MCKAY'S BUNTING 1677 



Distribution 



Range. — The Pribilof snow bunting is resident in southwestern 

 Alaska from the Pribilof and the western Aleutian Islands (west to 

 Attu) east to the tip of the Alaska Peninsula at Morzhovoi Bay, the 

 Shumagin Islands, and Nunivak Island; also on the Komandorskie 

 Islands and in parts of Siberia adjoining the Bering Sea. 



PLECTROPHENAX HYPERBOREUS (Ridgway) 



McKay's Bunting 

 Contributed by Ira Noel Gabrielson 



Habits 



The McKay's bunting, whitest of all North American passerine 

 birds, lives in such remote country that relatively few ornithologists 

 ever have a chance to see it. This is especially true of its summer 

 home on the relatively inaccessible Hall and St. Matthew Islands in 

 the Bering Sea. When the opportunity came to visit these islands 

 in 1940, I looked forward to the trip with uncommon interest. No 

 bird known or recorded from these islands was anticipated with more 

 interest than the McKay's bunting. Previous visitors had found it 

 to be fairly common, but birds are subject to such great annual 

 numerical variation in the arctic that they might well be present 

 only in small numbers. As our time was limited, there was consider- 

 able speculation as to whether it would be found at all, and if so, in 

 what numbers. 



Our first landing was on a little beach on St. Matthew Island near 

 Cape Upright on July 8. As the small boat touched shore and the 

 party stepped out beneath the overhang of an old snowbank, the first 

 bird to greet us was a McKay's bunting perched on the drift and 

 scolding at this invasion of his territory. Needless to say, we were 

 delighted to meet this relatively rare bird so promptly. In the two 

 days that we tramped the island, we were seldom out of sight of one 

 or more of these little finches, either flitting over the grass and tundra 

 vegetation ahead of us or feeding along the slopes of the ridges. One 

 day we climbed Cape Upright and found them scattered sparingly 

 even over the barren rocky, scree-like surface of the summit, but they 

 were more plentiful on the flatter lands along the shore and in the 

 low intervals between the more rugged parts of the island. 



The adult males in their pure white plumage, decorated with the 

 black primaries, black in the tail, and jet black bill, were a striking 

 contrast to all other birds, and the most exciting one of all on the 

 visit to St. Matthew. They made one think of giant white butter- 



