190S.] 



BIEDS. 



407 



1888] saw a few betATeen Red Deer and Athabaska Landing^ Alberta, 

 and found the species very numerous near Methye Portage and at 

 Isle a la Crosse.'^ J. Alden Loring reported two seen at Edmonton, 

 September 10, 1894. Observations made at Lac du Brochet Post, 

 Reindeer Lake, from 1874 to 1889, show that the date of arrival of 

 this bird ranged from April 6 to April 28, the average date being 

 April 16. The detailed dates appear in a table given on page 22. 

 Similar dates for Fort Chipewyan are given in tabular form on page 

 23. H. ^y. Jones reports seeing the bird on the Mackenzie above Fort 

 Simpson, April 22, 1905. 



Nucifraga columbiana (Wils.). Clark Nutcracker. 



J. Alden Loring noted this species near Banff, Alberta, August 30, 

 1894, and in the autumn of 1895 saw two small flocks near Jasper 

 House. As the bird ranges to Alaska, it is doubtless a regular in- 

 habitant of the Rocky Mountains in western Alberta and north- 

 eastern British Columbia. 



Molothrus ater (Bodd.) . Cowbird. 



This bird, usually called ' buffalo-bird ' in Alberta and the Peace 

 River Valley, where it is common, occurs nortlward at least to Fort 

 Simpson. 



In the spring of 1903 we first observed the cowbird near Sturgeon 

 River, May 12, noting three, and we found it common between there 

 and Athabaska Landing, May 13 to 15. We saw a few at Grand 

 Rapid, May 22 and 24, and at Little Buffalo River, May 26. We 

 next saw the bird at Fort Resolution, June 22, when two or three 

 Avere observed about the post buildings, and two specimens were 

 taken. 



In the scoring of 1904, at Fort Simpson, I saw the first one on May 

 14, and three more on May 20. The latter were closely attending the 

 herd of cattle in a field near the post. They were the last seen that 

 season. J. W. Mills collected a female specimen at Fort Providence, 

 May 18, 1905. H. Jones reports the bird common at Hay River 

 in the spring of 1907. 



Ross listed the species as very rare in the Mackenzie River region 

 north to Fort Simpson, where he had collected it.^ I find in the 

 catalogue of the birds in the National Museum the records of a speci- 

 men (No. 22803) taken by Ross at Fort Simpson, May 27, 1861, and 

 of one from Peace River. These specimens seem to have disap- 

 peared, and evidently the records have been ignored or overlooked. 

 Bendire records eggs taken by Strachan Jones at Lesser Slave Lake 



« Cat. Canadian Birds, Part II, p. 387, 1903. 

 ^Nat. Hist. Rev., II (second ser), p. 282, 1862. 



