BIRDS. 183 



Matthews and Piunaclo. It beiug au insular form its suiuiuer habitat might be sui^posed to include 

 Saint Lawrence Island, to the north of Saint Matthews. Such, however, is not the case. The 

 Plectroplienax of this island is known to be true nivalis. The form resident on the Prybilov Islands, 

 to the south, is distinct from either of the above, and has recently been described by Mr. Eidgway 

 as a race of hyperboreus (P. liypcrhoreus toicnsendi). H. W. H. 



Oalcaeius lapponictjs (Linn.). Lai)land Longspur. (Esk. TiJci-cM-liiiff-uk.) 



Like the preceding species, the Lapland Longspur is a widely-spread circumpolarbird, whose 

 presence is recorded from nearly every point visited by explorers along the shores of the Arctic 

 coast. It is found breeding in Iceland, Greenland, and on nearly all those islands lying in the 

 icy sea just to the north of the continental mainlands. In the territory covered by the present 

 paper it is an extremely abundant and familiar bird, found, perhaps, more numerously upon the 

 mainland, but also known from the various islands of Beiiug Sea. It was found by Dall as a 

 summer resident on the western portion of the Aleutian chain; it was also iound resident on the 

 Seal Islands by Elliott, and on Saint Lawrence Island was found by myself during the summer of 

 1881. It is a summer resident on the Xear Islands and abundant about Point Barrow, where it 

 arrives about May 20 and lays the first eggs the beginning of June. It returns south from that 

 point the last of August and first of September. On the Commander Islands it is one of the 

 commonest laud birds, arriving about the 2Lst of April and leaving the end of Octobei'. On the 

 north coast of Siberia it was found with its young during the same season, but was not .seen on 

 either Wraugel or Herald Islands during our visit. Eegarding its presence on the Seal Islands 

 Elliott tells us that " this bird is the vocalist par excellence of the Prybilov group, singing all 

 through the month of June in the most exquisite manner, rising high in the air and hovering on 

 fluttering wings over its sitting mate. The song is so sweet that it is always too short." * * * 



According to Dall it arrives at Kulato, on the Middle Yukon, about May 12, but this must be 

 exceptionally late, since it frequently arrives at Saint Michaels on the sea-coast the last days of 

 April or 1st of May, and they are known to arrive in the south of Greenland by the 1st of May. 

 The naturalist just quoted found it an abundant summer resident on the Western Aleutians, and 

 obtained a nest vfith four eggs much incubated the 18tli of June. He also tells us that they leave 

 these islands in autumn, and I doubt if any winter in the Territoi-y, with the possible exception of 

 the Kadiak and Sitkan region. 



During my residence at Saint Michaels over thirty nests were obtained, and the number might 

 readily have been doubled. Their nests were so abundant everywhere on the grassy flats that 

 one could scarcely walk over the tundra for half an hour during the proper season without finding 

 from one to a half dozen of them.: By the middle of May the males are numerous and in full song 

 along the coast of Norton Sound, having arrived about this time or a little earlier in flocks, and 

 spread rapidly over their breeding ground. ] Its range during the nesting season is from Fort 

 Kenai and Kadiak, on the southeast coast of Alaska, north through the entire Territory to the 

 Arctic coast. lu July and August Kumlien found the eggs and young of this bird on Disco Island. 

 Greenland, and notes that they keep back from the coast, having a greater iirefereuce for the inte- 

 rior than the Snow Bunting. I have noted this peculiarity wherever I have had an opportunity 

 of observing their habits along the shores of Bering Sea and the adjoining Arctic coasts. ( When 

 they arrive early in May the ground is still largely covered with snow with the exception of grassy 

 spots along southern exposures and the more favorably situated portions of the tundra, and here 

 may be found these birds in all the beauty of their elegant summer dress. The males, as if con- 

 scious of their handsome plumage, choose the tops of the only breaks in the monotonous level, 

 which are small rounded knolls and tussocks. The male utters its song as it flies upward from 

 one of these knolls and when it reaches the height of 10 or 15 yards it extends the points of its 

 wings upwards, forming a large V-shaped figure, and floats gently to the ground, uttering, as it 

 slowly sinks, its liquid tones, which fall in tinkling su(;cession upon the ear, and are perhaps the 

 sweetest notes that one hears during the entire spring-time in these regions. It is an exquisite 

 jingling melody, having much less power than that of the Bobolink, but with the same general 

 character, and, though shorter, it has even more melody than the song of that well known bird. 

 There is such joyous exultation in the song that the songster assumes a new place in one's regard. 



