398 



NOKTH AMEKICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 27. 



24, 1861. Several skins, including the earliest dated one from Foj't 

 Simpson, are still in the collection. Skins and eggs were received 

 also from Lesser Slave Lake from Strachan Jones in 1868. Eussell 

 took specimens at Fort Chipewyan, May 26 and 30, 1893, and re- 

 ports it as common.'^ Macoun states that Spreaclborough first noted 

 it at Edmonton, Alberta, on May 12, 1897.^ J. Alden Loring took a 

 female 12 miles west of Ste. Anne, Alberta, June 12, 1896. 



Empidonax hammondi (Xantus). Hammond Flycatcher. 

 Concerning this species Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway say: 

 A number of uests and eggs sent, with the parent birds, from Lesser Slave 



Lake, by Mr. Strachan Jones, show that its eggs are unspotted creamy-white, 



like those of E. minimus and E. o'bscurus.^ 



This is apparently the only authentic published record of this 

 species for the region,^ though the bird catalogue of the National 

 Museum records a specimen (Xo. 61211) collected by Jones at the 

 same place. 



Otocoris alpestris hoyti Bishop. Hoyt Horned Lark. 



This form of horned lark occurs in migration throughout the 

 wooded region. It probably does not breed south of the Barren 

 Grounds, unless possibly on the semibarren summits of the moun- 

 tains. During four summers' work in the north I have never found 

 this bird south of the Barren Grounds during June or July, and the 

 specimens taken at Fort Simpson and other points late in May showed 

 no indication of breeding soon. 



We found it common at the delta of the Athabaska May IT, 1901, 

 and while collecting on the marsh at the mouth of the Quatre 

 Fourches, near the same place. May 24, saw a number and took a pair. 



In the spring of 1903 we first observed this species a short distance 

 north of Sturgeon Eiver, May 13, noting about a dozen birds and 

 taking one specimen. Similar flocks were seen on May 14 and 15, 

 northward to Athabaska Landing. While on their return trip Alfred 

 E. Preble and Merritt Gary found the birds common at Athabaska 

 Landing, where they were feeding in company with Lapland long- 

 spurs, September 19 to 21. 



In 1904 the first horned larks referable to hoyti were taken at Fort 

 Simpson on May 10. A large series, comprising specimens taken 



«Expl. in Far North, p. 264, 1898. 



^ Catalogue Canadian Birds, Part II, p. 356, 1903. 

 Hist. X. A. Birds, Land Birds, II, p. 384, 1874. 



^ Brewer's record of a set of eggs of Empidonax hammondi from Anderson 

 River (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., II, p 1, 1879), and MacFarlane's consequent 

 inclusion of the species in his list of Arctic birds, is probably based on an 

 error. 



