BIRDS. 



189 



The following measurements are of five spring adults taken at Saint Michaels in June and 

 show the normal amount of variation: 



The females are in worn plumage. 



ZoNOTRiCHiA INTERMEDIA Ridgw. 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 Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea. In the northern half of British 

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

 out Alaska, it is a very 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 Nowikakat, some distance farther up the Yukon. 

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

 point, but only as a straggler. 



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

 of Z. gamheli 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 North American Birds. It is the most 

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

 Upper Yukon and thence east to the Anderson Eiver, where MacFarlane, Lockhart, and Ross 

 found it breeding. The nests fouud were mostly jjlaced 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 flue 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 .63, .84 by .64, .89 by .63, .87 by .64. They 

 have a clayey-white ground-color, thickly covered with small reddish spots, which are only a trifle 

 more numerous at the larger end. 



This sparrow reaches the coast of Bering Sea, in the vicinity of Saiut 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 wood-pile, 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 2oth of July 

 they come about the houses iu 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 buffy-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, bordered with dark fulvous brown. The wings and tail are dark brown, darker than 

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

 line and a dingy grayish border. Feathers 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 



