76 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARCTIC AMERICA. 



fledged young in the last days of July. The nest here was built in small 

 willows, like a Chrysomitris. Although they seemed to be migrating iu 

 October, I did not see any flocks, but only a few straggling individuals. 

 They seem to wander from the land very often in fogs. I have counted 

 a dozen or more in the rigging at one time from Hudson's Straits to M- 

 antilic. Off Kikkertarsoak Islands, on the Labrador coast, as much as 

 one hundred miles from land, these birds came aboard of the schooner 

 in a gale. They were all young birds. 



12. ^Jgiothus holbolli, Reiiilidt. 



A large linnet was caught in a thick fog in Grinnell Bay, September 

 3, 1877. It measured 6.25 inches in length. The specimen was " picked " 

 by one of the ship's company while I went down into the cabin after my 

 skinning tools. The body (without feathers) was preserved in alcohol, 

 and Mr. Eidgway pronounces it M. holbolli. It was the only speci- 

 men I procured that differed in the least from a typical linaria. 



13. Chrysomitris tristis, (L.) Bp. 



An adult male caught on shipboard, August 22, 1877, off Cape Mug- 

 ford, Labrador. 



14. Plectrophanes nivalis, (L.) Meyer. 



"Kopermiak," Cumberland Eskimo. "Kopaiiauarsuk," Greenlanders. 



The first snowbird seen at our winter harbor was April 5, an adult 

 male. The weather was quite severe, and there was no bare ground. 

 It staid about the vessel some days, gleaning a scanty subsistence from 

 the cook's rubbish pile. After this date I saw none until May 8. They 

 then began to appear around the Eskimo encampments, and were in 

 full song, and a very beautiful song they have. Never did I so enjoy a 

 bird's song as I did their lively ditty after the long, silent, dreary winter. 

 By the 13th five pair had arrived in the neighborhood, and the males 

 seemed to try and outdo each other in their efforts to be musical. Such 

 companions were they for me that I had no heart to destroy them, much 

 as I wanted specimens in full plumage. The young Eskimo had no 

 such scruples, however, and supplied me with specimens killed with 

 their bows and arrows. 



By the last days of May they had paired and chosen their breeding- 

 places. The first eggs were procured June 20. The nests are very often 

 in such deep fissures in the rocks that it is impossible to get at them. 

 They are obliged to hide away their nests in this manner to escape the 

 ravens, One of the most favorite positions for the nest is inside of an 



