44 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 107 



be that his mate and he have some arrangement whereby 

 one or the other broods the young for some time of the 

 day, but of that I am not sure. 



In the summer of 1917 a pair of snow-buntings made 

 their nest in a crevice in a rock-ledge less than fifty yards 

 from our headquarters at North Star Bay. This pair I 

 carefully studied throughout their nesting period, and 

 until their young flew. While the young were being fed 

 I was for a time surprised to note that tlie male bird fed 

 the young about twice as often as did his mate, rather un- 

 usual, according to my observations on other birds. Then 

 I found that he had come upon a particularly good hunt- 

 ing-ground, where the flies gathered about our refuse heap 

 and our blubber-barrel near the shore. Here he could 

 catch a mouth full of flies in half the time his mate could 

 gather her bill full of the rarer and more scattered crane- 

 flies and moths, for which she had to search far afield. 

 Whether or not the youngsters derived more nourishment 

 or "vitamiues" from the flies, or the moths and crane-flies, 

 it would be hard to state. 



The Arctic sledge trail would be lonely indeed with- 

 out the cheerful, comi^anionable snow-bunting to greet the 

 explorer from every sunny slope or warm rock-ledge, and 

 to come inquiringly about the sledge or tent to pass the 

 time of day. In my traverse of Grant Land, the snow- 

 buntings came to our camp at the head of Canon Fjord on 

 April twenty-eighth, and afterwards hardly a day ])assed 

 that we did not see them or hear their song. All the way 

 down the Veery River and Lake Hazen from the divide of 

 Grant Land the snow-bunting frequented every cliff and 

 slope. About the ruins of old Fort Conger a dozen pairs 

 were making ready to nest. 



A snow-bunting's song would attract attention even in the 

 Southland. It is as thrillingly sweet as the song-sparrow's 

 as vibrant as a thrush's; and as exultant and exuberantly, 

 happy as the mocking bird's. Sometimes he gives voice to 



