CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 683 



for my gun they left, but a thorough acquaintance with Motacilla 

 alba in Egypt, where it is abundant during the winter, leaves me no 

 doubt that these birds were wagtails. (Bishop.) 



CCLXI. BITDYTES Cuvier. 1817. 



696. Alaskan Yellow Wagtail. 



Budytes flavus alascensis Ridgway. 1904. 



The yellow wagtail of eastern Siberia extending across Behring 

 sea into that portion of Alaska in the region of Behring strait, is 

 one of the handsomest among its several related forms. The first 

 specimens were obtained in the vicinity of St. Michael where it was 

 found abundant during the summers of 1866 and 1867. In Alaska 

 I found this bird along the coast as far south as the Yukon mouth, 

 where it arrived May 28th, 1879, but was extremely rare. St. 

 Michael, on Norton sound, appears to be the centre of its abundance 

 on our coast, and thence north it becomes rarer until at Kotzebue 

 sound it is, as at the Yukon mouth, very rare. (Nelson.) This 

 bird arrives about June 12th and is very shy. Few females come 

 with the earliest visitants, yet but few days elapse before mating 

 begins. (Turner.) One adult male and two others were obtained 

 July nth, 1898, at Point Barrow, Alaska. (Witmer Stone.) 



CCLXII. ANTHUS Bechstein. 1807. 



697, American Pipit. 



Anthtis pensilvanicus (Lath.) Thienem. 1849. 



The first specimens of this species were seen in Cumberland gulf, 

 May 30th, 1879. In the autumn they leave for the south about the 

 beginning of September. At Annanactook harbour, the nest was 

 always placed deep in a rock crevice, so far in, in fact, that I could 

 not secure any of the nests that I found. On the Greenland coast, 

 especially in the vicinity of habitations, they build in a tussock 

 much like a sparrow, but there the ravens are not so numerous or 

 destructive to birds and eggs as in Cumberland sound. The species 

 is generally distributed on both sides of Cumberland sound, and the 

 west shore of Davis strait to lat. 68° N., at least, but nowhere very 

 abundant. (Kumlien.) Supposed to breed in Greenland not further 



