BIRDS OF IVIGTUT. 21 



RING- PLOVER. 



AEGIALIUS HIATICULA. 



Examples of this species were seen on Aug. 15, 1886, 

 beside a lake at the height of eleven hundred feet. 



REINHARDT'S PTARMIGAN. 



LAGOPUS KUPESTEIS REINHAEDTI. 



Breeds usually about Ivigtut. During winter the number 

 is considerably increased by the birds coming from the north, 

 but the abundance is very variable. Thus the first winter 

 I was at Ivigtut, an uncommonly cold season, comparatively 

 few were seen, though about four hundred were shot; but 

 the following winter, which was much milder, the birds 

 were much more numerous, and about twice as many were 

 killed. When snow covers the ground they are less fre- 

 quent in the valleys than on the mountain slopes and in the 

 clefts ; but on the high lands they are not so numerous. 

 They usually resort to side hills, where there are large 

 bowlders, and where some herbs are easily accessible. 

 They change their feeding-ground very often, and some- 

 times in the course of a single night they arrive in such 

 numbers that on the following day the birds or their tracks 

 may be seen everywhere, while at other times one may 

 travel for days without seeing any sign of one. 



Usually, and especially in calm weather, these birds are 

 far from shy ; only in windy weather is it sometimes diffi- 

 cult to approach them within shot-range. 



They usually are met with in small flocks of six or so, and 

 often none but a single bird or a pair are in sight. I think 

 the largest flock I ever saw numbered but thirteen. When 

 the snow is soft, they often dig tunnels, in which they pass 



