mm ■■ 





Lesser Scaup and White-Winged Scoter, Aythya affinis (see pp. 40, 135, 173) and 

 Melanitta deglandi deglandi (see pp. 43, 135, 176). 



7. Residence in the Arctic 



THE OUTSIDER ENGAGED in arctic exploratioii and exploitation usual- 

 ly follows a program quite different from the native way of life. 

 Travel and construction by nonindigenous methods take place mainly 

 during the few months of open water and unfrozen ground. A 

 year's labor must often be completed within a few months. Haste 

 drives the white man through the arctic summer and he is inclined 

 to think that natural processes move by his schedule. For the natural 

 arctic resident, however, life proceeds at a normal rate in each season. 

 Annual changes in the arctic temperature are large and the progress 

 of related natural phenomena is pronounced because of the con- 

 spicuous character of seasonal transitions. It would be easy to believe 

 that the intensity of seasonal change requires acceleration of those 

 biological processes which must run through their cycle in the arctic 

 summer, for in three months or less birds must terminate their migra- 

 tory flight, mate, nest, rear young, and prepare their departure south- 

 ward. How these important periods are compressed within the short 

 duration of the birds' summer residence in the Arctic is the subject 

 of this chapter. 



287 



