BIEDS. 219 



Altogether tlie reference of Giiielia'.s name of T. aoonalascemis to the above species appears to me of 

 doubtful propriety. Latham's original description, upon which Gmelin's name was based, is as 

 follows : 



'■'■Aoonalagliha T/irusli. — Size of the lark; crown and back brown, marked with obscure dusky 

 spots; breast yellow, spotted with black ; wing-coverts, prime quills, and tail dusky, edged with 

 testaceous. Inhabits Aoonalasbka." 



The description is evidently of a bird in its first plumage, and while perhaps more applicable 

 to the young of the Dwarf Thrush than to that of the Gray-cheeked form, these being the only 

 two thruslies inhabiting this part of Alaska, it is too vague and unsatisfactory to be received as 

 properly diagnostic of a species. Only by the process of exclusion can it be made to apply to the 

 present species, and even then its pertinency is by no means assured. The guttata of Pallas was 

 clearly based npon the present bird and the exchange of Gmelin's name, the pertinence of which 

 must ever remain doubtful, for the guttata of Pallas, accompanied, as the latter is, by a carefully 

 drawn description, appears to me extremely desirable. 



Meeula MiGEATOKiA (Linu.). American Eobin. 



Throughout the entire wooded portion of the Territory this bird is found more or less numer- 

 ous during summer, and along the treeless coast of Bering Sea and Kotzebue Sound it appears 

 merely as a straggler in the migrations. Along the Yukon and other rivers of the Territory it 

 is numerous as low down their course as the spruce forests extend, and thence, toward the mouths, 

 becomes more and more uncommon. A single specimen was found, storm-bound, on the Seal Islands 

 by Elliott, and the natives informed him that it usually occurred annually in this manner. 

 It reaches the Yukon, in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle, about May lo, and nests as far iiorlh as 

 the tree-limit extends, in about 09° north. It arrives at Fort Eeliance, on the Upper Yukon, May 

 5, and my earliest record at Saint Michaels is the ISth of the same month. Hartlaub records it 

 at Portage Bay April 30, and again in large flocks the end of August. During the first half of 

 September it commences its southern migration, but is found close under the Arctic Circle as late 

 as the 1st of November. No appropriate localities for nesting-sites are aftbrded on the Bering 

 Sea coast north of Bristol Bay, hence the robins are limited to the interior at this season. There 

 is one exception, however, on the north coast of Norton Sound, where the spruce forest approaches 

 the sea, and here they are found in summer. Such stragglers as are found in the vicinity of 

 Saint Michaels, numbering several every summer, usually approach the houses for food in early 

 spring and remain but a few hours. They are rather suspicious and easily alarmed, aud all 

 I saw were invariably silent, apparently dejiressed by the forbidding surroundings, and inclined 

 to hasten back to the more hospitable region in the interior. Their nests and nesting habits are 

 precisely the same in the north as they are in its southern locations, except that in the north 

 they are limited more strictly to the wild woods. All of the considerable series brought home by 

 me are typical of the eastern form, and not one is referable to the western projyinquus. They ai'e 

 unknown on the Aleutian and other islands in Bering Sea, except occasionally on the Seal Islands, 

 as mentioned. 



Hespeeocichla njevia (Gmel.). Varied Thrush. 



Until within a comparatively recent time this bird was supposed to be confined to the milder 

 region on the northwest coast. That this idea was erroneous was shown when Dall reported 

 the bird as found on the Yukon, in the vicinity of Nulato, and Eichardson noted its arrival on 

 the Mackenzie in si)ring, soon after the robin and summer yellow-bird. According to my own 

 observations this is a regular and not rare summer resident iu all congenial portions of Northern 

 Alaska, even within the Arctic Circle, and undoubtedly it exteuds its range as far to the north as 

 the common robin. I have received specimens from the interior north of Kotzebue Sound, 

 as also from the coast-line of that sound, and of Bering Sea about the shore of Norton Sound. It 

 arrives from the middle to the2uth of May, passing, like the robin, directly to its breeding ground, 

 and returns to the south the last of August and during September. 



