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Vol. XXXIV] Hersey, Birds at St. Michael, Alaska. 147 
THE PRESENT ABUNDANCE OF BIRDS IN THE VICIN- 
ITY OF FORT ST. MICHAEL, ALASKA.! 
BY F. SEYMOUR HERSEY. 
To the student of ornithology there is always a certain interest 
attached to the birds that inhabit the far north; those hardy 
species that disdain the milder climate of more southern latitudes 
and rear their young on the bleak Arctic tundra, leaving only when 
the threatened freezing of land and sea warns them of approaching 
winter. The warmer parts of the earth have bird life in great 
abundance and variety, with many bright plumaged forms to 
delight the eye and not a few that entrance us with their songs, and 
it seems natural that birds should flourish in such places. But, if 
we leave these familiar feathered friends behind and push our way 
northward, until the forests give place to scattered patches of low 
alders and willows, and these in turn are replaced by great stretches 
of open tundra, we will still find both sea and land inhabited by 
vast numbers of feathered creatures. Few in number are the 
species, but countless the individuals that make up the avian popu- 
lation of the north. Many spend their entire lives in this zone, 
retreating, at winter’s approach, only a short distance south where 
they linger about the edge of the ice pack until the snow begins to 
melt on the tundra and the ice to thaw about the tundra ponds. 
Then they again push northward to their breeding grounds where 
they are joined by others; winter sojourners in our own land, but 
now strangely unfamiliar in their nuptial plumage. 
While there are, probably, few places on the Arctic or Bering Sea 
coasts that are without bird life during summer, some localities 
seem to be more suited than others to the needs of boreal species. 
One such region is the stretch of tundra in the vicinity of St. 
Michael. The village, itself, is built on a spot somewhat elevated, 
but to the south and southwest there stretches away a great terri- 
tory but little above sea level; in fact, so low that an unusually 
high tide inundates large sections. Scattered about are innumer- 
1 Read before the Nuttall Ornithological Club, June 5, 1916. 
