82 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 217 



begins to gain specks of dark color in summer. I do not hesitate to 

 designate Sabine's gull a normal visitor. 



Sterna paradisaea Pontoppidan 



3 males 



May 25-July 20 



weight (4), 90 to 

 122, average 101 



4 females 



June 1— July 20 



weight (4), 84 to 

 101, average 96 g. 



1 young male 



Aug. 8, 1950 



weight 102 g. 



1 yoimg female 



Aug. 8, 1950 



weight 101 g. 



Arctic terns were recorded as seen June 1, 1948, June 1, 1949, May 

 25, 1951, May 29, 1952, May 23, 1953 and June 1, 1954. Migrant and 

 resident behavior of terns is not distinguishable until the regular 

 flights over their fishing grounds become established at nesting time, 

 but inasmuch as the early population exceeds that in summer, some 

 must be migrant birds. In May, terns could scarcely subsist on the 

 arctic slope, and it is quite certain that they arrive from the south. 

 They are well known as Mithotailyah to the Nunamiut, and in some 

 of the old stories, terns are important, usually interesting, and often 

 spicy characters. 



In the summer of 1950, about a dozen terns daily patrolled the river 

 near Imaiginik occasionally cutting out to circle, or where it seemed 

 favorable, to fish a lake. Their nesting place was described as among 

 the gravel and rock bars some 10 miles down river, from which they 

 flew in the morning and toward which they returned in the evening. 

 This colony appeared to be the only one along about 20 miles of valley 

 under observation. A like number was found present in 1951. A 

 female examined in Tuluak Valley June 2, 1951, had laid an ^gg and 

 still contained another ready to lay. 



No young birds were seen until a colony of a dozen was found on 

 the Killik River, roosting on the steep cut earth bank about 15 feet 

 high opposite the mouth of Akmalik Creek. The two young birds 

 obtained flew well; they were above the mean weight of adults and 

 equal to them in wing length, but had not the adult length of tail. 



Family STRIGIDAE: Typical Owls 



Bubo virginianus lagophonus (Oberholser) 



1 female Nov. 27, 1947, Hunt 



Fork 



The single specimen of a northwestern horned owl was obtained 

 from within the forested region at Hunt Fork and sent to George 

 Sutton, who kindly gave me this identification. Horned owls are well 

 known in the spruce forest and called Nukisirgak by the Nunamiut. 

 In a discussion among four Nunamiut hunters, they recalled from their 



