July, 1908 FIELD NOTES FROai ALASKA 141 



terior of the Island was 1900 feet above the sea according to the aneroid. Hutchins 

 Geese were nesting about these lagoons and about the twentieth of June goslings 

 were everywhere. It was strange how they all hatched out so near the same time. , 

 I was wandering home one evening about 10 o'clock. It was just after sundown 

 but the deeper woods were beginning to darken slowly. It was high tide so that 

 I had to make a cut clear around the head of a slough. Just as I came out of the 

 thick huckleberry underbrush in the strip of timber, I stumbled over a log and 

 almost fell on top of an old goose that was sitting on a nestful of eggs. She made 

 a terrible racket as she went flopping and squawking off the nest and I do not know 

 which of us was the worst scared for a minute. The nest was placed in the open 

 close to the trunk of a large tree just at the edge of the wood. It was lined with 

 moss and down and held six eggs which I afterwards regretted were almost ready 

 to hatch. 



We took a trip up on the mountain after Ptarmigan and were fortunate in se- 

 curing two males. 



The mountain appeared to be higher than it really was because timberline was 

 only about 1000 or 1200 feet. The summit of the mountain down for three or four 

 hundred feet was wrapped in mist which a chill wind kept sweeping up from the 

 south. This made it very hard to locate the birds as they sat around on the 

 brownish-grey lichen-covered stones and would not flush unless one almost walked 

 upon them. Most of the feathers on the upper parts of the birds were brownish 

 but the summer plumage was not much more than half complete at this date. 



Old worn bear trails were commonly met leading to the salmon creeks but the 

 bears have been gone for several years at least, as we only saw one fresh track. The 

 country was so open that hunting was too easy for them to last. Mr. Heller found 

 a flock of White- winged Crossbills and secured several. 



There is a very large dark song sparrow here which is darker than any that I 

 remember. I have never seen any specimens of that Kenai form so I do not know 

 whether it is that or not. The Fox Sparrows have been so split up that it would 

 be hard to tell what this form is without material for comparison but anyway we 

 will have a large series of both from the various islands so that it can be decided 

 when we get back. Mr. Hasselborg secured that long-looked-for I^eucosticte the 

 other day with his "bear" gun and dust shot. The grey of the crown comes down 

 covering the sides of the head so I take it to be the Hepburn lycucosticte. These 

 birds seem to always stay around the very summits in the crags and rock slides. 

 This one was secured about 1000 feet above timber line. Miss Alexander saw an- 

 other Ivcucosticte within easy range but it was sitting on the brink of an impas- 

 sable drop-off so she refrained from shooting at it. Miss Kellog secured a fine 

 male Ptarmigan which is in the best feather of those yet taken. 



La Toiiche, July i6, igoS. — We just blew in here from Green Island late last 

 evening. We decided to leave Hinchinbrook Island on the fourth of Jul}^ as there 

 were indications of fair weather and a favorable wind. We broke camp at four 

 o'clock in the morning but got stuck on a bar as we were passing out over the tide 

 flat, so we had to spend the whole morning waiting for the tide to turn again with 

 a glorious breeze going to waste. We got off again about one o'clock and safely 

 crossed Hinchinbrook Entrance to Montague Island in the afternoon. As the 

 wind died out we were forced to anchor at the entrance of Zaikof Bay for the 

 night. We had a taste of a "wooly" in the morning which sent us flying down 

 the Bay. We just got all our stuff off the boat when a good healthy rain storm 

 set in and the tents, which had been taken down while wet, leaked like cheese 

 cloth. Mr. Heller said that Montague Island should have been named Microtus 



