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Bird - Lore 



ice. It was much warmer on the bare patches of moss, and the Httle Sand- 

 piper, having come many miles over snow-covered mountains during the night, 

 felt the cold keenly, yet there was an empty stomach which simply couldn't 

 wait a moment longer with all those fat helpless bugs-to-be drifting along in 



W IN IKK (AM 



IX THE LAND OF NINE-MONTH WINII.K 

 Photograph taken by moonlight 



the icy water that gurgled under snow bridges down to the near by ice-covered 

 lagoon. 



His appetite partly satisfied, the Sandpiper trotted up on a frozen tussock 

 to see if could spy his mate, for he had not gone on ahead of her on their long 

 Arctic pilgrimage as the males of so many birds do. He found her busily inves- 

 tigating a raft of dead grass stems that had gathered in an eddy. With a sudden 

 flirt of his wings he arose and skimmed quickly over to her. She gave a hearty 

 squeak of welcome as he lit, then turned and proceeded with her breakfast. 

 The fare proved scanty, however, and he soon led her back to his own table. 



The male Sandpiper now arose on a short flight of observation. To the 

 east and west a wide treeless plain sloped gently down from the snow-covered 

 Alaskan peaks to the southward. In places this endless field of white was 

 broken by the greenish blue of frozen ponds, while farther ofif a long black 

 line marked the edge of an ice-covered lagoon. Rough, broken ice-fields 

 stretched away to the north, covering the playground of the seal and polar 

 bear. One short flight was enough to assure the birds that they had reached the 

 edge of the Polar Sea and their home for the summer. 



The Sandpipers fed heartily all day on the bountiful food-supply and did 

 not worry about a place to sleep. In fact, it was now May 25, and they seemed 

 to know that for almost two months the sun would not set. At midnight it did 



