BIRDS. 193 



Melospiza cineeea (Ginel.). Aleutian Song-sparrow. 



Among the several insular forms occurring in the Aleutian Islands and rarely extending their 

 range to the adjacent mainland of Southeastern Alaska, this large, hardy bird, a veritable giant 

 among its congeners, is the most peculiar. The well known Song-sparrow of the wayside hedges 

 and fences in Eastern North America, as is well known to the naturalist, is represented by 

 several geographical races between its eastern limit and the northwest coast of the continent, 

 where it culminates in the present bird of the western Alaskan islands. The connecting chain, 

 however, which unites this bird with its relatives of the east has been found to be but partly 

 complete. 



At Unalaska, on May 10, 1887, upon my first arrival in the Aleutian Islands, I found this bird 

 common and in full song, although the surroundings were desolate and forbidding in the extreme. 

 Long banks of snow lay in ragged outline on the sheltered sides of the mountains and capped 

 their summits. Day by day cold rain with fierce gales or squalls of snow beat through the val- 

 leys and the inner harbors. With characteristic changeability, the weather at times cleared for a 

 few hours, and, taking advantage of the temporary sunshine, this hardy songster gave utter- 

 ance to its pleasant notes from the tops of jutting rocks or even the roofs of the houses in the 

 village. On the 15th of this month, at Sanak Island, about 100 miles east of Unalaska, it was 

 also found abundant, and its song was heard repeatedly in rather loud, clear tones, having a certain 

 wild melody harmonizing well with the rude surroundings. The song may be imperfectly repre- 

 sented by the syllables siweee-tu-tu-tu-chi-e-e-e; the first syllables clear and the last three or four 

 slightly hard. It was mating at this season, and invariably found in pairs, generally searching 

 along its favorite haunts at the water's edge on the rocky and most rugged portions of the beach. 

 It is a resident throughout the Aleutian Islands, and is limited to the rocky shores and low flats 

 with bordering beaches, never going far inland, nor does it reach any considerable altitude. 

 Strangely enough it does not pass to the northward, even so far as the Seal Islands, where the 

 much smaller Alaskan Winter Wren has gained a foothold. To the eastward, however, it is 

 abundant on the Shumagin Islands and Kadiak, but whether it reaches the peninsula of Aliaska 

 or not is still unknown. 



Its eggs are thus far unknown, but the nearly full grown young were found in July, at Kyska 

 Island, near the western end of the Aleutian chain, by Mr. Dall. 



On the 23d of September, 1881, when the Oorwin arrived at Unalaska, and from then on until 

 we left early in October, these sparrows were in full song whenever the weather was propitious. 

 The songster which came most under our attention, from its nearness to the vessel, would re- 

 main sometimes for an hour or more on its perch, repeating its song at short intervals. The notes 

 were somewhat louder than those of its eastern relative, but bore a considerable likeness to them, 

 and since my return to Washington, during April of the present year (1882), I heard the common 

 Song-sparrow in the Smithsonian grounds uttering a series of notes which reminded me strikingly 

 of the familiar song of the Aleutian Sparrow heard the previous autumn. This song uttered by 

 the common Song-sparrow was not its usual spring note, but one of the shorter and slightly harsher 

 modifications of its ordinary ditty. 



During our stay at Unalaska in the fall, these sparrows were common everywhere along the 

 shore, especially favoring the jutting faces of rocky bluffs and the rugged points descending 

 abruptly to the water, where they flit from rock to rock, and scramble in and out of the clefts and 

 jutting points like the Eock-wren {Salpinctes) ; or they search the stones at the water's edge for 

 food cast up by the breaking wavelets, running out and in close to the edge of the rising and 

 falling water. 



In a paper on the different forms of if. melodia (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, p. 159, July, 1879) Mr. 

 Henshaw, after examining a large amount of material contained in the N'ational Museum collection, 

 remarks : 



This gigantic sparrow is distinguished, in addition to its great size, by a much paler, grayer phase of color 

 than its nearest geographical neighbor, rufina. The streaks, instead of being nearly or quite obsolete as in that 

 form, are well defined and of an umber-brown. 



S. Mis, 136 25 



