486 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA, 



son.) Altogether about eighty nests of this species were collected in 

 the "barren grounds" and on the shores of Franklin bay. (Mac far- 

 lane.). Beginning exactly at the edge of the woods and continuing 

 as far as we went in "the barrens" in 1907 were countless Lapland 

 longspurs. I think I did not see a dry ten-acres in the treeless 

 region that was without at least two pairs of longspurs, (E. T. 

 Seton.) North to Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie river. (Ross.) 

 Numerous every spring and fall in company with the horned lark 

 at Prince Albert, Sask. (Coubeaux.) 



Breeding Notes. — I have a dozen nests with sets of eggs that 

 were collected at Herschell island by Mr, Stringer and Mr. Young. 

 The nests are made of dried grass, well lined with feathers and are 

 always built on the ground, in the shelter of a tuft of grass or sod, 

 and contain five or six eggs each. The eggs are laid in the middle 

 of June and the female is a close sitter, most of the nests being 

 found by flushing the bird off the nest. (W. Raine.) 



536a. Alaskan Longspur. 



Calcarius lapponicus alascensis Ridgw. 1898. 



The whole of Alaska, including Pribilof and Aleutian islands, 

 Unalaska and the Shumagins, east to Fort Simpson. (Ridgway.) 

 Throughout the province; nowhere common. Burrard inlet, Vic- 

 toria and Port Simpson. (Fannin.) Common in the fall; rare in 

 the spring at Chilliwack, B.C. (Brooks.) Not common at Clayoquot 

 sound, Vancouver island, in September and October, 1907. (Spread- 

 borough.) Like the snowflake this species has a circumpolar distri- 

 bution and is recorded from nearly every point visited by explorers 

 along the shores of the Arctic sea-coast, (Nelson.) This species 

 arrives at St. Michael from the 5th to the 15th May. A few arrive 

 at first, and before a month elapses it is the most abundant land 

 bird seen in the locaHty, (Ttmier.) Quite common at Point Bar- 

 row, but breeding inland on drier places than the snowflake which 

 prefers the sea shore and the lagoons. (Murdoch.) I saw a small 

 flock at the Aphoon mouth of the Yukon on the 27th August, 1899; 

 later they were seen at St. Michael and on Unalaska island. (Bishop.) 

 An abundant bird on the Pribilof islands in summer. (Elliot; 

 Palmer; J. M. Macoun.) 



