BIRDS. 191 



becomes a decided clear liglit rufous, with a Hue of the same extending back from the eye and 

 a patch of the same on the body at the bend of wiug. The rufous edge of the scapulars becomes 

 distinct, as do the dark brown centers of the dorsal feathers. The back and sides of neck are clear 

 ashy, and the rump ashy-brown, with a faint olive shade. The under surface differs from the 

 back; there are clearer and better defined areas of ashy on the throat and breast and a dingy 

 yellowish- white on abdomen. This plumage is exchanged for the winter dress the last of July 

 and first of August. The colors become clearer toward the end of May than they are when the 

 bird first arrives. The fully-fledged young of the year, taken the middle of July, or earlier, are 

 marked on the crown and back with shaft-streaks of dark brown, each feather being edged with 

 dark ashy-brown or buffy-brown. The throat, breast, and sides of head, neck, and most of abdo- 

 men, have on each feather a central tip of dark smoky-brown, larger and more diffused on throat 

 and breast. Each feather is edged with soiled ashy-brown. On the fore part of abdomen these 

 dark tips are much smaller and the feathers are dingy-white or bufty- whitish. This plumage is 

 barely assumed when it is moulted, commencing posteriorly, and is replaced by the ordinary 

 autumnal dress, which can scarcely be distinguished from that of the adult, except, perhaps, by the 

 greater amount of ashy edgings to the feathers of the crown and back. By the first of August the 

 fall plumage has been assumed by nearly all, old and young, but they linger about a month or more 

 longer. 



The nesting commences the last of May or the first of June. A nest (No. 321), containing 

 four fresh eggs, obtained in an alder-thicket near Saint Michaels on June 20, was placed upon 

 the ground, and well concealed by the overhanging bushes and the dead leaves and grass of 

 the previous year. It measures 2 J inches in height by 4 J broad, with a central cavity 1| inches 

 deep, by 2J inches across. It is composed of rather fine dry grass and a few fragments of moss 

 scattered through the circumference. The lining of the cavity is fine dry grass and a few dog- 

 hairs. This lining is cross-woven in place of the usual circular arrangement. The nest is a light 

 and rather loosely-built structure, but is nearly as bulky as the nest of the Lapland Longspur. The 

 eggs measure respectively .83 by .05, .85 by .65, .85 by .6i, and .82 by .65. Their ground-color is 

 dull greenish with an irregular mottling or dotting of reddish-brown, purplish, and chocolate color. 

 These markings are gathered about the large end, almost concealing the ground-color in three spec- 

 imens, and in the fourth they are only a trifle more numerous there than on other parts of the egg. 



In the National Museum collection there is a specimen from Sitka, and the bird has been found 

 breeding abundantly all along the Yukon. The S. monticola proper occurs at various places in the 

 Northern United States during the winter. The present form has also been taken at the mouth of 

 the Columbia River in September, as also at The Dalles of that river. It is one of the most common 

 birds along the western shore of Alaska from the mouth of the Yukon north, wherever groups of 

 stunted willows and alders occur. On entering almost any northern thicket the protesting tsip of 

 this gentle little bird may be heard greeting the intruder upon all sides ; if one sits in the midst of 

 their covert and keeps quiet he soon becomes the center of an inquiring party, the members of 

 which flit about in the bushes, their bright black eyes peering about from the leafy covert all 

 around until they finally decide that the interloper is kindly disposed or harmless, and then back 

 they go, one by one, to their former occupations. 



The flocks are broken when they reach the far north in spring and the birds are mated soon 

 after. In the north, before taking leave for their winter home, they gather in flocks on the 

 bushy borders of the woods, and their low, sweet chorus is heard rising and falling as they tune 

 their gentle pipes for the songs they are to utter later in the season. Its power of song, however, 

 is not great, and its music is, perhaps, most pleasing when thus heard in chorus. It is unknown 

 from the Aleutian and other islands in Bering Sea, though it undoubtedly occurs on Kadiak, and 

 it may winter on the adjoining parts of the southeast shore. 



JONCO HYEMALis (Liun.). Slate-colored Junco. 



This is one of the rarest sparrows visiting the coast of Bering Sea. It is, however, much 

 more numerous in the interior, and is found more or less common along the entire course of the 

 Yukon, at the mouth of which it breeds. It reaches Fort Reliance, on the Upper Yukon, by April 



