Nov.. 1900] BIRDS OF THE KUTZKBUK SOUND RKOION. 59 



its residence in the Kowak Valley. One of our party informed me as follows: Near 

 the junction of the Kalamute River with the Kowak a party of prospectors passed 

 the winter. Their cabin was built by a small creek which, probably fed by warm 

 springs, remained open all winter, even during the severest weather. One of the 

 men living there described a small-sized, dark-colored bird which was undoui)tedly 

 the water-ouzel. He said he saw it nearly every day during the entire winter, 

 and he was astonished to see it "bathing and skating along the water even in the 

 coldest weather when the thermometer registered 70 degrees below zero." Only 

 one bird was noted, and it was a familiar visitor to the creek near the cabin where 

 it was regularly fed on bread crumbs and miscellaneous scraps of food from the 

 table. I was told of another place where the species wintered. In the short 

 stream which flows from Walker Lake to the Kowak, there were several stretches 

 which remained open, though the ice formed along their edges. A bird was 

 described as singing most beavitifuUy in midwinter from the caverns in these icy 

 banks, and it was seen to fly in and out under the overhanging ice-margins. 



Parus atricapilhts septcidrionalis (Harris). 

 Long-tailed Chickadee. 



On the 26th of October, '98, I was hunting in the willow bottoms along the 

 Hunt River, north of our winter quarters, when 1 met with this species for the 

 first and only time. I heard some chickadee notes back in the brush, and by 

 making a squeaking noise attracted them into sight. 1 secured two and although 

 I did not see or hear it after I fired, I think there was at least another. The two 

 specimens secured were smoothed out and plugged and laid on a willow branch 

 to freeze in proper shape before packing awa3'. I had gone but a few yards 

 around a clump of bushes when a shrike darted down and carried off one of my 

 rare chickadees. The single specimen of this species has been examined by Mr. 

 Ridgway who writes me that it agrees in coloration with typical examples of P. a. 

 ■scptcntrionalis. It is not referable to P. a. tiiyncri Ridgw. (Type locality, St. 

 Michaels) which is "paler, with flanks pure ^vhite or with just a faint tinge of 

 huff-" 



Pariis dnclus alascensis (Prazak). 

 Alaskan Chickadee. 



This chickadee was fairly ctmmon in the spruce districts in tlic vicinity of 

 OUT winter camp on the Kowak. Although occasionally noted during midwinter, 

 it was most often met with in the fall and spring. I was unable to recognize any 

 ■decided differences in the notes and habits between this species and Cones' 

 Chickadee — nothing more than is often evident among different individuals (fthe 

 same species. The Alaskan Chickadee was never seeji in company with the 

 other species, and was an inhabitant of the S[>ruce tracts along the l)ase of the 

 mountains rather than in the river bottoms. A female taken on the Sth of May 

 contained a fully-formed egg in the oviduct, thus indicating the nesting season to 

 be at hand, J-'ourteen specimens of the Alaskan Cliickadee were obtained. 



