Guillemot Cepphus grylle mandtii (see p. 275). 



8. Biological Aspects of Migration 

 and Nesting 



"WTe who walk so slowly consider with amazement small birds such 

 " as sandpipers, wheatears, Kennicott's willow warblers, and yel- 

 low wagtails that fly half the distance between the poles and a nearly 

 equal distance eastward or westward to nest in the Arctic. Ac- 

 customed to warmer climates, people see in the short, cool arctic 

 summer a difficult time for the nesting of birds; and even the sym- 

 pathy of the Eskimos is evoked when the frequent cold weather of 

 May smites these small migratory birds, which appear so ill fitted to 

 encounter snow and cold. Yet, as we will find, the arctic season suits 

 their biological activities in a manner which dispels early impressions 

 that arctic life is passed in hardship. 



I have discussed in chapters 6 and 7 the various courses of birds 

 migrating to the Alaskan arctic regions and the impressive magnitude 

 of the distances of their nesting from their wintering grounds. The 



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