The last days of May and the first week of June are notable for 
their clear and pleasant days, during which the busy life of the 
feathered residents goes rapidly on toward its culmination in nest¬ 
building. Occasional short storms occur at this season ; and I was 
much interested to note that the assembled water-fowl had to some 
extent the power of recognizing the approaching storms as sensi¬ 
tively as the barometer, ddie evening before the onset of one of these 
spring storms was commonly heralded on the tundra, even in the 
clearest weather, by wonderful outbursts of cries from the larger 
water-fowl, and these would continue for half an hour before the 
birds settled down for the night. Thousands of birds took ])art in 
PACIFIC KITTIWAKES, NESTING ON WALRUS 
ISLAND IN BERING SEA. 
From a Photograph by A. C. Bent 
producing the tremendous chorus. It was made up of the notes of 
numberless loons in small ponds, joined with the rolling cries of 
cranes, the bugling of flocks of swans on the large ponds, the clanging 
of innumerable geese, the hoarse calls of various ducks, and the 
screams of gulls and terns, all in a state of great excitement, appar¬ 
ently trying to outdo one another in strength of voice. The result 
was a volume of wildly harmonious music, so impressive that these 
concerts still remain among my most vivid memories of the North. 
It was a complete surprise to me, during my first spring in the 
North, to learn that a large number of waders, and some of the ducks, 
utter series of consecutive musical notes during the mating period 
38 
