. I could scarcely drive them out of the bushes. 

 They were in extremely ragged plumage, though bright new feathers were ap- 

 pearing in all the feather-tracts. One bird had only one tail-feather, and was 

 otherwise so scantily feathered that its flight was noticeably labored. These 

 birds liad been feeding on the salmon-berries which grew plentifully near their 

 retreat. By the first week in August small companies of juveniles were numer- 

 ous, frequenting the tall grass growing in clumps on the sand-piles which margin 

 the shore in the vicinity' of the Mission. Several came around our tents at Mission 

 Inlet daily for crumbs, and if I kept quiet they would come quite close. A wag- 

 tail would approach from the nearest grass- patch, sidling along, hopping daintily 

 with ever-changing attitude and canting its head from one side to the other. At 

 every step or two the bird would hesitate a moment before again advancing, its 

 tail nervously twitching up and down. If it spied a crumb, a quick dart and 

 away the bird would fly to a safer rendezvous. The wagtails would also snap up 

 lots of flies. The Yellow Wagtails had not begun to decrease in number up to 

 the time we left Cape Blossom for the interior, August 12th. The following year 

 I met with the species again, in the Kowak delta in June. Two nests were found 

 on the 20th and 21st of June, each containing six eggs in which incubation was 

 nearly complete. The first nest was in the bank of a narrow slough, and about 

 18 inches above the water. It was built in a cavity under an overhanging clump 

 of moss, and was plainly visible from the opposite side of the slough. The second 

 was in a cavity under the side of a hummock of grass on the tundra. The nests 

 consisted of a wet mass of fine grasses, bits of moss and dead leaves, moulded into 

 a rather shallow depression with a few feathers for a lining. The ground color of 

 the eggs is hardly distinguishable, being obscured by small confluent spots of pale 

 drab. The large ends are most deeply marked. Three eggs average .76X.57. 

 The nests were found by watching the restless birds until one of them returned 

 to the nest. In the second case the female was captured by slowly approaching 

 the nest and clapping a hat over it. On July 3rd, '99, at Cape Blossom, a nest 

 was found, sunk into a mossy bank and containing small young. Eskimo name, 

 Pe'a-wak, 



Anfhus pensilvaniciis (Lath.). 

 American Pipit. 



The American Pipit was observed on two successive days, the 22nd and 23rd 

 of August, at our winter camp on the Kowak. A pair, probably the same birds 

 each day,, appeared in the morning walking along the sand at the edge of the 

 water. I got quite close enough to them to make their identity satisfactory, but 

 each time they took flight before I cotild fetch my gun. I saw the species but 

 once again, on the 3rd of June. A pair of pipits were met with on the bare .tundra 

 to the north of the camp, but they were restless and shy, finally flying off to the 

 northward as if in migration. 



Cincius me.xicamcs Swains. 

 American Dipper. 

 I did not personally meet with this bird, hut I was thoroughly convinced of 



