1600 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part 3 



The retention of substantial deposits of subcutaneous fat by 

 arriving migrants has been remarked upon by other writers dealing 

 with arctic passerine birds, and this phenomenon can readily be seen 

 to have considerable importance to the welfare of the birds settling 

 upon a wintry landscape. 



In southern Baffin Island Soper (1928) observed the first longspurs 

 at Cape Dorset on June 3, and saw them sparingly the following few 

 days. Soper (1946) states that they arrived at nearby Bowman Bay 

 on June 4, and in three days both sexes were common. By June 10 

 they swarmed in thousands over the restricted strips of snow-free 

 tundra. The numbers increased "up to the middle of the month, 

 when the majority moved on to more northern resorts. Large 

 numbers remained to breed, however, and by a wide margin were the 

 most abundant summer residents of the tundra. On June 11, the males 

 were first heard singing half-spirited snatches of song, but the first 

 mad outbursts of their full and brilliant repertoire was not general 

 until June 20." In central Baffin Island, Wynne-Edwards (1952) 

 observed the first longspur, a male, on May 29 ; three days later most 

 of the males had arrived and females were seen. 



D. B. O. Savile (1951) states that two males and a female appeared 

 at Chesterfield Inlet, Keewatin on May 19, 1950; on May 21 there 

 were eight males and two females, and thereafter numbers increased ; 

 males were still somewhat predominant on June 7. The early 

 arrivals frequented mainly the wind-swept beach ridges where there 

 was little snow and seeds of the sea-beach sandwort, Arenariapeploides, 

 provided abundant food. 



Courtship and nesting. — The courtship and nesting habits do not 

 appear to differ from those described for the Alaskan race of this 

 species. The same general and striking synchrony of activities in 

 any single locality is apparent over the entire range of the species. 

 Dates of the onset of courtship and nestbuilding may vary between 

 years at the same or nearby localities, apparently because of weather, 

 and consistent variation between populations may be due to latitude 

 (indirectly to weather), or perhaps to local habits. 



Sutton's (1932) comments on the breeding schedule on Southampton 

 Island are pertinent for the species as a whole: "On June 8 I collected 

 another female and observed the first flight-songs. In the North 

 Country, the program of the individual is virtually that of the 

 species. When one male bird begins to sing, they all begin to sing; 

 by the time one pair mates, all the pairs are mating; when the first 

 egg is laid by one female, all the females of that species are laying 

 the first egg, and so on throughout the length and breadth of the 

 tundra." This is certainly the first impression an observer of this 

 species gets, and it can be carried further to include the molt of 



