432 UISTORY OF THE 



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 linding from one to half a 

 dozen of them. By the middle of May the males are numerous 

 and in full song along the coast of Norton Sound, having ar- 

 rived about this time or a little earlier in flocks, and spread 

 rapidly over their breeding grounds. 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. In 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 preference for the 

 interior than the Snow Bunting (Snowflake). I have noted this 

 peculiarity wherever I have had an opportunity of observing 

 their habits along the shores of Behring 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 the southern exposures and the more favorably sit- 

 uated portions of the tundra, and here may be found these birds 

 in all the beauty of their elegant summer dress. The males, as 

 if conscious 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 ten 

 or fifteen yards it extends the points of its wings upwards, form- 

 ing a large Y-shaped figure, and floats gently to the ground, ut- 

 tering as it sinks slowly its liquid tones, which fall in tinkling 

 succession 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. By the 

 last of May or the first of June the birds are mated, and each 

 pair has its snug nest carefully placed in the midst of a shelter- 

 ing tussock or on a dry knoll, where are deposited from four to 



