176 ALASKA. 



he says, it Las uo soug, " except a clear cliirp, sonndiag like 

 'weet-a-w^et-a-wee-weet.' It was on the wing a great part of 

 the time, avoiding alighting on the gronnd, but darting rapidly 

 in a series of ascending and descending curves, now swinging 

 on the broad top of an umbelliferous plant, now alighting on 

 some ledge of the perpendicular cliff, jumping from point to 

 poiut, seemingly delighted in testing its own agility." He 

 found it particularly numerous in Ounalashka, where it is resi- 

 dent. A nest, which he discovered May 24, contained live 

 white eggs, fresh ; it was placed in a crevice of a rocky bauk,. 

 about twelve feet above the beach, and was neatly built of 

 grasses, lined with a few feathers. 



V>2. Pleclropliaiies nivalis, (L.) Meyer. — S)ioiv Hunting. " Sua- 

 guiskie." 



Among Mr. Elliott's many specimens in pure black and 

 white attire are a few, in the earliest plumage of the young, 

 probably never seen in the United States. The general color 

 is gray, overlaid slightly with a light-brown cast, the inter- 

 scapular feathers having a dusky center. The gray fades on 

 the breast into dull whitish, which occupies tbe rest of the 

 under parts. Most of the secondary quills are white, with a 

 dusky touch on the outer webs ; the three inner ones, however, 

 are black, with broad, chestnut-brown edging. Three lateral 

 tail-feathers are mostly white. 



" The snow-bird is another permanent resident of these 

 islands, but one which, unlike the Lcucosticfe, is rather shy and 

 retiring, nesting high on the rocky, broken uplands, and only 

 entering the village during unusually severe or protracted cold 

 weather. 



" The snaguiskie builds an elegant and elaborate nest of 

 soft, dry grass, and lines it warmly with a thick bed of feathers. 

 It is placed on the ground, beneath some lava-slate, or at the 

 foot of a bowlder. Five eggs are usually laid, about the 1st of 

 Junef they are an inch long by two-thirds broad, of a grayish 

 or greenish white, spotted sometimes all over, sometimes at or 

 around the larger end only, with various shades of rich, dark- 

 brown, iiurplish-brown, and paler neutral tints. Sometimes 

 the whole surface is quite closely clouded with diffuse reddish- 

 brown markings. 



" The female assumes the entire labor of the three weeks' 

 incubation required for the maturing of the embryos. During. 



