PRIBILOF ROSY FINCH 349 



fight. Or, as she feeds along some narrow ledge, two contestants for 

 her favors may now and then come tmnbling down to the beach line, 

 flapping and pecking at each other, their places as attendants being 

 soon taken by a third party." 



Like its relative on the Aleutian Islands, this finch spends much of 

 its time on the wing in long, swinging curves, or darting from one 

 perch to another, seeming to enjoy its restless agility. 



Voice. — Hanna (1922) writes: "The beautiful song of the male was 

 new to me then, and it seemed the most attractive feature of the deso- 

 late place. It is excelled by the song of no other species on these 

 islands, and is rivalled there only by that of the Alaska Longspur 

 and of the Pribilof Snow Bunting." 



Enemies. — Hanna (1922) says: 



These birds continued to be abundant from 1913 up to the winter of 1916-17, 

 when a terrible catastrophe befell them. The Pribilofs that winter were visited 

 by a number of gyrfalcons, and these wreaked havoc among the resident land 

 birds. * * * The first gyrfalcons killed were examined, and in their stomachs 

 was found unmistakable evidence of slaughter — the rosy feathers of their victims. 

 Their prey was so easily captured on the barren Pribilofs that the falcons became 

 extraordinarily fat. So oily were they that the preparation of specimens was 

 exceedingly difficult. The oflfering to the natives of a bounty of one dollar for 

 each capture was instrumental in securing thirteen of them, a greater number 

 than the total which had been seen on the Pribilofs since observations commenced. 



* * * When the summer of 1917 came, scarcely a finch could be found. Only 

 one pair nested on St. Paul, and one pair on Otter Island. A few more were left 

 on St. George, but the species would have been classed as exceedingly rare even 

 there. * * * 



Through succeeding years the rosy finches were watched with great anxiety, 

 and it was gratifying to see their numbers gradually increasing. By 1920 

 there werCj perhaps, a dozen pairs on St. Paul Island and a hundred on St. 

 George, but even the latter was still underpopulated. 



Winter. — Although a few rosy finches are to be found on the Prib- 

 ilofs all winter, there is a great falling off in their numbers during 

 late fall and winter, as most of them gradually drift away to spend 

 midwinter on the Aleutian Islands, or as far east, perhaps, as the 

 islands south of the Alaska Peninsula. According to the data pub- 

 hshed by Preble and McAtee (1923), their numbers did not decrease 

 very rapidly until December, but the birds were almost absent during 

 January and February; and they did not return in any numbers 

 until March. 



Distribution 



Range. — The Pribilof rosy finch is resident on the Pribilof Islands 

 and on St. Matthew and Otter islands in the Bering Sea. 

 Egg dates. — Pribilof Islands: 3 records, June 26 to June 28. 



