6q pacific coast AVIFAUNA ; [No. i. 



Pants Iiiidsonicus eviira Coues. 

 CouEs' Chickadee. 



At our winter camp on the Kowak this species was common up to the middle 

 of vSeptember. After that date and up to the first of April, but one or two at a 

 time were seen and then only at long intervals. I^arly in September groups of 

 four to seven were noted nearly every day in the spruces around our cabin, fre- 

 quently caUing their "chick-a-dee-dee" as we hear it, or, as the eskimo name has 

 it, "mish-i-ka'ka". The latter I think really the better imitation of the two in the 

 case of the present species. Those chickadees observed during the winter were 

 ah in the dense willow thickets along Hunt River. They were there quieter and, 

 by nature of their reti-eat, hard to find. It may have been that at the advent of 

 cold weather all the chickadees left the spruces and betook themselves to the 

 shelter of the willow-brush; but I am rather inclined to beUeve that there was a 

 partial migration to the southward. By the first of May the chickadees were back 

 again roving through the woods in pairs. Old woodpecker holes were selected as. 

 nesting sites, and I spotted nests in process of construction by the 15th of May. 

 But through various mishaps I failed to secure any eggs. Eighteen skins of this 

 bird were obtained. On submitting several specimens to Mr. Ridgway for com- 

 parison with the type of his P. h. stoneyi, he informs me as follows: "None of your 

 specimens match the type, which has the color of the pileum and hind-neck paler, 

 and very slightly different from the color of the back. It is in fresher plumage, 

 and may be a fall specimen, but there is no date on the label. I do not now con- 

 sider P. h. stoncxi to be a good form, at least as distinguished from specimens from 

 other parts of Alaska; but if the Alaskan birds are to be separated they will 

 probably have to be called P. h. evura Coues, (Key, 2nd ed., p. 267)". Rhoads in 

 the Auk, Vol. X, p. 321, characterizes crura as distinct from the other northern 

 races of hudsonicus, on the grounds of color as well as size. 



PlivUopscustcs bar call's (Blas.j. 



Kennicqtt's Willow Warbler- 



I secured an immature female of this species on August 21, '98. Two were 

 discovered flitting rapidly among the foliage of some birches a hundred yards 

 back from the Kowak River near our winter cabin. Their behavior closely re- 

 sembled that of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet. I saw Kennicott's Willow Warbler 

 but once again, on the 14th of June,. '99, in the Kowak delta. I was following; 

 close around the margin af a small lake, when I found myself within twenty feet 

 of a single individual which I at once recognized as of the same species taken the 

 previous fall. The bird was close to the ground searching among some willow 

 bushes and stunted spruces, I watched it intently for some minutes, fully con- 

 fident that it would either be joined by its mate, or that it would visit- its nest 

 which I thought at this, date must surely be nearby. Finally my warbler sudden- 

 ly left the bushes, flying across the pond, but instead of alighting on the other 

 side, it kept flying on, mounting higher and higher,, until I lost it to view against 

 the deep blue of the northern horizon. 



