named, however, comes to the coast, and appears as much at home 
in a variety of northern conditions as it is under milder skies. Here, 
as in the South, they take advantage of buildings for nesting sites, 
gathering in abundance at the village of Unalaska, and at St. Michael, 
where their neat forms and cheerful notes seem curiously strange 
in so bleak surroundings. On the tundra, several miles southeast of 
St. Michael, I found one si)ring an ancient Eskimo winter hut, half 
underground, covered with a mound of earth that was falling in from 
long disuse. As 1 approached it a barn swallow suddenly flew out, 
and I found her nest with newly hatched young on one of the small 
timbers supporting the roof. On the north shore of Kotzebue Sound, 
opposite Chamisso Island, directly under the Arctic Circle, 1 found 
another nest, built on a small ledge in a narrow vertical cleft in the 
rock into which the waves of the Arctic Ocean swept freely back and 
forth, only a few feet below. 
Conspicuous among the land-birds of the interior also seen on the 
coastal barrens is the willow ptarmigan. In spring the white feathers 
on the head and neck of the male are replaced l)y brown, and a thin 
fleshy comb, bright red in color and with a thin fringe on its upper 
border, develops over each eye. These combs fold down and are over¬ 
laid by the feathers on the side of the crown except when the bird is 
excited, when they are raised and become conspicuous additions to 
its nuptial adornment. After the mating-season these fleshy crests 
fade, shrink, and become invisible until the approach of another 
summer. 
With the appearance of the brown feathers on the head and neck 
in spring these birds become extremely active, noisy and pugnacious. 
They are then the dominant form of life on the tundras until the 
water-fowl have arrived in full force. The cock-ptarmigan seeks the 
tops of slight elevations, and now and then springs on rapid wings 
a few yards into the air, uttering a loud, harsh, cackling or crowing 
note of challenge. Here and there on all sides other knolls are occu¬ 
pied hy hot-blooded rivals, one of which soon comes in swift flight, 
with ruffled neck-feathers, to drive away the competitor for the favors 
of the duller-colored females scattered inconspicuously about the 
vicinity. The challenger sees the enemy coming like an animated 
white ball, and flies a short distance to meet him in mid-air. They 
often strike in full head-on collision, and feathers fly as the combat¬ 
ants drop to the ground. The fight is then continued, sometimes on 
the ground and sometimes in the air, in true “rough-and-tumble” 
fashion until one has had enough. Then the vanquished one dashes 
42 
