BIRDS. J 35 



The young are hatched the last of June, or rarely the first of July, and are handsome little 

 creatures in brown and yellow down, with a chestnut cap and black lines down the back. In a 

 few days after birth the young begin to show traces of the first full plumage upon their breasts. 

 The young of the year differ from tlie adult, as is shown by the description. 



In nesting, these birds usually gather a few grasses and dry leaves, and with them loosely 

 line a shallow depression which is situated on the side of some slight knoll or dry place on the 

 open grass and moss-covered tundra. The eggs vary considerably in the amount of dark mark- 

 ings, which, in some cases, form heavy dark purplish-bi-own blotches, scattered over the surface 

 and interspersed with finer blotches and spots of the same. These markings cover the light 

 and rich yellowish-brown of the ground color. In other cases the markings are of a lighter shade, 

 and form rather small spots scattered uniformly over the surface. In others the spots are com- 

 paratively few, but this latter style is not common. The number of eggs varies from seven to ten 

 and twelve; one set, taken in early June, at Saint Michaels, contained ten eggs measuring respect- 

 ively as follows : 1.81 by 1.28 ; 1.78 by 1.30 ; 1.80 by 1.29 ; 1.80 by 1.31 ; 1.80 by 1.30 ; 1.80 by 1.27 ; 

 1.78 by 1.28; 1.80 by 1.23 ; 1.83 by 1.32; 1.78 by 1.22. These eggs are about the average size. 



A young male bird taken September 10, 1880, just as it began to assume the white winter 

 plumage, as shown by the white area on the abdomen, has the color of the crown and back of the 

 neck intermediate between the spring plumage of the male and female, but more closely approach- 

 ing the female in possessing blackish-browu feathers barred with rich buffy'-brown. The feathers 

 of the back are long and lanceolate in place of being bluntly rounded at the ends, as in the spring 

 birds, and their centers are blackish-brown. The whitish and buffy edgings of these feathers, with 

 yellowish and buffy mottling and barring on their webs, are arranged so as to mark the borders of 

 the feathers, and to give the back the appearance of being marked longitudinally in place of the 

 transverse patterns on the shortened and blunt-pointed feathers in the spring female. A careful 

 comparison of feathers from adults and young shows that the distinction of markings and colora- 

 tion is similar in the summer male and young birds, but the shortening of the feathers in the adult 

 gives the transverse in plaqe of the longitudinal markings seen in the young birds. The long 

 upper tail-coverts of the young bird shows the same pattern of marking. The throat and breast 

 have a mixture of dull chestnut, much duller than in the male adult, and the buff, combined with 

 dark transverse markings, is much less in amount than is present in the female, the bars being very 

 narrow. The feathers of flanks and sides are yellowish, irregularly barred and mottled with dark 

 brown. The feathers of the entire back, sides of the neck, and breast are tipped with small white 

 spots. 



The change of summer plumage to that of winter begins on the abdomsu and gradually 

 extends over the entire body, the head changing last. This change occurs between September 

 10 and the last of October, the young assuming their winter garb a little in advance of the adults. 

 In spring the change is reversed, commencing about the heads of the birds and thence passing 

 over the rest of the body. After the head has assumed its summer plumage, the change ou the 

 rest of the body goes on very slowly, and in many instances is never perfected, the back and 

 abdomen of the majority of summer specimens being never entirely free from white feathers. The 

 ^ wings remain white throughout the year. There is considerable individual variation in the plum- 

 age of adult specimens shot the same season. In summer this variation appears mainly in the bar- 

 ring of the feathers according as the dark centers have more or less of the buffy and gray bars. 



The adult male bird shows still another plumage in mid-summer. When the pairing season is 

 over the fleshy comb over each eye shrivels and is hidden under the feathers, and the rich brown 

 plumage of the head and neck gives place to a dull chestnut-brownish, becoming rusty-red on 

 throat and ueck. The crown, back, and sides of neck are bufty-brown irregularly barred with 

 blackish, changing to black or very dark brown on back. Eump and tail-coverts thickly barred 

 or mottled, with transverse lines or spots of yellowish-brown, and most of the feathers are edged 

 with a narrow grayish-white border. This plumage is almost intermediate between that of the 

 spring plumage of the male and female birds, but is distinct from either, although combining cer- 

 tain characteristics of each. Kumlien reports that in latitude 67° north on the Davis Strait coast 

 of America these birds begin changing their winter plumage for that of spring the middle of May, 



