1922] Swarth: Birds and Mammals of the Stikine Region 215 



sparrow hawks were seen several times. On July 11 one was observed 

 at about 3000 feet altitude, sitting on a tall dead stub on a burnt-over 

 hillside. On July 23 an adult female was secured at the upper limits of 

 timber, about 4000 feet. At Flood Glacier, August 5, a sparrow hawk 

 was seen several times swooping at a bald eagle that spent that day 

 moping in the rain on the top of a dead tree near our camp. At 

 Sergief Island, sparrow hawks were noted on several occasions. The 

 only previously reported occurrences of this bird in southeastern 

 Alaska seem to have been the capture of one on the lower Taku River, 

 September 16, 1909 (Swarth, 1911, p. 63), and the observation of 

 two at Craig, Prince of Wales Island (Willett, 1921, p. 128), but it 

 is probable that the sparrow hawk is of fairly regular occurrence in 

 the fall at some points on the southern Alaskan coast. 



The bird taken at Doch-da-on Creek (no. 39764), an adult female, is 

 essentially like the Taku River specimen referred to, also a female. 

 They are both noticeably dark colored, as compared with California 

 birds, with broader black cross bars on the dorsal surface, and with 

 the rufous areas of a darker shade. 



It seems safe to say that the sparrow hawk, as occurring in this 

 general region, is a bird of the interior, and that a few individuals find 

 their way to the coast in the dispersal that takes place in the late sum- 

 mer or early fall. Such migrants would be likely to wander down some 

 large river valley that extends from one region to the other, and it 

 is near the lower ends of such valleys that most of the birds thus far 

 recorded have been seen. 



Asio flammeus (Pontoppidan). Short-eared Owl 

 One seen on the marshes of Sergief Island on September 2, pre- 

 sumably a migrant from some other place. As these same marshes 

 had been assiduously hunted over for two weeks previously without 

 seeing any of this species, it is fair to assume that the bird noted repre- 

 sented the arrival of its kind at this point on the southward flight. 



Cryptoglaux funerea richardsoni (Bonaparte). Richardson Owl 

 One specimen, a young bird, molting into first winter plumage, 

 obtained in dense spruce woods at Flood Glacier, July 28. This 

 species, presumably of general distribution throughout northern British 

 Columbia, is a bird of the interior, not known to occur in the humid 

 coast belt, and our specimen may be assumed to have been taken at the 

 extreme western limit of its range in this region. 



