208. NATDKAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



eral pure olive-greeu feathers are scattered here and there amoug the yellow feathers of this part. 

 A strong wash of olivegreeu extends along the sides and tiauks. The under wing-corerts are 

 yellowish-white. The iris is dark hazel. The bill and feet black. 



In fall adults are nearly uniform olive-ljrown above, with a grayish shade on the crown and 

 grayish on the rump. The tail and wing feathers are of a softer shade than in the spring, and 

 tinted with a mixture of olive. The superciliary line white, sometimes yellow shaded. The white 

 chin-patch extends to the breast and the j'ellow or fulvous of breast surrounds it posteriorly; this 

 fulvous-brown shade extends across the breast. Abdomen dingy yellowish ; sides and flanks dingy 

 olive. Bill and feet dark born color. 



Youiuj of the year. — The toj) of the head and back is nearly uniform fulvous brown, varying 

 to olive-brown. Wings and tail almost precisely as in the adult. The younger specimens have 

 more of a light fulvous brownish shade throughout, which becomes darker and more ashy in older 

 birds. The light superciliary line is tine and less marked than in the adults and ofteuer obso- 

 lescent anterior to the orbit. The white chin-patch is much extended, frequently reaching far 

 down ou the throat, where it is more or less washed with pale fulvous. In verj" young specimens a 

 band of feathers tipped with black or very dark sooty-brown, with light-colored bases, extends 

 from each side of the lower mandible down the sides of the neck and continues across the 

 breast, thus inclosing the throat-patch. The dark area does not form a continuous surface, but has 

 a broken and mottled appearance. It is in striking contrast with the inclosed whitish space. The 

 abdomen and under tail-coverts are a very pale dingy-yellowish, with a fulvous wash in some 

 cases. The sides are washed with dingy olive-brown. Bill and legs pale fleshy horn-color. 



A young bird from Saint Michaels is in the following rather strange plumage: A faintly 

 outlined blackish-brown cap mixed with dull olive-browu. The black is most marked as a supra- 

 orbital line. There is a postocular yellowish-white stripe. Nape, back, and rump dull grayish 

 olive-brown. Wings and tail as in the ordinary young bird. An oval area of dingy whitish occu- 

 pies the chin and throat nearly to the breast. This area is outlined and limited by an irregular 

 sooty-black border, which takes its origin on each side of the head at the base of the lower man- 

 dible, and extends down the sides of the neck forming a breast-baud, patterned very much as the 

 black border of throat-patch in Sturnella magna. The abdomen is yellowish, breast and sides a 

 dull olive-brown. 



Anthus pensilvanicus (Lath.). American Pipit (Esk. GKi-ehtng-uk). 



On the Sth of May, 1877, during a storm of snow and sleet, the first Pipit was seen at 

 TJnalaska, on the Aleutian Islands. The following days they appeared to be still more numerous, 

 and on the 19th of the month the Aleuts told me that these birds already had eggs on the 

 hillsides. On the Upper Yukon, at Fort Reliance, they arrive as early as May 1, leaving about 

 the Sth of October or later. Hartlaub records the species at Portage Bay by April 28, and 

 numerous by May 11. They do not remain here in summer. August 15 they have been taken on 

 Saint George Island of the Fur Seal group, and numerous specimens have been obtained from Sitka, 

 Kadiak, and thence north along the coast to the peninsula of Aliaska and through Bering Strait to 

 the shores of the Arctic. It was noted in July on the Shumagins, and at Cape Lisburne in August. 

 On the Near Islands it is an occasional summer resident. At Nulato, on the Yukon, it arrives May 

 10, and its arrival has been recorded on the Lower Mackenzie River as late as May 21. It appears 

 at times ou the shore of Bering Sea iu the vicinity of Saint Michaels, and, like various other species, 

 is rare, except during the early autumnal migrations, when it is present for a short time about the 

 middle of August. 



Kumlien records its arrival at Cumberland Gulf ou May 30, while the ground was still covered 

 with snow, and it was forced to obtain food by wading about and hunting in the edge of 

 the water, feeding ou small Crustacea and moUusca. The 1st of June he thinks many perished 

 during a severe snow-storm, during which many took shelter about his quarters and were so over 

 come by exhaustion that they allowed themselves to be taken by hand. Near his winter quarters 

 they nested in crevices among the rocks; but in Greenland he found them nesting iu tussocks of 

 grass like sparrows. He also tells us that the Eskimo regard this bird as an enemy, and accuse 



