_Troglodytes alascensis_, BAIRD, Trans. Chicago Acad. Sc. I, ii, 315,
pl. xxx, fig. 3, 1869.—DALL & BANNISTER (Alaska).—FRIESCH,
Ornith. N. W. Amerikas, 1872, 30.
SP. CHAR. ♂ ad., 61,329, Amaknak Island, Unalaschka, Oct. 21, 1871; W.
H. Dall. Above umber-brown, more rufescent on the wings, rump, and
tail; secondaries and tail-feathers showing indistinct transverse
dusky bars; primaries about equally barred with blackish and dilute
umber or brownish-white; middle-coverts tipped with a small white dot,
preceded by a black one. Lower part, including a rather distinct
superciliary stripe, pale ochraceous-umber; sides, flanks, abdomen,
and crissum distinctly barred with dusky and whitish on a rusty
ground; crissum with sagittate spots of white. Wing, 2.20; tail, 1.60;
culmen, .65; tarsus, .75.
HAB. Aleutian and Pribylow Islands, Alaska.
The specimen above described represents about the average of a large
series obtained on Amaknak Island by Mr. Dall. They vary somewhat
among themselves as regards dimensions, but all are very much larger
than any specimens of _T. hyemalis_, from which it also differs in
longer, straighter, and more subulate bill (the gonys slightly
ascending). The type specimen from St. George’s Island was immature,
and we embrace the opportunity of giving the description of an adult
sent down with several others in the autumn of 1871 by Mr. Dall from
Unalaschka.
This form bears the same relation to _T. hyemalis_ that _Melospiza
unalaschkensis_ does to _M. melodia_; _T. pacificus_, like _M.
rufina_, being an intermediate form.
HABITS. Of this new variety, the Alaska Wren, but little is as yet
known as to its personal history. Mr. Dall states that it is found in
abundance all the year round on St. George’s Island, and that it
breeds in May, building a nest of moss in the crevices of the rocks,
and, according to the Aleuts, lays six eggs. Mr. Dall subsequently
found it quite common at Unalaschka in the summer of 1871.