260 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 24 



Melospiza lincolni gracilis (Kittlitz). Forbush Sparrow 



Probably occurs throughout the upper Stikine Valley, but, judging 

 from our experience, in small numbers and at widely scattered points. 

 A female shot June 9 at Sawmill Lake had laid part of its set of eggs ; 

 just one other bird was seen at that locality. The species was next 

 encountered at Doch-da-on Creek, where one pair, perhaps more, had 

 nested in the tall grass of a meadow. A young bird caught in a mouse- 

 trap at Flood Glacier was the only one seen at that^ station. 



At Sergief Island the species was abundant. Many of the birds 

 were there when we arrived on August 18, and they greatly increased 

 in numbers within the next few days. At the upper margin of the 

 marshes, that section which is but rarely inundated by the tides, there 

 is much willow brush, increasing in density and size of the trees as the 

 salt water is left behind. The lower edge of this strip, where the willow 

 brush was about waist high and rather scattered, and with thick grass 

 beneath, was the preferred habitat of the Forbush sparrow, and here 

 the birds literally swarmed. I was accustomed to think of this species 

 as being rather solitary in its habits, but here, whether or not the 

 birds were in constantly associated flocks, their choice of surroundings 

 brought hundreds of them closely together. In traveling through the 

 willow brush one flushed them from every thicket. On August 22 I 

 stopped to count those that hopped up into the branches of one small 

 bush, preparatory to taking flight at my approach, and there were 

 fifteen in sight at once. The species was still present at the end of 

 our stay, September 7, but much fewer in number. 



Fifteen specimens were collected: an adult female and an adult 

 male from Sawmill Lake (nos. 40078, 40079), two adult females and 

 two juvenals, male and female, from Doch-da-on Creek (nos. 40080- 

 40083), one juvenal male from Flood Glacier (no. 40084), and eight 

 specimens from Sergief Island, two adult females, five immature males, 

 and one immature female (nos. 40085-40092). The young birds from 

 Sergief Island have all completed, or nearly completed, the post- 

 juvenal molt. An adult female taken August 18 is in the midst of the 

 annual molt. The tail feathers are all gone, and the wings so nearly 

 bereft of flight feathers that the bird could scarcely fly. The second 

 adult female, taken August 22, has finished the molt. 



The specimens from the upper Stikine Valley are to my eye indis- 

 tinguishable from the coast birds, and I therefore consider them all 

 of the subspecies gracilis. There is no question of the distinctness of 



