OLD CROW 243 



gated at villages, they may stop at any clearing. After April 30, none 

 were reported. A single bird was noted on May 15, two on May 17, 

 five on May 19, and the final recording of a single bird was on May 21. 



On Old Crow Montain four buntings were seen on April 11 and 

 two were collected by Joe Kay on April IT, but after the snow melted, 

 they were not seen, for the Old Crow Mountains are not high enough 

 to provide the sort of weather in which they nest along the arctic 

 coast and in the high mountains near Chandler Lake, Alaska, where 

 Simon Paneak reported them in 1955. 



The fatness of these snow buntings at Old Crow was an impressive 

 indication of the adequacy of their food supply. In 1954 Susie Paneak 

 at Anaktuvuk recorded weights of 13 male snow buntings which av- 

 eraged 34.9 grams, and which were not as fat as at Old Crow, rating as 

 2 VF, 1 F, 5 LF, and 1 VLF. Seven snow buntings in September 

 1947 at Point Barrow were, however, like the Old Crow birds in weight, 

 so there is no evidence in weight records to distinguish bmitings at 

 Old Crow from those in central arctic Alaska. The variation in 

 weight among individual birds of each series of snow buntings is 

 larger than is found in most series of arctic migratory birds at Old 

 Crow, for the coefficient of variation was 8.1%. The mean weight of 

 the Old Crow and Anaktuvuk series differed according to the degree 

 of fatness reported in each series, but it appears that in this species 

 individual weight as a function of stature is a variable factor as well 

 as fatness. As observed visually, the fat of snow buntings was light 

 corn yellow and soft at room temperature. The consistent appearance 

 of the fat suggests its origin in a constant dietary source and implies a 

 single major component in the food. 



Only male birds were found among the 16 specimens sexed in spring 

 at Old Crow. At Anaktuvuk, from 1949 to 1953 11 males and 3 fe- 

 males were collected. In 1954 there were 3 females in a series of 16 

 weighed at Anaktuvuk. No females have been collected at Anak- 

 tuvuk during April and there are accordingly indications that at 

 Anaktuvuk and Old Crow males are segregated in some flocks. 



The testes of the specimens at Old Crow were but little enlarged 

 and the series did not show growth. When the latest flocks were 

 leaving Old Crow, at the end of April the birds had at least two weeks, 

 but only one hundred and forty miles before the earliest arrivals would 

 be due at their nesting grounds on the arctic coast. 



In central arctic Alaska the stages in progress of migration of 

 snow buntings northward are indicated by first arrival dates at Bettles 

 about March 15, at Anaktuvuk April 1, and at Barrow April 15. It 

 appears that this schedule results from a movement the front of which 

 traverses the last 300 miles northward to their arctic Alaskan nest- 

 ing grounds in a month. Indians of Old Crow Village say that snow 

 buntings first reach Crow Flats later than they reach the village, and 



