24 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 217 



with bird songs and the varied activities of flocks migrating and sepa- 

 rating for courtship and nesting. Feeding, in their daily program, 

 appeared to require only incidental attention. 



With Neal Weber and Carl Henkelman I next visited the Valley 

 at the end of August 1948, and found that the people had moved to 

 Pitaich, or "Hole," Lakes, a group of small lakes on the west side of the 

 valley just north of the mountain line. As is common, the caribou had 

 been absent from the valley during the summer and only a few had 

 returned recently to relieve the meager diet of fish. Living was em- 

 bellished by supplies which we brought in, for I have made a practice 

 of carrying in rations more than adequate for our parties so that we 

 might in no way drain the natural resources upon which the resident 

 people depend. 



Old squaws, white-winged scoters, and scaup ducks were numerous 

 in the many small Pitaich Lakes set deep, like limestone sinks, in 

 the high tundra about the camp site. I was pleased to obtain several 

 greater scaup ducks, to see over the tundra a marsh hawk flying as it 

 does in any climate, and to examine a sparrow hawk shot while hover- 

 ing curiously over a group of equally curious and excited children. 

 Longspurs, redpolls, and tree sparrows were numerous and restlessly 

 moving south ; by the first snowfall in September they seemed to be 

 gone. We left early in September to escape the freezing weather 

 which would close the Lakes to float planes. 



During the winter at Barrow Tom Brower and I discussed plans 

 for a careful survey during the nesting season of 1949, an undertaking 

 for which his keen interest and thorough knowledge of the birds of the 

 arctic coast eminently fitted him. Robert H. Stapleton visited the 

 mountain Eskimo people for me at their winter camp near the north- 

 ern edge of the spruce in the John River to take in some hardware, 

 tools, clothing, and food which, by easing their life somewhat, would 

 give them more time and better means of observing and recording for 

 our survey parties. Simon Paneak now understood the projected 

 survey so well that he and Bob Stapleton could settle upon the details 

 of our plans for the next summer. 



Tom Brower landed at Tuluak Lake on April 26, 1949, and found 

 the Eskimo's camp established. His arrival preceded that of the first 

 migrating birds, and he recorded them meticulously, collecting 215 

 specimens and 33 nests and eggs. He so carefully selected, studied, 

 and described the birds that his notes give a comprehensive picture of 

 migration and nesting. These notes were supplemented by Simon 

 Paneak's records, which included the observations of the other people 

 in the village. When I visited Tuluak on June 1 with my colleague 

 Robert Rausch, it was evident that our information about the birds 

 was rapidly developing and that a complete record would soon be 



