EXPEDITION TO POINT BARKOW, ALASKA. 105 



Poi- three days they v> ere with us iu cousidcrublo numbers, scattered along tho edge i,i tho 

 tundra, not going far inland, and exceedingly shy. They appeared to be traveling towards tho 

 northeast. Tho sexual organs of the only female taken showed no signs of development, but n 

 male was shot on the 2L'd with testes well enlarged. 



After this date they disappeared completely, and were iiot seen again during the season, or in 

 the return migrations. 



The natives appeared unfamiliar with tho bird, and gave it the name which \ve afterward found 

 them to apply to the Redpolls, and, in fact, to all the little passerine birds, except the Snow-bunt- 

 ings and Lapland Longspurs. 



157. COTILE RIP ARIA (Liun.) Bole. 



BANK SWALLOW. 



On the evening of July 20, 1882, we were surprised to see a swallow flying round the station, 

 but unfortunately failed to secure it, and it went off up the beach. 



Swallows were seen again on the 31st and on August 10 flyiug round the station and going off 

 up the beach. The last time they were pretty well recognized as this species. 



No more were seen alive, but early in September one was picked up on the beach dead and 

 frozen, but unfortunately too much dried up for skinning. It was, however, preserved in alcohol 

 and is tho only representative of the species in our collection. 



A party of natives, who were with us when the bird was picked up, failed to recognize it as 

 anything they had ever seen before. 



These birds were undoubtedly stragglers from the Yukon region, where they breed in great 

 numbers, which, after the cares of raising their brood were over, had drifted carelessly further ami 

 further north, following the flies and the sunshine till they reached this extreme poiut. 



178a. JBGIOTHUS CANESCENS EXILIFES (Coues) Ridgw. 



WIIITE-EUMPED REDPOLL (Sti'ksaxia). 



This species appears to be not common, and rather irregular in its occurrence at Point Barrow. 



Early in June, 1882, the natives spoke of seeing S'&ksaxia and promised to secure them for 

 us. Accordingly on the 13th a lad brought in three eggs with the female, snared on the nest. 



These were the only eggs secured, and we obtained or saw very few birds. Those that wero 

 ween appeared to have a preference for the muddy banks and gullies of the "black tundra," and 

 the neighborhood of the village. None Avere noticed after July 3, and none were seen or reported 

 in the season of 1883. 



The season of 1881 must have been one of unusual abundance for this bird, as Mr. Nelson 

 (Arctic Cruise of the Revenue Steamer Corwin, 1881) speaks of finding it one of the commonest birds 

 at Poiut Barrow. It certainly was not common in 1882. Nor did JEylotlms linaria, which he 

 speaks of finding in the same localities, occur at all in either of the two seasons that our station 

 \vas occupied. 



186. PLECTROPHANES NIVALIS (Linn.) Meyer. 

 SNOW-BUNTING (Amau'liya). 



This and the next species were our commonest passerine birds; in fact, the only ones which 

 could be said to be at all common. 



Our first warning of spring, before the snow had fairly begun to show sigv.s of melting, was 

 always the appearance of the little, Amauliga hopping and twittering around the wind-blown 

 spots and the cook's refuse, heap, a little explorer, come on to spy out the land far ahead of the 

 main body of the migration. 



In 1882 the first Snow-bunting and the first bird of the year, a male in full breeding plumage, 



appeared on Master Sunday, April !>, a pleasant and warm day for the season. The snow had not 



really begun to melt, but the ground had blown bare near the house and there had perhaps been 



a little melting on the sunny side of the hillocks*, where tho little fellow was running and picking. 



IT. Ex. 41 U 



