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BROOKS: BIRDS FROM EAST SIBERIA AND ARCTIC ALASKA. 407 
EMBERIZA RUSTICA Pallas. 
A few were seen and two females taken at Cape Zhipanov, May 25, 
1913. They were exceedingly shy and the deep snow rendered their 
capture most difficult. 
PLECTROPHENAX NIVALIS NIVALIS (Linné). 
SNOW BUNTING. 
Snow Buntings though never so abundant as Longspurs were seen 
at nearly all the places visited by the expedition. 
A few were noted on the Semidi Islands, April 19, 1913, and at King 
Cove on the Alaskan Peninsula, April 22. At East Cape and Provi- 
dence Bay they were quite common and breeding in June of the same 
year. At the latter place a set of six eggs beginning to incubate 
was taken on June 19. The nest was under a pile of loose rocks aver- 
aging the size of one’s head, and before securing the nest we were 
forced to remove perhaps two hundred pounds of stone. On June 15 
two nests, one containing five eggs, the other six, were found on Big 
_Diomede Island. One nest was situated as far as one could reach 
under a shelving boulder, and the other in a deep crevice between two 
rocks. Both were well made of.grass lined with feathers. 
At St. Lawrence Island this was a common bird in June, and at 
Cape Serdze a few were noted July 17 and 18, 1913, where we found 
young birds able to fly. 
They were common at Collinson Point on August 3, 1913, but 
returning on the ninth we found them greatly diminished in numbers. 
Our latest record for the Arctic coast of Alaska is that of a female 
taken at Humphrey Point, on September 27, 1913. 
At Humphrey Point Mr. Dixon found Snow Buntings breeding 
sparingly the first arrivals beiny noted May 1, 1914. 
The first arrivals reached, Demarcation Point, May 4, a flock of 
nine apparently all males, and two that were taken proved to be very 
fat. Two or three were seen nearly every day until the fifteenth 
when fourteen were noted. On May 16 about twenty were near the 
camp and on May 17 a flock of about one hundred and fifty contain- 
ing both sexes; these were very shy. 
After this date only a few remained in the vicinity, not more than 
seven or eight pairs breeding within a radius of four or five miles of the 
Point. 
