THE ALASKA LONGSPUR 



By E. W. NELSON 



W&z /Rational association of ftuoubon &ocietit0 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 67 



The Lapland Longspur is a circumpolar bird, whose presence has been 

 recorded in summer from many points visited by explorers in the treeless 

 Arctic regions. It nests in Iceland, Greenland, and a majority of the islands 

 of the icy sea north to 73 degrees of latitude, as well as on the mainland. Owing 

 probably to some climatic influence, the Longspurs which breed west of the 

 Mackenzie River and throughout Alaska, as well as on the Aleutian and 

 other islands of Bering Sea, are paler than those from the rest of the great 

 range of this species, and have been distinguished as a geographic subspecies 

 called the Alaska Longspur {Calcarius Japponicus alascensis). These Longspurs 

 throughout their range, however, are so nearly alike in appearance and habits 

 that in the present sketch they have been treated as one. In Alaska, they 

 are extremely abundant and familiar birds on practically all of the treeless 

 tundras or Arctic barrens. They are perhaps most numerous on the mainland 

 everywhere in suitable places, but are also common on the islands of Bering- 

 Sea. It is known in these northern haunts only in summer. During this sea- 

 son, it breeds from Kadiak Island ncrth to Point Barrow. 



The males reach Dawson, on the Upper Yukon, from the 5th to 18th of 

 April in nearly perfect breeding plumage. There appears to be no spring 

 molt of these birds, but they attain the breeding dress by the wearing away 

 of the light edgings of feathers characteristic of the winter plumage. At the 

 same time, remaining parts of the feathers appear to become brighter and 

 richer, as though suffused with added coloring matter. There is considerable 

 individual variation in color, due to a greater or less intensity rather than to 

 any change in pattern. 



During the last days of April or first of May, they arrive at St. Michael, 

 on the coast of Bering Sea, and are known to reach southern Greenland at 

 about the same time. Murdoch tells us that they are abundant in summer 

 at Point Barrow, where they arrive about May 20. The first eggs are laid there 

 by the beginning of June, and they migrate southward the last of August or 

 first of September. On the western Aleutian Islands, Dall found them to be 

 abundant summer residents, and discovered a nest with four much-incubated 

 eggs June 18. They leave these islands in winter, and I may add that I do 

 not know of a winter record from any part of Alaska. 



During the summer of 1881, I found them nesting on St. Lawrence Island, 

 in northern Bering Sea, on both sides of Bering Strait, but saw no trace 

 of them on Wrangel and Herald Islands. They are well known and abun- 



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