600 SPRINGTIME ON THE YUKON. 
Diptera, in the shape of mosquitoes, are only too common, 
as we have discovered long since, and one does not wonder 
that the deer and moose, to escape their persecution, plunge 
into the Yukon under the very eye of the hunter, to meet a 
certain doom. 
Birds of the season are vocal in every bush; and here 
again we meet familiar aequaintances, perhaps the very same 
whieh have built their nests and reared their young under 
the roses and lilacs of Massachusetts. The common robin 
(Turdus migratorius), the much more beautiful and musical 
varied thrush (T. nevius), the gray-cheeked thrush (T. 
alicie), the ruby-crowned kinglet (Regulus calendula), the 
yellow, black-capped, and yellow-riimped warblers: (Den- 
droica estiva, striata and coronata), the wax wing (Ampelis 
garrulus), the rusty blackbird (S. ferrugineus), and a host 
of others are everywhere about us, hardly noticing our pres- 
ence, and intent on pleasing their newly found mates, by 
song, and twitter, and pretty, arch gymnastics, which, to the 
tender-hearted make the use of powder and shot, even for 
scientific purposes, little better than deliberate murder. 
Kurilla, at our side, says “the bushes are boiling over with 
birds!" And this reminds us that the sun is now high in 
the south, and we make our way toward the boat abandoning 
sentiment to boil the teakettle. On our way, a few low 
musical notes attract our attention just in time for us to see 
the author, a water ouzel (Hydrobata Mexicana), dive with 
a splash and patter into the little brook before us, and away, 
out of sight. Yonder is a beautiful rounded dome of moss, 
woven as closely as a Turkey carpet, and as smooth and even 
as the dome of St. Peter's, with a small round hole at one 
side, where our timid songster in due time will rear his 
family. Kurilla's gun is ever ready; he has reached the 
waterside before us and a magnificent mallard lies at his feet, 
which he has just shot, as it rose from yonder stump hidden 
in a bunch of alders. Parting the bushes we see him point 
triumphantly to an excavation in the decayed wood where 
