Identifier: reportuponnatura00nelso (find matches)
Title: Report upon natural history collections made in Alaska : between the years 1877 and 1881
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Nelson, Edward William, 1855-1934 Henshaw, Henry W. (Henry Wetherbee), 1850-1930 True, Frederick William, 1858-1914 Bean, Tarleton H. (Tarleton Hoffman), 1846-1916 Edwards, William H. (William Henry), 1822-1909
Subjects: Zoology Birds
Publisher: Washington : Government Printing Office
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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f the crown from back, well marked,Sides of head and neck, as well as throatand most of breast, silvery white. The whiteon upper breast shades thence into lightsmoky-brownish, which usually occupies thesides aud tianks. The two forms run closelytogether, iu this particular, in a number ofcases. Fu.MiFKONS, from Alaska. Back ashy-browu. Crown dark bhackish-brownwith an .a^ihy wash, the d.ark area encroach-ing upon frontal space until the latter may bealmost absent or it maybe present nearly as incanadensis, but this r.arely. Nuchal color ofwhite usually obsolescent. Sides of head,neck and throat dull white iu most cases, muchshaded with ashy-browu. The white is limitedto the throat and is replaced ou the breast bycolor of ai)domen, which shades into the lighton upper breast. The color of abdomen is asmoky browuish-gr.iy, with a dark ashy shadepredominating on sides and flanks. The Alaskan birds are a little larger than specimens of typical canadensis from Eastern NorthAmerica. Plate xi
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Pe/iso / cus (cb)!ac/ensisfli7fiifroas. BIRDH. 165 Two nests were brought me from the mouth of the Tanaua River by Mr. Francois Mercier,who obtained them the 1st of April, 18S0, after considerable persuasion and an offer of a largereward in flour to the natives daring a time of scarcity. By these means he succeeded in gettinga native to go out and search for the nests of this bird. The young fellow returned in a few hourswith two nests, each containing half grown yonng. Walking into the house he told the trader totake the nests and birds at once, for he was sure some evil would result from his act, and takinghis flour he hurried away before the birds and nests were examined. All the old crones and menof the vicinity prophesied that the weather would turn cold, and that a very late spring wouldensue as a result of this robbery. As chance would have it the prophesies of the old soothsayerscame true in a remarkable degree, and the spring was the coldest and most backward by nearly amonth

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