McKAY'S BUNTING 1679 



the jetty bill and the blackness of the wing tips. At the edge of its snowy tail are 

 two other black dots. It is a sparrow transformed into a wraith of snow. It is 

 adorned with the ermine of kings, and a king it seems amid the realm of flowers. 

 Its little mate has the back streaked with black and more of the same on her 

 wings and tail, but otherwise her plumage is white like that of her lord and master. 



Courtship. — Nothing has been written on the courtship of this 

 species, and my two visits to its breeding grounds in July and August 

 were both too late in the season to observe courting behavior. In my 

 July visit a male, or occasionally two males, pursued a female briefly, 

 probably a part of the courtship pattern. Likewise the males occa- 

 sionally sang a bit on the wing, although I did not witness any elaborate, 

 song flight. Burrough's description and Brandt's account (see Voice) 

 of the song flight are the only specific information available on this 

 point. Quite probably the courtship behavior is similar to that of the 

 nearly related snow bunting. 



Nesting. — Few nests of this island-nesting species have been 

 discovered. Keeler (1901) reported one nest found by the Harriman 

 Expedition was " * * * placed far back in a crevice in the rocks upon 

 the cliff wall. The nest was made of grasses and contained five rather 

 light greenish eggs dotted with pale brown. Later in the evening 

 another nest was found containing young buds which came to the 

 edge of the hole to be fed. The abundance of the Arctic fox upon the 

 island no doubt explains the unusual places in which the snowflakes 

 tuck away their homes." G. Dallas Hanna (1917), one of the few 

 other persons who have visited the nesting grounds of this bird, 

 reported it that it was most common along the shingle beaches where 

 it nested in old hollow drift logs. He remarked: "One nest was found 

 in an old hollow spruce which had been excavated by some woodpecker 

 on the mainland when the tree was standing. A few birds were found 

 to the tops of the highest mountains. Flying young and fresh eggs 

 were found, indicating that two broods are reared." 



Eggs. — Keeler's (1901) description of "light greenish eggs dotted 

 with pale brown" is the only one ever published. W. G. F. Harris 

 writes in a letter: "The measurements of 7 eggs average 23.2 by 17.3 

 millimeters. The eggs showing the four extremes measure 2J+.0 by 

 18.2 and 22.2 by 16.5 millimeters." 



Plumages. — In breeding dress the adult male is almost entirely 

 white except for the black bill, black outer part of the primaries, and 

 occasionally some black on the back and scapulars. The breeding 

 female is much like the summer female P. nivalis, except that the 

 black or dusky areas on the back and scapulars are more restricted 

 and mingled with more white. 



Juvenile birds are much like the young of the eastern snow bunting. 

 Their general pattern is somewhat like that of the adults, with the 

 pure whites replaced by grays, obscure dusky streaks on the breast, 

 and the primaries dusky rather than black. 



