BROOKS: BIRDS FROM EAST SIBERIA AND ARCTIC ALASKA. 409 
conspicuous are the wild cries of loons and the dreary wailing of white 
foxes, both of which add to the monotony and desolation of a country 
already dreary enough. The Alaska Longspur with its simple liquid 
melody heard on every side in June adds a cheer to one’s existence and 
forms a link between the northern barrens and more favored climes 
where pleasing bird scngs are the rule and not the exception. 
The first Alaska Longspur seen was a single female taken at the 
Semidi Islands, April 19, 1913. They were quite common during 
June 1913, at Providence Bay, East Cape, and St. Lawrence Island, 
though we failed to find any nests. A few were noted at Cape Serdze, 
July 17 and 18, and on July 23, several young birds were flying about 
at Cape Lisburne, Alaska. They were common at Collinson Point, 
August 3 and 9, 1913. The last bird noted was a female shot at 
Demarcation Point, on September 2, 1913. 
The first Alaska Longspur seen at Demarcation Point in the spring 
of 1914 was a single male on May 14. No more were seen until May 
21, when about twenty males and two females were found sporad- 
ically. On May 23 Alaska Longspurs were abundant and a few 
pairs were noted, though males were greatly in the majority. They 
were also abundant on the following day and for the first time singing 
everywhere. By May 27 all the Alaska Longspurs seen were paired 
and immediately nest-building commenced, a task apparently falling 
exclusively to the female. ‘The nests were made of dried grass and 
varied considerably in size and neatness of construction, but invari- 
ably were lined with the discarded winter plumage of ptarmigan. On 
_ the tundra about Demarcation Point there are many furrows, due I 
imagine to the action of frost. Along the sides of these furrows where 
the overhanging grass offers concealment one finds most of the nests 
though they are occasionally found in grass tufts on the more level 
ground. | 
Full complements of fresh eggs were found by June 7 and from this 
date until June 19. Young just hatched were found on June 27 and 
young able to fly July 3. This illustrates well the extraordinary 
rapidity with which birds breed in the far north, young able to fly 
being found forty-three days after the first females arrived. 
Alaska Longspurs seem more prone to inactivity at night than other 
Arctic birds. Every night when the sun had dipped closer to the northern 
horizon and the temperature had fallen, a dozen or more of these birds 
were accustomed to squat behind various bits of wood, and the posts 
of a cache in front of my camp. Here they would remain from about 
eleven in the evening until two or three o’clock in the morning. If the 
