156 Hersey, Birds at St. Michael, Alaska. [ Fes 
which had previously been used as resting places by the gulls, 
suddenly became the resort of hundreds of sandpipers. Long- 
billed Dowitchers, Pectoral and Red-backed Sandpipers predomi- 
nated with constant additions of Western Sandpipers as the young 
became grown and the birds commenced to flock. Phalaropes were 
sometimes seen and once or twice flocks of Curlews. Here the 
Pacific Golden Plovers mentioned above were found, and, in one 
place, a very large flock of Pacific Godwits (apparently all young 
birds) were present for several days. 
As I was passing these flats in my boat on August 4, I was sur- 
prised to see four Knots feeding together and secured all. While 
Turner apparently found this species at St. Michael, Mr. Nelson 
secured but a single specimen during his residence there. Later 
in the day a flock of fifteen or more birds which I thought were this 
species were seen at some distance, feeding on a mud flat, but the 
mud was too soft to walk through and after several attempts to 
approach them I was forced to give it up. On August 8 I again 
encountered two parties of two birds each, and secured all four. 
Later the species proved to be quite common. 
During the summer of 1914, Willow Ptarmigan were numerous 
and I was told they were very abundant during the fall and early 
winter often coming about the houses. In the spring of 1915 and 
throughout the summer they were scarce and very few were seen. 
This condition was not entirely local as reports of their rarity were 
heard from many other parts of the coast. It is possible that, 
when they have increased beyond a certain point, an epidemic of 
some sort thins their ranks and thus keeps the species within the 
limits prescribed by nature. 
Hawks are uncommon in this locality during summer. One or 
two which I did not identify were seen at times and during August 
immature Marsh Hawks were noted a few times and one taken. 
The Short: eared Owl was the only species of this family encount- 
ered during the summer. They were quite numerous upon the 
tundra, being fully as common as I have ever found them to be in 
more southern parts of their range. Both the Snowy and Hawk 
Owls occur in fall and early winter according to the statements of 
several residents, but neither were seen by me. 
In the A. O. U. Check-List a form of the Great Horned Owl is 
