434 THROUGH THE MAOKEN'ZIE BASIN" 



Y63a. Pale Varied Theush — Iseoreus noevia meruloides 



(Swains.). 



One specimen was procured at Eort Franklin, Great Bear 

 Lake, latitude 65° 30' north, in May, 1826. It was the only 

 one observed. Mr. Eaine, however, has a " nest and four 

 eggs that were taken iby the present Bishop Stringer, of Daw- 

 son, Yukon, in the eastern channel of the Mackenzie River, 

 forty miles from its mouth. It was found on June 5th, 1895, 

 in a spruce tree, fifteen feet from the ground. The nest is 

 made of moose grass and is six inches in diameter and three 

 inches deep. The eggs are a paler blue than a robin's, and are 

 spotted with brown." It is surely rather surprising that 

 there is no record that Sir John Richardson, in course of his 

 third and last northern exploring expedition, or Mr. Robert 

 Kennicott, Mr. Bernard R. Ross, and a number of other 

 "Hudson's Bay" collectors, ever obtained or even observed 

 a solitary example of this somewhat rare and interesting 

 thrush. ISTor is there a single specimen thereof on hand in 

 the l^ational Museum at Ottawa. 



768. MoTTNTAiw Blttebied — Sialia arciica Swainson. 



An example of this rather rare species was shot at Fort 

 Resolution, Great Slave Lake, early in June, 1880. It was 

 afterwards forwarded to Mr. Dalgleish and identified by 

 him. Sir John Richardson states that " only one specimen 

 of this beautiful bird was shot at Fort Franklin, Great Bear 

 Lake, in July, 1825, and that it was merely a summer visitor 

 to the ]^orth-West Territories." Not entered in Mr. Ross's 

 Catalogue of Mackenzie River Birds. It may be here men- 

 tioned that, of the many species which annually breed in the 

 far north, we have never known any of them raise more 

 than a single brood in any one season. Mr. George E. 

 Atkinson, taxidermist, Winnipeg, a noted collector, states 

 tliat on October 10th, 1898, he " received a fine male moun- 

 tain bluebird from Mr. E. R. Patterson, of Brandon, Mani- 

 toba. It had been obtained two days before about two miles 



