KOBTJK 145 



Petrochelidon pyrrhonota (Vieillot) 



Cliff swallows are not now familiar near the village, where the houses 

 seem to be too low to be attractive for nesting. Cliff swallows at Bet- 

 ties nest mider the eaves of buildings with a second story. Eskimos 

 at Kobuk know about their nests on cliffs and name them "mud swal- 

 lows." Cantwell (1887) alone of earlier travelers reported seeing a 

 great many nesting on the cliffs by the falls near the head of the Ko- 

 buk. The location of nests and probably the numbers of all but bank 

 swallows have undoubtedly been much affected by the recent increase 

 in numbers and size of buildings in northern Alaska. 



For species of swallows which occur near the Nunamiut country 

 and Kobuk there is an mdistinction in the Eskimo nomenclature simi- 

 lar to that in their nomenclature for woodpeckers. Tree swallows (/. 

 bicolor),hsiiik swallows {R. riparia), and barn swallows {H. rustica) 

 are known at Anaktuvuk by their occasional appearance. On visits 

 to the Koyukuk, Simon Paneak promptly recognized cliff swallows 

 (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) and violet-green swallows {Tachycineta 

 thalassina) as two forms new to him. But the Nunamiut have only one 

 name, meaning "like a raven" for all swallows. The Kobuk people 

 recognize four species of swallows but also give them only descriptive 

 modifications of the single name. 



It might be suggested that Eskimo names for the woodland wood- 

 peckers and swallows are lacking because Eskimo nomenclature has 

 developed during residence on the tundra. Their language seems not 

 to have been expanded to fit such objects as the woodpeckers and 

 swallows which are part of a woodland environment which few Eski- 

 mos know well. Nunamiut and Kobukmiut individuals are prompt 

 to recognize distinct species of the woodpeckers and swallows which 

 they see when they are away from their own environment, for in gen- 

 eral new knowledge comes readily to the observant Eskimos, but new 

 words evidently come slowly into their language. 



Family PARIDAE: Titmice, Verdins, Bushtits 



Sheldon was only sure in describing the black-capped chickadee 

 {Pants atricapillus). Although the Nunamiut had collected speci- 

 mens of Brown chickadees {P. h. hudsonicus) for me from the spruce 

 timber along the John River and recognized them as differing from 

 black-capped chickadees, they named the latter alone as "the chicka- 

 dee." I have not yet seen P. cinctus lathami, but McLenegan (1889) 

 and Grinnell (1900) have identified it at Kobuk. The absence of 

 information about the forms of chickadees in both Kobukmiut and 

 Nunamiut may result because only the black-capped chickadee is 

 known as a tundra bird, where it is apparently part of the classical 

 knowledge in the conservative Eskimo culture of the tundra. 



