270 BULLETIN 14 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Harry S. Swartli (1911) says that, at Kuiu Island, Alaska, between 

 April 25 and May 6, " it was abundant and in large flocks, feeding in 

 company with the numerous other waders frequenting the mud flats." 

 H. B. Conover saw it only once at Hooper Bay, Alaska, on May 18. 



Nesting. — The breeding grounds and the nesting habits of the surf 

 bird long remained unknown. The birds vanished from the coast of 

 Alaska about the first of June and were not seen again for six weeks 

 or more, when they appeared again with their young. Rumors sug- 

 gested that they bred in the mountains in the interior. O. J, Murie 

 (1924) gave us the first definite information, when he discovered 

 the breeding ground of the species in the Mount McKinley Park 

 region of central Alaska. On July 13, 1921, he was descending a 

 -slope above timber line, " when two surf birds were flushed and 

 circled about making an outcry." He was "presently rewarded by 

 seeing a downy young one striding away bravely over the rough 

 ground." The young bird was secured and one of the parents, which 

 proved to be the male, thus establishing the first breeding record for 

 the species. 



Five years later Joseph Dixon (1927) spent considerable time in 

 this same region and succeeded in finding, on May 28, 1926, the first 

 nest of the surf bird. He took solne excellent photographs and made 

 a thorough study of the bird and its habits, thus completing the 

 picture very satisfactorily. I shall quote freely from his excellent 

 published account of it. Regarding the nesting site and the nest he 

 writes : 



One of the most striking tilings about the surf bird is the remarkable differ- 

 ence between its winter and summer habitat. Near the end of their northward 

 migration in the spring these birds abandon the seaeoast and take up their sum- 

 mer residence far in the interior, from 300 to 500 miles from salt water. This 

 involves a great altitudinal shift. Instead of living at sea level as they do at 

 other seasons, during nesting time they are to be found on bai"ren, rocky 

 mountains high up above timber line. During the entire summer we never 

 found these birds below 4,000 feet elevation. 



The rocky character of the surf birds' surroundings appears to remain fairly 

 constant throughout the year. In summer the birds are to be found most 

 frequently near the summits of the rock slides where the broken rocks are 

 much the same as the rugged reefs they inhabit during the winter. We found 

 in the Mount McKinley district that the summer range of the surf bird was 

 almost identical with that of the mountain, sheep and that it was useless to 

 look for surf birds outside of " sheep " country. 



When standing on a barren wind-swept ridge late in the afternoon of May 

 28, searching a nearby hillside with binoculars, Mr. Wright's attention was 

 attracted to a grayish bird that was sneaking hurriedly along over the rocky 

 ground. As he watched, the bird apparently faded out of sight some 600 

 feet away. Marking the point of disappearance he hurried over to the 

 spot where the bird was last seen and. failing to find the bird, began to 

 think he was mistaken. But, upon his taking one more step, the bird flew up 

 suddenly right into his face, startling him mightily. As the bird flew away, 



