Nov., I9OO I THE CONDOR ?4? the moulting in the two species. L. lagopus begins to change from summer to winter plum- age in August, and goes on until well into October. "Three specimens taken on October 6 have the back, upper tail coverts, breast, head and neck all around still chiefly dark, though many white feathers are mixed in; the rest of the lower parts and the wings, including their coverts, are entirely white." The moult in the fall "advances in just the reverse order from that in the spring, but giving the same protective distribution of coloration, that is, (lark above and light beneath. * ? *" Both sexes in the fall apparently undergo moulting at the same time; but in the spring the male precedes the female by three weeks or more. The first appearance of dark feathers is evidenced by two males taken on April 4th. TM On April 26 the first males in perfect courting plumage were secured. Then follows the bar- red summer plumage. "The male Willow Ptarmigan thus undergoes at least three distinct moults during the year, though but one of these, that in the fall is complete. In the case of the females my specimens seem to indicate but two plumages, the winter, like that of the male, and the summer, which is different front either the courting or the summer male plum- age. ?'* ? ? In both sexes the tarsi and tops of the toes moult but once--in the fall. But in May, after the heavy pedal featbering is of no further use as snow shoes, the feathers apparently become brittle, for in a short time they become so abraded that the feet and tarsi are almost bare." The notes on the feeding habits and nesting of this species are (?f interest. During the long winter the ptarmigan subsist entirely on large quantities of buds and tender twigs of dwarf alder and willow. In the Rock Ptarmigan the fen(ale moults long before the male, just the reverse of the Willow Ptarmigan. In speaking of the Rock Ptarmigan Grinnell says: "The Rock Ptarmigan, according to my experience, are confined exclusively to the higher hill-tops and mountains in summer, and at such elevations the snow remains later in the spring and comes much earlier in the fall than in the valley, leaving a very brief summer. No Rock Ptarmigan were detected iu the Kowak Valley until February iIth. On account of the light snow-fall in the early part of the winter, they probably found sufficient forage on the mountain sides up to this date. However, during March and April flocks of from a dozen to a hundred were often met with in the lowlands. These flocks could be traced up by following their tracks, especially if th? ?,now was freshly fallen or la?id by the wind. Then tracks of a la.?ge flock of Rock Ptarmigan wonld form a broad swath and extend across the tundra for miles, the individual liues of tracks zigzagging back and forth so as to take in every willow twig or bunch of grass sticking up throngh the snow, but all tending in the same general direction. The birds, when on these feeding marches, apparently seldom take flight unless disturbed, and I have followed these roads from one set of "forms" in the snow, where the birds had passed the preceding night, to the second set of "forms" of the snc- ceeding night, and then finally found them, doubtless on their second day's walk without having taken flight; except occasional individ- uals left behind." He also includes an entertaining little ?tory which ought to prove a tender morsel for extremists in the theory of adaptation to pecul- iar environment. "The native name for the Rock Ptarmigan is also A-garq-nk in common with the Willow Ptarmigan, but the fornter is also known by the distinctive name, Nik-sak- toong?nk, referring to the black on the sides of the head. The natives say this black is so the Rock Ptarmigan, which lives on the mountains where the snow covers the ground till mid- summer, will not be blinded by the intense glare." The natives, it seems, use a similar contrivance to prevent snow-blindness. Picoldes a. alascensis proved to be the only woodpecker detected in the Kowak region. The new shrike, Lanius borealis invictus? "differs from L. borealis borealis in larger size, paler coloration dorsally, and greater extent of white markings." Parus hudsonicus evura Coues is recognized instead of stoneyi Ridgway. Grinnell secured an immature female of t>hyl - lopsuestes borealis August 2?, '9 8, on the Kowak. One other was seen later but not secured. He discreetly does not tell us his feelings when this bird unceremoniously decamped "into the deep blue of the northern horizon." Unusual interest is attached to the capture of such an ornithological rarity in America as Cyanecula suecica. An adnlt male was taken, and the species undoubtedly breeds at Cape Blossom. The account of IYespero(ichla rimvia is partic- ularly valuable because it treats of a bird which heretofore seems to have been largely avoided by writers. Grinnell's observations have added the fol- lowing species not before accredited to the Kotzebue region: Cyclorrhynchus psittaculus, Simorhynchus pusillus, Simorhynchus cristatel- lus, Stercora? iuspomarinus, l?)dmarus glacialis rodg'ersii, Phalacrocoraa ? pelagicus robustus, ('hen hyperborea, Philacte canagica, Tringa canutus, Ereunetes occidentalis, Trin?a bairdii, ?lphriza vi,3ffata, ?icoides americanus alasten- sis, Pinicola enucleator alascensis, ,4rapelis .ffarrulus, lqffulus calendula, ?vanecula suecica. A good nmp is appended showing the locali- ties given in the report. t'ac(?ic ('oasi z4vt.'auna :Vo. z is a very read- able paper, the chief value of which is the biographical character of the bird notes, and
