ANAKTUVUK PASS 129 



River on September 20. It appears that buntings do not leave the 

 coast until September. 



While at Chandler Lake during the summer of 1955 Paneak fre- 

 quently observed young buntings with their parents in the high moun- 

 tains and Jack Campbell repeated these observations in 1956. It is 

 thus certain that some nest in the high mountains of the interior of 

 arctic Alaska. 



Three snow buntings were seen high in the mountains above Kang- 

 oniavik on October 2, 1950, by Robert Rausch and Simon Paneak, and 

 Paneak again saw several near Summit on October 20. It is scarcely 

 possible for the large northbound flights to return southward through 

 the lower levels of the Pass without being noticed, and I believe that 

 the southbound flights proceed through the high mountains. 



Among the northbound birds the gonadal development was deter- 

 mined in only three males, which had testes of breeding size on May 

 15, May 26, and May 29. In two females the eggs were 2 mm. in 

 length on May 26. 



Captive snow buntings lived well through the winter of 1947-1948 

 at Point Barrow in an outside cage exposed to the full severity of 

 arctic winter (Scholander, Hock, Walters, Johnson, Irving, 1950). 

 One was seen among the willows near the winter camp at Kalutak 

 Creek on January 30, 1950. The buntings possess the feathers char- 

 acteristic of northern birds, although they are not as fluffy as those 

 of the regular winter residents, jays and chickadees. 



Anaktuvuk Pass is an important thoroughfare for snow buntings 

 in migration to the arctic coast. The peak of their migration comes 

 at least a week earlier than that of Alaska longspurs. At elevations 

 up to 4,000 feet at least there are no regular summer residents. 



A nest was brought to me in the late summer of 1947 at Point Barrow 

 which resembled others of snow buntings in composition but which 

 was uniquely located, for it was ensconced in the well bleached skull 

 of an old Eskimo. One day about a year later I noticed that Chester 

 Lampe, a Barrow Eskimo who most capably cared for the cleanliness 

 of the laboratory, was looking at the skull and smiling as Eskimos 

 do in appreciation for humorous observations. Expecting some witty 

 comment I asked him if he did not think that an odd nesting place. 

 He said that it was unusual but that it was the bird's nature to enclose 

 its nest in shelter. He then asked me very seriously if I thought the 

 nest had been built in the skull before or after the demise of its mortal 

 owner. Suspecting some fantasy of Eskimo wit, I cautiously suggested 

 that birds did not commonly nest in living human skulls. Thereupon 

 he gravely remarked that he had known several men who certainly 

 acted as if their skulls contained bird nests. I agreed that from the 



