106 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 217 



During early July on the valley bottom many willow patches a 

 few hundred yards across contained a wagtail. The males perch 

 briefly on the tops of high willows and while observed even at a dis- 

 tance beyond 50 yards, every half minute or so may rise rapidly high 

 into the air, darting about in quite unpredictable directions, often 

 to settle soon with equal suddenness near the original perch. It did 

 not appear that these maneuvers were executed in alarm or in pursuit 

 of insects, but as if they were expressions of the restlessness of the 

 birds. I could see no capture of insects, but it may be that my exasper- 

 ation in trying to follow these restless birds caused me to mistake some 

 gainful activity for behavior which I attributed to their nervous 

 disposition. 



Wagtails are common and well known to the Nunamiut by the 

 name Piorgak, referring to their call. They are more numerous in 

 summer than Savannah sparrows and occupy the upper part of the 

 same habitats in the fair-sized and more or less dispersed willows. 



The nests are commonly under willows on a niggerhead, covered 

 and difficult to find. Usually they are near wet ground. They are 

 constructed loosely of grass, willow roots and bark, sometimes with 

 considerable quantities of moss, and lined with fine grass, caribou hair 

 and a few feathers. 



At the end of July near Imaiginik, wagtails were evidently free 

 from nesting cares for they had ceased their aerial demonstrations 

 and started wandering calmly among the willows along the sandy 

 river bars. In the Killik Valley by Odrivik Lake after August 3, 

 1950, in the mornings after the brief shadow of the first late summer 

 arctic nights, numbers of wagtails were feeding among the willows. 

 At this season they somewhat resembled the pipits in coloration, but 

 they kept more in the branches of willows than do the ground-feeding 

 pipits. During the next ten days the numbers were far greater than 

 were seen in July and the trend of the groups was distinctly southward 

 toward the mountain line about five miles away. This movement was 

 evidently the early withdrawal of great numbers coming from the 

 valley of the Colville. Judging from the habitats in which I have seen 

 them, they might prefer routes north of the forests such as could be 

 found in the willow-filled valleys in the mountains west of the head 

 of the Killik. 



In the wooded part of the Kobuk Eiver valley Grinnell (1900) did 

 not report wagtails, although he found them abundant and nesting in 

 the treeless areas about the Kobuk delta. We found them numerous 

 along the Ahlasuruk, 130 miles west of Anaktuvuk and about the same 

 distance north of Grinnell's winter camp. (L. Irving and Paneak, 

 1954). In Yukon they had not been reported (Band, 1946), but 

 Munro informed me that he had seen them near the mouth of the Firth 



