OKiNII HOLOOICAT. EXPLORATIONS. 



249 



island 1 laucied it the loveliest of the sougsters, carrying iny dreams far 

 away to sunnier regions by his soft and unpretentious melody. At this 

 time he only sings when silting on the ground, preferring some project- 

 ing rock or stone, but later, during the breeding season, he will sing 

 when rising into the air on quivering wings like a lark; but how Boie 

 could compare his modest and gentle warbling with the vigorous and 

 intricate trill of the skylark is rather incomprehensible to me. 



On the 28th day of March, 1883, a small troop of new arrivals were 

 observed on Bering Island, but they did not become abundant until three 

 weeks later. They never came in large flocks, and soon disbanded. 

 The single pairs then disperse over the island, settling wherever there 

 are steep cliff- walls or rugged bluffs in the interior, or along the coast, 

 far up on the mountains and down below at the beach, but always avoid- 

 ing the wet tundra or the flat, dreary, mountain plateaus of the northern 

 part. If the season is open and otherwise favorable, the first eggs will 

 be laid shortly after the middle of May ; the young will be out in the 

 beginning of June, and in July I have found the fresh eggs of a second 

 brood. 



The measurements of the eggs taken are as follows : 



* Dimensions of nest : External diameter, llO""' ; internal diameter, 70°"". 



