694 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



winter. I also took this species on the divide between Nicola 

 and Okanagan valleys, the most westerly point I have observed 

 it. Abundant in the heavy spruce timber and on high elevations, 

 in winter, in Cariboo district, B.C. (Brooks.) Rocky Mountains, 

 from Liard River south into Montana. {Rhoads in The Auk, Vol. 

 X., p. 331.) An adult male was taken at Homer in June, and two 

 specimens on September 12th, 1901, in first winter plumage. Not 

 common but seen at all places visited on the Kenai timber belt in 

 Alaska. It was usually found in the dead spruce groves oE the 

 more open country. {Chapman.) 



740c. Yukon Chickadee. 



Panes hudsonicus evura Coues. 

 We took the Yukon chickadee at Caribou Crossing, June 27th; 

 Lake Tagish, June 30th; Lake Marsh, July Sth, and Lake Lebarge, 

 July 14th; and after reaching Thirty-mile River, July 19th, found 

 it regularly distributed in families or large flocks, all the way to 

 Fort Yukon, 15 miles above which I saw a flock, August 21st. At 

 St. Michael I took a young female in first winter plumage, Sep- 

 tember 20th. Young able to fly were first taken, July 5th, and 

 moulting birds, August 13th. We took adults in full moult, June 

 27th, and one in which the moult was almost completed, July 24th. 

 (Bishop^ At our winter camp on the Kowak, Kotzebue Sound, 

 Alaska, this species was common up to September. After that 

 date and up to the first of April, but one or two at a time were 

 seen ^nd then only at long intervals. Early in September, groups 

 of four to seven were noted nearly every day in the spruces 

 around the cabin. Those chickadees observed during the winter 

 were all in the dense willow thickets along Hunt River. By the 

 first of May the chickadees were back again roving through the 

 woods in pairs. Old woodpecker-holes were* selected as nesting 

 sites, and I spotted nests in process of construction by the 15th 

 May, but through various mishaps I failed to secure any eggs. 

 (Grinnell!) 



741. Chestnut-backed Chickadee. 



Parus rufescens Towns. 1837. 

 Very common in the woods at Hastings, Burrard Inlet, B.C., in 

 April, 1889; none were seen at Agassiz, about 50 miles up the 

 F iser River in May; an abundant resident on Vancouver Island, 



