COMMON LAPLAND LONGSPUR 1601 



young and adults. Although the onset of particular activities among 

 individual birds in the same population usually varies somewhat 

 more than Sutton describes, his remarks point out fairly enough 

 what is to me the most striking single adaptation birds have made 

 to life at high latitudes — the general synchrony of events on the 

 nesting ground and the compression of the time intervals between 

 them. 



On Banks Island, Manning et al. (1956) found pairs occupying 

 nesting territories as early as June 1, although prior to June 2 the 

 largest ovum found in a female was 1.5 millimeters. On June 5 a 

 female was taken with a complete egg in the oviduct and three or 

 four others had fully developed eggs in the next few days. Manning 

 and Macpherson (1961) in their study of late-arriving longspurs on 

 Prince of Wales Island (discussed previously) state that: "On June 

 26 a male was seen copulating with NMC 43094, a female with no 

 empty follicles and rather small ova. When she was shot he turned 

 his attention to NMC 43095, which had six empty follicles. The 

 first nest was found on June 28. It contained six eggs. Another 

 with six eggs was seen on June 30. Males continued to perform their 

 nuptial flights regularly until the end of June, and some were singing 

 until about July 10." 



Drury (1961) arrived at Bylot Island while the longspurs were 

 still in flocks and their numbers were still increasing daily. Males 

 took up territories between 15 and 25 June, copulation was observed 

 on June 21, and eggs were laid as early as June 17 with clutches 

 completed 22 June to 4 July. Wynne-Edwards (1952) found egg- 

 laying starting as early as June 6 on Baffin Island. 



More extensive variation in nest-lining materials than that noted 

 for the Alaskan subspecies is interesting to note. Field notes of 

 J. R. Cruttenden mention the use of caribou hair in a nest at Churchill, 

 Manitoba. Wynne-Edwards (1952) noted ptarmigan and longspur 

 feathers, plant down from willows, and hair from the arctic hare. 

 Sutton and Parmelee (1955) observed linings of raven feathers and 

 dog hair, while Watson (1957) found ptarmigan feathers, hare wool, 

 lemming hair, and plant down from willows in nests on Baffin Island. 



Eggs. — Clutch size of the Lapland longspur remains generally 

 consistent over the entire range. Drury (1961) observed an average 

 clutch size of 4.6 (15 nests) on Bylot Island and found that the 

 removal of eggs during and after laying had no effect on the number 

 laid. Sutton and Parmelee (1955) found the average to be 4.4 in 

 22 nests on Baffin Island; all of these figures agree closely with the 

 4.7 average observed in northern Alaska. Wynne-Edwards (1952) 

 based his larger figure of 5.4 on Baffin Island on only ten nests, 

 Sutton (1932) obtained bonafide evidence of a larger average clutch 



