ANAKTUVUK PASS 95 



which are blown clear of snow in the windy mountains, may make the 

 wind-cleared twigs of the arctic willows a more suitable winter range 

 than the still, snow-covered forest. 



Parus hudsonicus hudsonicus Forster 



1 male Oct. 13, 1950 weight 12.3 g. 



1 female Oct. 13, 1950 weight 10.8 g. 



These two Alaska chickadees were obtained by Simon Paneak near 

 the head of the Savioyuk Eiver and within the spruce timber. The 

 Nunamiut consider the brownish chickadees to be confined to the 

 forest and it is not explicitly designated by their name for the black- 

 capped chickadee. I have no observations to suggest that the Alaska 

 chickadee ventures north of the forest and I include it as a bird of the 

 nearby forest but not of the treeless country. 



A female was collected at Hunt Fork on February 26, 1950, by 

 Kobert Rausch, an unsexed bird was obtained in 1950 from the wooded 

 part of the upper John River, and I collected another unsexed bird 

 on August 15, 1950, near Bettles. These were examined by W. Earl 

 Godfrey and are deposited in the National Museum of Canada. He 

 proposed including our Alaska specimens with those which he would 

 designate P. h. evura. 



Family CINCLIDAE: Dippers 



Cinclus mexicanus unicolor Bonaparte 



1 female Apr. 29, 1949 weight 49.4 gr. 



This specimen along with a female dipper from Hunt Fork, Febru- 

 ary 3, 1948, sent to George Sutton, establish the winter residence of 

 these birds north of the Arctic Circle, a fact which has been frequently 

 described in narratives but not, so far as I can tell, earlier confirmed 

 by specimens or the observation of ornithologists. We have several 

 additional sight records of these birds with strange aquatic habits 

 which fit so well into the tiny and uncommon niches of the arctic en- 

 vironment in which water remains unfrozen throughout the year. 



The Nunamiut name for dipper is Anaruk himruk^ which was trans- 

 lated as "old woman sunk." 



At Nakagnik Springs, running into Tuluak Lake, Raymond Hock 

 saw two dippers in May 1948. In attempting to secure them, both 

 were unfortunately washed under the ice below the open water. At 

 the same place the following year two dippers were shot by Tom 

 Brower April 29, 1949. One was recovered and preserved, the other 

 washed under the ice and was only recovered later when too badly 

 damaged to be saved. Observations were made at this spring daily 



