408 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



I NO. 2' 



in 1868.<^ J. Alden Loring reported this species as rather common in 

 the valleys in the vicinity of Henry House in J uly, 1896. 



Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus (Bonap.). Yellow-headed Blackbird. 



This blackbird is an inhabitant of the prairie sloughs, and is onh 

 locally found north of the plains. While I was collecting on the 

 Quatre Fourches marsh, near Fort Chipewyan, May 24, 1901, a small 

 company of these birds flew past, and I shot a male in rather dull 

 plumage. The species was not elsewhere noted. 



Ross reported having observed this bird on one occasion at Fort 

 Simpson.^ Eggs are recorded in the catalogue of the National Mu- 

 seum as having been received from Strachan Jones from Lesser Slave 

 Lake, but they are not mentioned by Bendire. A skin recorded by 

 him as coming from Du Brochet, Reindeer Lake,^ is entered in the 

 catalogue of birds as from Pelican Narrows [on Pelican Lake, eastern 

 Saskatchewan], which is probably the correct locality. Russell re- 

 ports seeing one at Fort Chipewj^an in the summer of 1893.^ H. 

 Jones reports a female taken at Hay River, Great Slave Lake. 



Agelaius phoeniceus arctolegus Oberholser. Xorthern Redwing. 



Agelaius pli'cEniceus arctolegus Oberholser, Auk, XXIV, p. 332, July, 1907. 

 (Type from Fort Simpson, Mackenzie.) 



The redwing blackbird breeds abundantly in suitable places 

 throughout the region north to Great Slave Lake and the upper 

 Mackenzie and less commonly to the northward of these points. In 

 the summer of 1901 flocks containing hundreds were seen a few miles 

 north of Edmonton, April 30 and May 1. A few were noted near 

 Athabaska Landing, May 5 ; many at the mouth of the Athabaska, 

 May IT; and a number on the Quatre Fourches marsh, May 24. In 

 a small marsh near the outlet of Athabaska Lake, near which we 

 camped June 1 to 4, the species was common and a male was taken 

 June 4. It was abundant in the swamps bordering Rocher River, 

 and one was collected there June 5. At a point about 25 miles below 

 the mouth of Peace River the species was common in a small marsh 

 near the Slave, June 12 and 13 ; several specimejis were collected here 

 on June 13, and nests found on the same date contained young a few 

 days old. On Smith Portage the bird was common June 18, and it 

 was seen daily at Fort Smith, June 19 to 28, a pair being taken June 

 21. It was noted near Fort Resolution, July 6 and 9. Several were 

 seen at Fort Rae, July 29, and an immature male was taken. On our 

 return trip we saw numbers near Sturgeon River, September 3. 



«Life Hist. N. A. Birds [II], p. 435, 1896. 

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

 "Life Hist. N. A. Birds [II], p. 447, 1896. 

 ^Expl. in Far North, p. 265, 1898. 



