named, however, comes to the coast, and appears as much at home 

 in a variety of northern conditions as it is under milder skies. Here, 

 as in the South, they take advantage of buildings for nesting sites, 

 gathering in abundance at the village of Unalaska, and at St. Michael, 

 where their neat forms and cheerful notes seem curiously strange 

 in so bleak surroundings. On the tundra, several miles southeast of 

 St. Michael, I found one spring an ancient Eskimo winter hut, half 

 underground, covered with a mound of earth that was falling in from 

 long disuse. As I approached it a barn swallow suddenly flew out, 

 and I found her nest with newly hatched young on one of the small 

 timbers supporting the roof. On the north shore of Kotzebue Sound, 

 opposite Chamisso Island, directly under the Arctic Circle, I found 

 another nest, built on a small ledge in a narrow vertical cleft in the 

 rock into which the waves of the Arctic Ocean swept freely back and 

 forth, only a few feet below. 



Conspicuous among the land-birds of the interior also seen on the 

 coastal barrens is the willow ptarmigan. In spring the white feathers 

 on the head and neck of the male are replaced by brown, and a thin 

 fleshy comb, bright red in color and with a thin fringe on its upper 

 border, develops over each eye. These combs fold down and are over- 

 laid by the feathers on the side of the crown except when the bird is 

 excited, when they are raised and become conspicuous additions to 

 its nuptial adornment. After the mating-season these fleshy crests 

 fade, shrink, and become invisible until the approach of another 

 summer. 



With the appearance of the brown feathers on the head and neck 

 in spring these birds become extremely active, noisy and pugnacious. 

 They are then the dominant form of life on the tundras until the 

 water-fowl have arrived in full force. The cock-ptarmigan seeks the 

 tops of slight elevations, and now and then springs on rapid wings 

 a few yards into the air, uttering a loud, harsh, cackling or crowing 

 note of challenge. Here and there on all sides other knolls are occu- 

 pied by hot-blooded rivals, one of which soon comes in swift flight, 

 with ruffled neck-feathers, to drive away the competitor for the favors 

 of the duller-colored females scattered inconspicuously about the 

 vicinity. The challenger sees the enemy coming like an animated 

 white ball, and flies a short distance to meet him in mid-air. They 

 often strike in full head-on collision, and feathers fly as the combat- 

 ants drop to the ground. The fight is then continued, sometimes on 

 the ground and sometimes in the air, in true "rough-and-tumble" 

 fashion until one has had enough. Then the vanquished one dashes 



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