RESIDENCE IN THE ARCTIC 293 



1953) and in the Kobuk Valley (Grinnell 1900). They may winter a 

 little farther from their arctic nesting ground than the hoary redpolls. 



Snow buntings winter in southern and western Alaska and are also 

 seen in winter in northeast British Columbia, about 1,200 miles from 

 Anaktuvuk. Inasmuch as Salomonsen (1950) considered the Alaskan 

 buntings to be distinguishable in color from the Canadian birds, I 

 regard the migrants to arctic Alaska as coming from wintering 

 grounds within that territory. The front of the northbound move- 

 ment of snow buntings appears to pause in the Koyukuk Valley and 

 then to proceed slowly northward. It reaches Anaktuvuk early in 

 April but does not usually reach Barrow until mid- April, apparently 

 covering the northernmost 200 miles in about 2 weeks. This rate is 

 slow in comparison with the progress of the later season migrants. 

 The slow progress in the Arctic of snow buntings is nevertheless regu- 

 lar from year to year at Anaktuvuk and Barrow. It is also interesting 

 to note that James Ross (Ross, 1835) reported sighting a snow bunt- 

 ing in upper Boothia on April 17 in 1831 and 1832. The position cor- 

 responds in latitude with Barrow and the date of arrival of snow bunt- 

 ings agrees in both places. 



The remainder of the migrants (89 species) come from wintering 

 grounds which are from 500 to 8,500 miles distant. In view of the 

 remoteness of most of the wintering grounds, the use of Anaktuvuk 

 rather than Barrow or Umiat as a northern reference point cannot 

 much affect estimates of the distance traversed in migratory flights. 

 On the other hand, wintering grounds of many species are extensive. 

 For example, wandering tatlers and turnstones are reported in winter 

 on many Pacific islands and continental coasts. There is no present 

 way of knowing whether the migration of these species to Anaktuvuk 

 comes from the areas of their nearest reported occurrence in winter, 

 which for the tatlers are coasts of northwestern States and for the 

 turnstones the Aleutians. 



It is not intended to imply that arctic Alaska is a unique focus of 

 migration. It is, however, a point where observations show the arrival 

 of migrant birds at their breeding grounds after traversing many 

 different routes. Some of these routes cross many degrees of latitude 

 and longitude with the related changes in climate and the variation 

 in the direction of migrating flight relative to the sun's position. 

 Most of these flights cover more than 600 miles of land before reach- 

 ing their destination at Anaktuvuk. Even for bird migration this is 

 a long distance, and with few reservations the Anaktuvuk birds can 

 be regarded as long distance migrants. 



By plotting the dates of first arrivals observed in each species 

 during 1948 to 1953 the most common arrival dates, as shown in 

 figure 11, is about May 20. Also about half the May records fall 



