34 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



among the most expert of divers and are difficult to secure. The males played 

 together considerably before the females arrived, but after that important 

 event their gymnastic and vocal performances knew no bounds. 



Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) says that this is the first of the diiclis 

 to reach high northern latitudes in Alaska. 



The seal hunters find them in the open spaces in the ice off St. Michaels 

 from the 1st to the 20th of April, and the first open water in shore is sure to 

 attract them. After their arrival it is no uncommon occurrence for the tem- 

 perature to fall to 25° or 30° below zero, and for furious storms of wind and 

 snow to rage for days, so the first comers must be hardy and vigorous to with- 

 stand the exposure. 



W. Elmer Ekblaw has sent me the following attractive account of 

 the arrival of the oldsquaws in northern Greenland: 



The distinctive resonant call of the oldsquaw announces the arrival of real 

 spring to the far Arctic shores. The earlier herald, the snow bunting, comes 

 while yet the land is covered with snow, while still the ice lies solid and un- 

 broken throughout the wind-swept fjords, and while yet the midnight sun is 

 new and even the noonday is chill ; the oldsquaw comes wheu the snow is gone 

 from the valleys and the slopes, and the first saxifrage and willow have burst 

 into blossom, when great dark leads and pools of open water break the white 

 expanse of fjord ice, and when tlie sun at midsummer height is warm at mid- 

 night as at noon. When the challenging clarion of the oldsquaw rings out 

 over the great north, spring has come. 



The first few oldsquaws come winging noisily in along tlie open leads the 

 first week in June. The males predominate in the first fiocks, but by mid-June, 

 wheu the immigratioji i.s at its height, the females appear to be :vs numerous 

 as the males. Until the inland ponds and lakes are open, the oldsquaws fre- 

 quent the leads and open pools in the fjord ice ; they are most numerous along 

 the shore where the tidal crack open§ up the ice, and where the warmer fresh 

 water coming down the slopes and hills melts away the ice foot from the shore. 

 In this along-shore water they apparently find more food, or food more to 

 their liking — generally Crustacea and small fish. 



From mid-June to the 1st of July the ice on the inland lakes melts away 

 rapidly. Just as soon as the belts of open water show along the banks, the 

 oldsquaws begin to leave the sea and enter the fresh-water lakes. In fiight 

 the female always leads, distinguishable by her plumper, dull-colored body and 

 shorter tail ; in swimming the male usually leads. Every lakelet lias its pair or 

 two of oldsquaws. Some of the pairs seems to be mated when they arrive 

 in the northland, but many mate after their arrival. In the last two weeks 

 of June the local mating season is at its height. Because the males are the 

 more numerous, the rivalry for the females is very keen, and the fighting con- 

 tinuous. During this time, the lake-dotted plains and valleys in the flats about 

 North Star Bay resound with the clamor and din of mating oldsquaws, and the 

 birds may be seen flying swiftly from pool to pool, from point to point. The 

 Eskimo consider them the swiftest flying birds of the northland. 



Courtship. — The season of courtship is much prolonged or very 

 variable with this species. This is one of the few ducks that have a 

 spring molt and nuptial plumage; the time and extent of the molt 

 varies greatly in different individuals ; and the flush of sexual ardor 

 is probably contemporary with the change of plumage. Conse- 



