ANAKTUVUK PASS 101 



a small opening under a flat rock, where it was joined by its mate 

 and the two made repeated visits with food, apparently insects, during 

 the next hour. The birds were extremely alert and nervous. Lifting 

 aside the covering rock I found a nice nest of fine grass lined with 

 ptarmigan feathers and including 6 very small young weighing from 

 6 to 8 grams each. They must have been newly hatched. I estimate 

 that the last egg of the clutch had been laid about 14 days earlier. 

 The first egg would then have been laid 20 days earlier, or about 

 June 8. 



Young birds were flying well and had reached adult weight by 

 mid-July, but through the rest of that month they remained asso- 

 ciated in family groups as well organized as those of robins. 



The fat of wheatears in late summer is white and fluid, similar in 

 consistency but not in color to the yellow fat observed in the insectiv- 

 orous Yukon phoebe of similar haunts. I suspect both birds of de- 

 riving their fat from a diet of insects and that the different pigmenta- 

 tion might offer a clue as to its origin. 



Late summer observations were not regular, but two wheatears 

 came into camp on the Valley floor at Imaiginik, August 15, 1950. 

 Like the Alaska yellow wagtails in late summer, their shyness was 

 gone, and they had discarded the temperamental behavior observed 

 during the period of family life. 



In their regular summer haunts wheatears are associated with oc- 

 casional Alaskan longspurs, pallid horned larks, and American pipits. 

 Along the narrow bank below the talus slopes, wheatears are numerous 

 but the area occupied is small and their population is less than that 

 of pallid horned larks. Since the extent of their habitat much exceeds 

 that occupied by robins, they are probably the most numerous 

 of the thrushes. 



Luscinia svecica svecica (Linnaeus) 



I have been on the lookout for the red-spotted bluethroat but have 

 failed to find one about Anaktuvuk. In June 1953 I obtained a female 

 near Itivlik Lake, about 130 miles west of Anaktuvuk (L. Irving and 

 Paneak, 1954) . The conspicuous foxy color of the tail and the wren- 

 like attitude of the bird as I watched it convinced me that I had not 

 previously seen one like it. When Simon Paneak saw it he was sure 

 that he had not seen one like it nor had he heard it described among 

 the Nunamiut until I had made known my interest in finding one. 

 When my colleague Eobert Rausch saw the specimen he was sure 

 that he had not seen one during his extensive travels in the mountains 

 and on the arctic slope. 



The bluethroat has been found near Wales, Wainwright, and Barrow 

 (Bailey, 1948). With the recent simplification of transportation to 



