8 
The most enlightening series of birds from this neighbourhood, how- 
ever, is that taken by Hamilton M. Laing, Chitina glacier, Mount Logan 
area, Alaska, near the southern point of the Alaska-Yukon boundary. 
It consists of a complete family, both parents and three nearly fledged 
young. Three other specimens, an adult and two juveniles, are normal 
melanotic birds, the adult completely so with tail similar to Plate I, figure 
20. One of the juveniles shows a faint suggestion of white breast patch, 
and the other has the same character well marked. The male of the 
family is in full melanotic phase, but is a well marked calurus with red, 
black-barred tail (Plate III, figure 2). The female is about half-way 
between melanotic and light phases, with tail characteristically harlani 
(Plate III, figure 3). It is notable that the amount of white on the head of 
this partial melano is sufficient to suggest krideri. The three young show 
an interesting range of coloration. They are all melanotic. The darkest 
one is very black indeed, with tail so dark that the banding is almost 
obliterated (Plate III, figure 4). The lightest is freely feather-edged, 
especially on breast, with rufous-ochre (Plate III, figure 5). Its tail is 
shown in Plate I, figure 22. These juveniles differ in no significant degree 
from any other specimens of supposedly pure harlani and present no 
suggestion of hybrid origin. 
To complicate matters birds of distinct krideri type appear in the 
same region. The above-mentioned female (Plate III, figure 3), shows 
decided leanings that way. We have a specimen, 6573, Teslin lake, Yukon 
territory (on the British Columbia boundary), Sept. 3, 1912, a juvenile, in 
body practically identical with that shown in Plate II, figure 2. Its tail 
is shown in Plate I, figure 12. This may be a migrant like the “apparently 
krideri ” near Gladys lake, Sept. 7, reported by Swarth (1926, page 110), 
but at this far extension of the specific range the distinction between 
migrant and resident birds loses much of its value, especially as the same 
author (1922, page 212) describes what seems like a good krideri breeding 
at Flood glacier, well to the south, and Bailey (1916) records a winter 
juvenile krideri taken at Eagle, Alaska, well to the north. It is thus 
quite evident that these three forms, harlani , calurus, and krideri occur 
together, not at some central point where distinct distributions might be 
expected to meet but near the periphery of specific distribution, where 
isolation and specialization should be greatest and in the heart of what 
we should expect to be the range of pure harlani. If the latter is not 
racially pure here it seems hopeless to look for racial purity in it anywhere. 
Although this far northwestern area and the Red Deer River region 
of Alberta 1 have so far produced the only substantiated breeding records 
of Buteo borealis harlani, it has been taken in migration over a considerable 
area. As before remarked, Laing has noted strong migrations of melanotic 
Red-tails, many of which were satisfactorily identified as harlani, in Sep- 
tember at Belvedere, Alberta. Harrold has seen similar flights and taken 
specimens spring and autumn at Whitewater lake, Manitoba, and H. V 
Williams (1926) reports late September and October movements of harlani 
and melanotic calurus. The writer has seen a number of winter harlani 
in the Bishop collection from Hamilton, Kansas, and others in the Koelz 
1 Dr. L. B. Bishop informs the writer " I collected a fine old male krideri in worn breeding plumage, 
but with a fresh harlani tail, near Rolia, Rolette county. North Dakota, July 24, 1901, some 20 miles south of the 
International Boundary . . . . ” This adds a considerable extension to the possible breeding range of birds with 
harlani characters. 
