CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 725 



of St. Michael. They were very shy and he succeeded in obtain- 

 ing a single specimen. {Nelson.) 1 met with this species in the 

 vicinity of Cape Blossom, Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, on July 3rd, 

 i8gg. The locality was the side of a ravine between two hills of 

 the first range, about a mile back from the mission. This hillside 

 was of a gentle slope, and was clothed with thick patches of 

 dwarf willows, one to two feet in height. That this species was 

 breeding at Cape Blossom, I have no doubt, but time did not per- 

 mit as the Penelope arrived and I had to leave; I procured two 

 specimens however. {Grinnell.) 



CCLXI. SAXICOLA Bechstein. 1803. 



765. Wheatear, 



Saxicola cenanthe (Linn.) Bechst. 1803. 

 During the Western Union Telegraph Expedition, Mr. Dall saw 

 several large flocks of these birds near Nulato, on May 23rd and 

 24th, 1868, and learned from the natives of their abundance upon 

 the stony hill-tops back from the river. At St. Michael, Norton 

 Sound, I found them to occur in spring and fall rather irregularly- 

 They were not v^ry rare, and the natives informed me that they 

 were common upon the bare mountain tops in the interior, fre- 

 quenting the summer range of the reindeer. The wheatear 

 was also found at Port Clarence, in Behring Strait, at the 

 head of Kotzebue Sound, at Cape Lisburne, by Dr. Bean. 

 {Nelson.) This bird is very erratic in its occurrence in northern 

 Alaska. Early in the spring migrations of 1882, we had these 

 birds in comparative abundance near the station for a few days, 

 but none remained to breed, and in the season of 1883, though a 

 careful lookout was kept for them, not one was noticed. Those 

 seen appeared to be travelling towards the northeast. {Murdoch.) 

 Osgood saw two young wheatears at Circle City, Alaska, August 

 igth^ 1899 and secured one. At the Aphoon mouth of the Yukon 

 I shot one on August 27th, which fell into the river and was car- 

 ried away by the rapid current, but I saw the white rump plainly. 

 {Bishop.) 



765a. European Wheatear. 



Saxicola cenanthe leucorhoa (Gmel.) Stejn. 190 i. 

 One male bird procured at Disco, Greenland, August nth, 1891, 

 ind one on July i6th, 1892, by the Parry Relief Expedition. 



