1656 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part 3 



in the direction of the stranger, body curved upward, loudly singing, 

 and keeping its slightly trembling wings in an approximately horizontal 

 position." The intruding bird usually flees, and the incident is over. 

 But the fighting that may follow such an attack, especially between 

 males of adjacent territories, may be fierce and prolonged. The birds 

 may rise into the air on fluttering wings, clinging to each other with 

 bills and feet, or tumble together across rocks and snow. Feathers 

 fly, but serious injury probably seldom results. 



While sight of an intruder is usually enough to provoke attack, 

 Niko Tinbergen (1939) points out the great importance of sound. A 

 calling or especially a singing trespasser is certain to evoke attack, but 

 "Sometimes a male, though foraging on an occupied territory, re- 

 mained unnoticed by the owner for some time. This was especially 

 the case when several birds intruded on one territory at the same 

 time. We observed in such cases that an intruder, although he was 

 not attacked himself, crouched every time the owner of the territory 

 performed a ceremonial flight, keeping quite flat and motionless, only 

 moving his head slightly to follow the singing bird with the eyes. 

 This was the first proof we got of the warning function of the display 

 of a bud holding a territory." 



According to E. M. Nicholson (1930) male buntings on territory 

 are indifferent to other nonpredatory species, and Tinbergen adds 

 "Lapland Longspurs, Greenland Wheatears and Redpolls often lived 

 in Snow Bunting territories but I never noticed any hostilities." We 

 observed no such interspecific tolerance in either Baffin Island or 

 Ellesmere Island. In both regions the male buntings chased other 

 small passerines from the territory. They were particularly adamant 

 in driving off any wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe) which, as Salomonsen 

 points out, occupy a type of habitat similar to that the bunting prefers. 



It is difficult to interpret Watson's observations on Cape Searle 

 Island, near Baffin Island, after a heavy influx of migrants in late 

 May. He states "The males occupied territories and paired with the 

 females though they were clearly migrants; nearly all had gone by 

 May 25th." Our observations in Ellesmere indicated that the 

 newly arrived mixed flocks contained only unpaired birds, but some 

 buntings certainly pair before arriving at the breeding ground. These 

 probably include those pairs that roam in the breeding areas before 

 settling on territories. 



Courtship. — Some male buntings may continue to sing ardently for 

 several weeks before the females arrive. When the females first 

 appear, the males threaten them as they would trespassers. But the 

 females remain close by instead of fleeing, though they may move from 

 one territory to another until paired. The males then exhibit a new 

 type of behavior, which Tinbergen describes as follows: "He assumed 



