from passing flocks, was similar to the whistle just mentioned. , The birds 

 that we collected had been feeding on the purple berries of some unidentified 

 plant. 



The northern butcher-bird is also commbn all over the interior 

 of Alaska; and Nelson gives a pleasantly full account of its singing, 

 and of other features of its summer life, making it appear to much 

 better advantage than does the ordinary biography, which dwells too 

 much on the bird's predatory habits, most noticeable in winter. 



A surprising number of those delicate migrants, the wood- 

 warblers, travel annually to this far-northern region — a fact surpris- 

 ing less on account of the cold of the climate than of the distance 

 from their winter home, and of the high mountains which must be 

 passed over in the flight from the Canadian plains to the valley of the 

 Yukon. Yet the wooded interior of Alaska harbors in summer great 

 numbers of yellow warblers, orange-crowned warblers, myrtle-birds, 

 blackpolls, oven-birds, blackcaps and water-thrushes; and Mr. Nelson 

 devotes many pages to his observations upon their pretty ways, which 

 do not differ essentially from those observable in more southern 

 latitudes. 



The pipit lark, the dipper, the red-breasted nuthatch, the chickadee 

 (in three varieties), and the ruby-crowned kinglet of Alaska, are the 

 same attractive little creatures so well known elsewhere. 



This brings the list for this district up to the thrushes, a group 

 that is well represented, happily for the Alaskan people. The gray- 

 cheeked, or Alice's, thrush is to be met with abundantly all over 

 Alaska in summer; and equally numerous at that season throughout 

 the wooded parts of the Territory is the local buff-cheeked variety 

 of Swainson's, or the olive-backed thrush; but it differs very slightly 

 from the type in appearance, and not at all in habits. The music of 

 even these charming choristers, however, is surpassed by that of the 

 solitaire : 



On the hot noon of June 26, while seated on the summit of a hill some 

 1,500 feet above Caribou Crossing, I heard the most beautiful bird song that 

 has ever delighted my ear. It seemed to combine the strength of the robin, 

 the joyousness and soaring quality of the bobolink, and the sweetness and 

 purity of the wood thrush. Starting low and apparently far away, it gained 

 in intensity and volume until it filled the air, and I looked for the singer 

 just above my head. I finally traced the song to a Townsend solitaire that 

 was seated on a dead tree about 150 yards away, pouring forth this volume of 

 melody without leaving its perch. The singer came close enough later to 

 make identification certain. — Bishop. 



The robin also occurs numerously wherever woods grow to give 

 it food and shelter; and it is seen in the spring migrations on the 

 coast of Bering Sea, but few, if any, breed there. Its relatives, the 

 Oregon robin and the mountain bluebird, occasionally appear near 

 the Canadian boundary. 



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