BIKDS. 



189 



The followiug measurements are of live spring adults taken at Saint Michaels in June and 

 show the normal amount of variation: 



The females are in worn pluma,£e. 



ZoNOTRiCHiA INTERMEDIA Eidgw. Intermediate Sparrow. 



Everywhere in Alaska the presence of bushes and timber is an almost certain indication of 

 this bird's presence in summer. It is the only White-crowned Sparrow reaching these high lati- 

 tudes, and it ranges to the shores of the ArcticOcean and Bering Sea. In the northern half of British 

 America, extending eutirelj- across that country along the Arctic shore and thence west through- 

 out Alaska, it is a vei\y abundant and familiar bird. It arrives on the Upper Yukon at the Arctic 

 Circle by the 15th or 20th of May and begins nesting about the 20th of this month. It has been 

 taken on the south coa st of the Territory at Fort Kenai and is given by Dall as common at Nulato 

 and very common at Fort Yukon. It is said to arrive at Nulato about the 20th of May, and Dall 

 secured a nest and set of eggs from an Indian at ^S^owikakat, some distance farther up the Yukon. 

 A single specimen taken at Point Barrow by Murdoch in September extends its range to this 

 point, l)ut only as a straggler. 



In Dall and Bannister's paper on the birds of Alaska [loc. cif.) the notes under the heading 

 of Z. gambeli are referable to this form. To this bird also must be referred all the Arctic and 

 Alaskan references to ^^gambeli" given in the History of Xorth American Birds. It is the most 

 abundant sparrow on the IMackenzie Eiver, and it was found breeding in great numbers on the 

 Upper Y'ukon and thence east to the Anderson Eiver, where MacFarlane, Lockhart, and Boss 

 found it breeding. The nests four.d were mostly placed upon the ground or in low bushes and were 

 lined with deer-hair and feathers. A nest in my collection, obtained at Nulato June 1, 1880, is 

 composed of tine dry grass with a slight lining of club-moss in the bottom of the cavity. The 

 eggs are four in number, measuring respectively .90 by .03, .84 by M, .8!) by .03, .87 by .04. They 

 have a clayey-white groundcolor, thickly covered with small reddish spots, which are oidy a triOe 

 more numerous at the larger end. 



This sparrow reaches the coast of Bering Sea, in the vicinity of Saint Michaels, by May 10 in 

 early seasons and in others not before the 19th or 25th of this month. Its arrival is accompanied 

 by the short but pleasant songs uttered from the top of a woodpile, or any vantage-point of similar 

 character about the houses. After lingering for a few days in the vicinity of the dwellings it 

 seeks its breeding ground among the alder-patches along the neighboring hill-sides. Its eggs are 

 laid during the first of June, and the young are fully fledged early in July. By the 25th of July 

 they come about the houses in considerable numbers, joining with the various other sparrows and 

 small birds. As the cold storms of August commence they gradually pass to the south until, as 

 this month draws to a close, they have all disappeared. 



A young bird of the year, in its first plumage, taken at Saint Michaels July 28, 1877, has the 

 crown almost uniform blackish-brown, with a few brownish-yellow edgings along the median line. 

 Lores dingy yellowish-gray. Postocular stripe dingy-gray, each feather with a narrow dark 

 shaft-line. Ear-coverts bufi'y-brown. Back very much darker than in the adult, as dark as 

 the back of adult Z. coronata. The feathers of nape, back, and rump with dark blackish brown 

 shaft-lines, borderetl with dark fulvous brown. The wings and tail are dark brown, darker than 

 in adult coronate. Throat, sides of neck, and breast have the feathers each with a dark shaft- 

 line and a dingy grayish border. Featliers of sides are very similar and the abdomen is dingy 

 whitish. Bill and feet pale. Bend of wing white. Tertials edged with dull bay, and two indis- 

 tinct white wing-bars are formed by light tips of the coverts. This plumage is replaced almost as 



