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Notes from Alaska

H. S. Swarth

Online Full Text

The University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology has recently received as gifts from Mr. Allen Hasselborg of Juneau, Alaska, specimens of birds taken by him in southern Alaska, some of which are of sufficient interest to justify the recording of their capture. A letter accompanying the last skins received contains brief notes on these and additional species, and extracts from it are appended below. The compiler of these notes can vouch for Mr. Hasselborg's thorough acquaintance with the species referred to, and there need be no hesitation in accepting the records in the two cases where specimens were not taken. The numbers pertain to the bird collection of the Museum.

Gavia adamsi. Yellow-billed Loon. Adult, not sexed, head only saved. Mole Harbor, Admiralty Island, May 2.5, 1911 (no. 19119).

Adult male; "off Dixon Harbor" (on the mainland, a little north of Cross Sound); August 17, 1911 (no. 19728). He further remarks "I have seen three others this year [1911] one about the first of June, off Point Hugh [southernmost point of Glass Peninsula, Admiralty Island], one in the Favorite Channel [at south end of Lynn Canal], June 5, and one in Berner's Bay [east shore of Lynn Canal], June 17. Last year I saw one off Lituya Bay about June 20, and one in Gastineau Channel [between Douglas Island and the mainland] in November."

These records of the Yellow-billed Loon are of interest, as the various expeditions sent to the region by the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology failed to secure any specimens. In 1907 a single bird was seen at Windfall Harbor, Admiralty Island (see Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., vol. 5, 1909, p. 182); on the 1909 expedition, which traversed the length of the Alexander Archipelago, the species was not encountered at all.

Picoides americanus. American Three-toed Woodpecker. Three specimens, all from Admiralty Island; adult female, Oliver Inlet, January 1, 1910 (no. 16716); adult male, Kanalku Bay, June 18, 1910 (no. 16717); adult male Seymour Canal, November 15, 1910 (no. 19729).

He also found two nests at Berner's Bay, in June, 1911, but was unable to examine them.

Chaetura vauxi. Vaux Swift. "I saw Vaux Swifts repeatedly in June and July in the big valleys running back from Berner's Bay, and on August 24 saw four in the valley at the head of Excursion Inlet." Excursion Inlet is on the northern shore of Icy Strait, between Lynn Canal and Glacier Bay.

Zonotrichia coronata. Golden-crowned Sparrow. "On June 21 I saw a Golden-crowned Sparrow at 2500 feet elevation at Berner's Bay, and believe it was nesting."

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