1598 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 paet 3 



the longspur inhabiting all wet grasslands of the vicinity. They 

 remark: 



Precisely why wet grasslands are so all-important to the longspur may be 

 difficult to say. Availability of insect food for the nestlings, of dead grass for 

 building material, of nest sites not readily accessible to certain predators: these 

 probably have a part in determining the matter. To be attractive the terrain 

 must be more than low and flat; if too well drained, too gravelly, too bare, it will . 

 not do. Dry, firm, thinly grassed areas just north of the Base were inhabited by 

 Horned Larks and Semipalmated Plovers, but the longspurs lived elsewhere — a 

 stone's throw away, in the wet grassy places. 



W. H. Drury (1961) describes the preferred and somewhat different 

 habitat on Bylot Island as follows: "Longspurs occupied the thick, 

 moss-floored vegetation of dry places in the uplands, primarily on the 

 east- and south-facing slopes, not the bogs. Their distribution was 

 similar to that of the Bell Heather [Cassiope tetragona], but Bell 

 Heather grew over large areas where we found no longspurs." 



On Southampton Island, Sutton (1932) found that nesting-sites 

 were restricted to the grassy margins of streams, or to hummocks of 

 grass in the little marshes. 



I would add to these generally consistent remarks only my belief 

 that many references to "grasses" actually refer to the numerous 

 sedges (Carex) of the arctic, and that the species generally nests in 

 those moist areas that are not excessively wet. The situation on 

 Bylot Island Drury describes seems exceptional and somewhat at 

 variance with the notes of others. However, Adam Watson (1957) 

 states that longspurs attained peak densities on the Cumberland 

 Peninsula of Baffin Island wherever the ground became slighly drier 

 and more heathy with a good growth of willows (Salix) and became 

 uncommon on drier ground where the heath was closed. Drury 

 (1961) suggests that the breeding sites on Bylot Island were selected 

 "because the wet meadow sites were snow-covered too late in the 

 species' breeding cycle and because the species, displaced from ideal 

 nest sites, selected a form resembling the overhang of a tussock." 



In the extreme northern part of the range on Ellesmere Island, 

 habitat apparently suitable for longspurs is unoccupied. David F. 

 Parmelee observed about 20 pairs breeding on the Fosheim Peninsula 

 (80° N.), but recorded none in roughly 400 square miles of seemingly 

 suitable tundra between Slidre and Greely Fiords. J. S. Tener (1961) 

 recorded an extreme northern nesting on Ellesmere Island when he 

 saw a female feeding a flightless young a few miles north of Hazen 

 Lake at approximately 85° N. 



Spring.— A sampling of the scattered records of spring arrival 

 show a synchrony consistent with that observed in the ensuing nesting 

 activities. At Bathurst Inlet, Mackenzie District, E. H. McEwen 

 (1957) observed the first longspur to arrive, a female, on May 21, and 



