128 THE FISHERIES OF, THE UNITED STATES. 



three to six; there generally is four. They are pure white with a delicate rosy blush, wheu fresh, and measure 

 0.97 by 0.G7 of an inch. The young break the shell at the expiration of twenty or twenty-two days' incubation, tiie 

 labor of which is not shared by the male; he, however, brings food to his mate, singing as most birds do of his 

 kind, highly elated by the prospects of paternity. The chicks, at first, are sparselj' covered with a sprinkling of 

 dark-gray down, and in two or three weeks gain their feathers, fitting them for flight, though they do not acquire 

 the ash and black of the head, while the chocolate-brown on the back is rich, and the rosy tints of their feather-tips 

 turn to crimson. These bright hues of adolescence do not appear until they are one year old; between the old 

 birds, however, there is no outward dissimilarity in size or coloration, the male and female being exactly alike. 

 They feed upon various seeds and insects, as well as the larvre which swarm on the killing-grounds. They are 

 fearless and confiding, fluttering in the most familiar manner around the village huts. In the summer of 1873 a 

 pair built their nest and reared a brood under the eaves of the old Greek church, that tottered on its rotten 

 foundations, at St. George. It has no song, but utters a low, mellow chirp, sounding this note both flying and 

 sitting, in the same cadence. It seems to pair oft' altogether and never reassembles in flocks. I secured a large 

 number of beautiful specimeus of the adults of both sexes in neat breeding attire, and others illustrating the 

 earliest plumage of the young. 



4. Plectrophanes nivalis. Snow Bunting; "Snaguiskie." 



The snow-bird is another permanent resident of these i.slands, but one which, unlike the palitoshkie, you will 

 notice, is very shy and retiring, nesting high on the rocky, broken uplands, never coming down to the village, 

 except during unusually severe or protracted cold weather. This bird builds an elegant and elaborate nest of soft, 

 dry moss and grass, and lines it warmly again with a thick bed of feathers. It is placed on the ground beneath some 

 heavy lava-shelf or at the foot of an enormous bowlder. Five eggs are usually laid, about the 1st of June; 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, purplish-brown, and paler neutral tints. 

 Sometimes the whole surface is quite closely clouded with ditt'use reddish-brown markings. Upon tbe female the 

 entire labor of the three weeks' incubation required for the hatching of her brood devolves. During this peiiod the 

 male is assiduous in bringing food; and at frequent intervals sings his simjde but sweet song, rising, as he begins 

 it, high up in the air, as the skylark does, and at the end of the strain drops suddenly to the ground again. The 

 young are early provided with a gray, downy coating, which is speedily replaced by one resembling that of the 

 adult female; and, in less than four weeks from the date of hatching, the little "snaguiskie" is as big as its i)arents 

 and weighs more. The food of this species consists of the various seeds and insects peculiar to the rough, higher 

 grounds it frequents, being especially fond of the small coleopterous beetles found on the island. It never flies 

 about the rocks here, and cannot be called at any season of the year gregarious, like its immediate relative, the 

 Lapland longsi)ur, with which it is associated on these sea-girt islets. 



5. Plectrophanes lapponicus. Lapl;\jcd Longspur; " Kakescii-navie snaguiskie." 



This bird is the vocalist ^ar excellence of the Pribylov group, singing all through the month of June in flie 

 most exquisite manner, rising high in the air and hovering on fluttering wings over its sitting mate. The song is 

 so sweet that it is always too short, though it lasts a few moments, with brief intervals only. This songster is much 

 more shy and reserved than the common snow-bunting; and it rarely enters the village. It is most abundant on 

 St. Paul island, where, unlike the snowflake, it seeks the low, grassy grounds, both for food and resting, being 

 never found among the rough bowlders chosen for a home by the other Plectrophanes. The two nests, which I found, 

 were built in tussocks of grass on the low, luunniocky flat between the village and the main ridge of St. George, 

 sheltered and half concealed beneath a drapery of withered grass. In each case the mother-bird did not fly away 

 till I almost stepped upon her nest, wheu she quickly fluttered oft" and disappeared in perfect silence. Those nests 

 and females in breeding dress were the first of their kind to arrive at the Smithsonian collection. One nest 

 contained four and the other five eggs, rather smaller than the snow-bunting, and of a rich, gray -brown color, with 

 deep shades of brown running over them in spots and sufi'nsed lines. These examples were not discovered until the 

 7th of July, at which date the eggs in both were perfectly fresh. They were, probably, not laid until about the end 

 of June. The young appear in the same manner as those of P. niimUs. The males do not assume tUe distinctive 

 coloration of their sex until the next season. The natives say that very seA^ere weather sometimes drives the 

 longspur away, although the other relative, the snow-bunting, is never forced to leave. 



6. Corvus corax. Raven; "Var-1!one." 



As I have remarked in my general introduction, the experiment of introducing ravens was unsuccessfully tried 

 by the Russiaus, but the natives still claim that if a number of young birds were brought here and nrisfd, they 

 could be induced to remain upon the islands during the whole season. They say that the failure to keep those birds 

 brought up from Oonalashka, on several occasions prior, was due to the fact of their being old birds. 



7. Palco sacer. Gvrfalcon. 



The specimen of this bird, in my collection, was evidently stranded and forced out of- its usual fli-lit when I 

 secured it on the Eeef point at St. Paul island, March, 1873. It was the only one that I saw while there. 



