Intermediate Sparrow, Zonotrichia intermedia Ridgw. "Everywhere in Alaska," 

 writes Mr. E. W. Nelson, "the presence of bushes and timber is an almost ceirtain indi- 

 cation of this bird's presence in summer. It is the only White-crowned Sparrow reaching 

 these high latitudes, and it ranges to the shores of the Arctic Ocean and Behring Sea. 

 In the northern half of British America, extending entirely across that country along the 

 Arctic shore and thence west throughout Alaska, it is a very abundant and familiar 

 bird. It arrives on the upper Yukon at the Arctic Circle by the 15th or 20th of May 

 and begins nesting about the 20th of this month. . . ." It is the most abundant Sparrow 

 on the Mackenzie River, and it w^as found breeding in great numbers on the upper 

 Yukon and thence east to the Anderson River, where McFarlane, Lockhart, and Ross 

 found it breeding. The nests found were mostly placed upon the ground or in low 

 bushes, and were well lined w^ith deer-hair and feathers. The eggs have a clayey-white 

 ground-color, thickly covered with small reddish spots, which are only a trifle more 

 numerous at the larger end. In Alaska these Sparrows approach the houses in con- 

 siderable numbers by the 25th of July, joining with the various other Sparrows and 

 small birds. As the cold storms of August commence they gradually pass to the South 

 until, as this month draws to a close, they have all disappeared. 



Near the West Yegua, Lee Co., Texas, I observed these Sparrows in abundance in 

 company with others of their genus. They arrived late in November and remained until 

 about April 1. In their ways and manners they do not differ from their near relatives. 

 They winter south into Mexico. Dr. Hoy obtained a specimen near Racine, Wis., in 1871. 



DESCRIPTION : Similar to the White-crowned Sparrow, but differs in having the lores entirely light ash or 

 bufiy, continuous with the superciliary stripe of same color. 



Golden-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia coronata Baird. According to Mr. E. W. 

 Nelson this bird is a common summer resident from Puget Sound to the peninsula of 

 Alaska. On the lower Yukon and Norton Sound it is also common, penetrating even 

 beyond to the Arctic Circle, in the Kotzebue Sound region, where, however, it is less 

 common. Mr. Nelson found it at Saint Michaels, Alaska, usually from May 25 to the 

 15th of August, about which latter time it passes south with its young. At this time 

 it comes fearlessly about the houses for food, with troops of other Sparrows, and is not 

 so shy as in spring. Its breeding ground is in the alder patches along the hilUsides, 

 where the various bush-loving species make their homes in the matted thickets, well 

 protected from birds of prey and most other foes by an almost impenetrable wall of 

 gnarled and twisted branches. 



A straggler of this species was also obtained by Dr. P. R. Hoy near Racine, Wis. 

 DESCRIPTION: Similar to the White-crown, but the crown-stripe is yellow anteriorly, ashy behind. 



