498 



NOKTH AMEKICAN FAUNA. 



[no. 27. 



Lesser Slave Lake. K. G. McConnell noted the arrival of the bird 

 at Fort Simpson on May 4, 1888." J. W. Tyrrell records a robin 

 seen on White Island, Great Slave Lake, east of Fort Resolution, 

 April 27, 1900.^ Later in the same season the bird was noted in the 

 isolated strip of wooded country bordering the Thelon or Ark-i-linik 

 Kiver, northeast of Great Slave Lake.^ Hanbury observed robins in 

 the lowest woods on the Coppermine, near the mouth of Kendall 

 River, July 30, 1902.^ Macoun records this bird from Edmonton, 

 where it was first seen April 16, 1897, and from several other points 

 in Alberta.^ 



J. Alden Loring reported large flocks seen at Edmonton, Septem- 

 ber 7 to 26, 1894, and took a ver}^ dark, richly colored male on Sep- 

 tember 25. He found it common also along the Jasper House trail 

 west of Edmonton, in the early summer of 1896. 



The spring dates of arrival of the robin at Fort Chipewyan, for 

 several years, are given in a table on page 23. 



Ixoreus naevius meruloides (Swains.). Northern Varied Thrush. 



Late on the evening of June 6, while stopping for a few hours on 

 an island in the Mackenzie about 20 miles below the mouth of the 

 Nahanni, I discovered a nest of this species, Avhich I collected, 

 together with the parent birds. The nest was placed in a small 

 spruce growing in a dense forest and Avas about 7 feet from the 

 ground. It is composed outwardly of small spruce twigs and sphag- 

 num. 'On this foundation is reared a cup-shaped superstructure of 

 bark, grass, and sphagnum mixed with mud, the latter material 

 apparently having adhered to the roots of the moss. This cup is 

 thickly and softly lined with fine grass and a few feathers. The 

 eggs, 3 in number, had been incubated about three days. The birds 

 flew excitedly about, uttering their characteristic alarm notes. The 

 species was observed on but one other occasion. While collecting 

 on Manito Island near Fort Good Hope on June 23, I saw a pair 

 whose actions indicated that they had a nest somewhere in the vicin- 

 ity. After a precipitate approach in response to my calling, their 

 curiosity seemed to be satisfied and they retired into the recesses of 

 a swamp. The natives at Fort Norman and Fort McPherson recog- 

 nized my specimens, and told me that the species occurred in the 

 neighborhood of those posts. 



This bird was described by Swainson from a specimen taken at 

 Fort Franklin, Great Bear Lake, in May, 1826. Concerning the 

 species, Richardson says : " We did not hear its song, nor acquire 



«Ann. Rept. Can. Geol, Surv., IV (new ser.), p. 86D, 1891. 

 »Ann. Rept. Dept. Interior (Canada) for 1900-1901, p. 135, 1902. 

 c Ibid., p. 122, 1902. 



^ Sport and Travel in Northland of Canada, p. 208, 1904. 

 c Cat. Canadian Birds, Part III, p. 720, 1904. 



