148 TJ. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 217 



recognition as explicit kinds. At Anaktuvuk, where specimens of 

 D. petechia amnicola^ D. coronata hooveri, and W. pusillus pileolata 

 have been obtained, no explicit Nunamiut names were found for 

 them. 



An ornithologist may realize that because of his interest or expe- 

 rience, he is alert in the field to recognize species in some taxonomic 

 groups and slow in others. Personal and cultural experience develops 

 and may also suppress acuity of observation, which is much influenced 

 by the preparedness of the observing mind. The small warblers are, 

 to be sure, unobtrusive, but they are easily distinguishable in arctic 

 Alaska. In one year, Grinnell identified six species near Kobuk, and 

 during one week in August I saw five, while Sheldon, a native resi- 

 dent, scarcely seemed to distinguish three of these birds which had 

 surrounded him during his lifetime, and he knew a Kobukmiut name 

 which was explicit for only one of the six species. By way of con- 

 trast, Sheldon described and named 15 species of sandpipers, many 

 of them not obvious ; whereas, so observant an ornithologist as Grin- 

 nell listed only 11 sandpipers. 



Family FRINGILLIDAE: Grosbeaks, Finches, Sparrows, Buntings 



Among the Fringillidae, Sheldon, like Simon Paneak at Anaktuvuk, 

 had a name for only one redpoll. Distinguishing the species of red- 

 polls requires criteria developed in the museum rather than in the 

 field. Grinnell (1900) did not report gray-crowned rosy finches (L. 

 tephrocotis) which Sheldon described and named like the Nunamiut, 

 probably because even more than Oenanthe it keeps above tree line 

 in the mountain country that is occasionally searched for caribou and 

 sheep by the Kobuk and Nunamiut hunters. Grinnell identified 

 golden-crowned sparrows (Z. atrieapilla) , which Sheldon named, but 

 which apparently do not range north of the forests in arctic Alaska. 

 Except for this form and the crossbill, the arctic Alaskan Fringillidae 

 are equally birds of the tundra and of the bordering forest country. 



Plectrophenax nivalis nivalis (Linnaeus) 



A few snow buntings are seen in winter at Kobuk, where small 

 groups occasionally remain for several days about the village. Snow 

 buntings wintering in southern and western Alaska are geographi- 

 cally far separated from those wintering in the Mackenzie Valley, 

 but their differentiation in form has, so far as I know, only been 

 proposed by Salomonsen (1947, 1950). 



