180 ]S^ATUEAL HISTORY C0LLEGTI02v"S IN ALASKA. 



Plecteophenax nivalis (LiuD.). The Suowflakc (Esk. Am-d-go-hU-guk). 



The Suowflake is a well-known summer bird in all the circnmpolar regions, and none of 

 the various Arctic expeditions have extended their explorations beyond the points where this hand- 

 some species is found. It chooses indifferently the bleak shores of the Arctic islands encircled by 

 an icy sea, or the warmer shores to the south as far as the Aleutian Islands, and nearly as far on 

 the opposite Siberian shore of Bering Sea. Although it rears its young far from the usual haunts 

 of man, it passes to the south and is one of the most familiar and well-known birds through 

 the Northern States. But few remain during this season in Alaska, and these mainly on 

 the Aleutian cliain and the southeast shore of the Territory, where the climate is comparatively 

 mild. To the north of this the intense cold and violent storms permit the presence of only a small 

 number of the most hardy. Before the winter is fairly broken— by the 6th of April — they com- 

 mence to return to the north, and are found on this date at Fort Eeliance, on the Upper Yukon, 

 and thence they advance slowly with the returning sun until during this month they have regained 

 nearly all their summer haunts within the Territory. Along the north coast of Asia, Nordenskjold 

 mentions finding it at nearly every stopping-place of the Yega during his famous voyage, and 

 notes its arrival at Tapkan, on the Siberian Arctic shore, northwest of Bering Straits, on April 23. 

 During the summer of 1881, while with the Oorwin, I found it common on the Arctic coast of 

 Alaska to Point Barrow, along the entire northeast Siberian coast, and again on Herald and 

 Wrangel Islands. 



Elliott found it resident on the Seal Islands in Beiing Sea, and informs us that — 

 This liircl Ijuilds an elegant and elaborate nest of soft, dry moss and grass, and lines it warmly again with a thick 

 bed of feathers. It is placed on the ground beneath some heavy lava shelf or at the foot of an enormous bowlder. 

 Five eggs are usually laid, about the 1st of June. They are an inch long by two-thirds broad, of a grayish or 

 greenish white, spotted sometimes all ovi r, sometimes at or around the larger end only, with various shades of rich 

 dark brown, purple-brown, and palerneutral tints. Sometimes the whole surface is quite closely clouded with diffuse 

 reddish-brown markings. Upon the female the entire labor of the three weeks' incubation required for the hatching 

 of her brood devolves. During this period the male is assiduous in bringing food; and at frequent intervals sings his 

 simple but sweet song, rising, as he begins it, high up in the air, as the skylark does, and at the end of the strain drops 

 suddenly to the ground again. * * « The food of this species consists of the various seeds and insects peculiar to 

 the rough, higher ground it frequents, being especially fond of the small coleopterous beetles found on the island. * * * 

 It cannot be called at any season of the year gregarious, like its immediate relative, the Lapland longspur, with which 

 it is associated on these sea-girt islands. 



Ball found it resident throughout the Aleutian Islands, and on June 20 and 23, 1873, he found 

 two nests, one with five fresh eggs and the other with four, much incubated. These nests were 

 built on low grassy banks on Attn Island, one of the extreme westernmost of the Aleutian 

 chain. AtUnalaska, in the eastern section of these islands, he found it frequenting the mountains in 

 summer, and only approaching the shore when the heavy snows rendered the heights uninhabitable. 

 The Snow Bunting is also found breeding on all the other islands of Bering Sea and in mountain- 

 ous localities along the entire shore-line to that portion of the Arctic coast north of Kotzebue 

 Sound ; here it frequents the low, flat, pebbly shores and breeds close to the sea-level. In pro- 

 portion to the distance south of the Arctic regions it is found, it resorts to higher and higher 

 altitudes in summer. 



At Point Barrow Mr. Murdoch found the Snow Bunting to be a common summer resident, 

 arriving from the 9th to the 16th of April ; breeding in early June and moving south again the 

 last of September. Upon the Commander Islands, according to Stejneger, it is resident, and 

 in winter frequents the shore at low tide, and feeds in company with Coues's Sandpiper. The 

 first broods are hatched on these islands about the 1st of June, and a second brood is under way 

 in July. On the Shumagins Bean found young just able to fly on the 16th of July, and Turner 

 reports them as common residents on J;he Near Islands. Saner notes their arrival at Unalaska 

 about the end of September. 



About Plover Bay, on the high mountains rising abruptly from the water, I found it com- 

 mon and breeding the last of June, 1881, and on June 24, the same season, it was also found in 

 fine breeding- plumage at the southwest cape of Saint Lawrence Island, where we landed from 

 the Corwin. At the base of this bluff were the ruined huts of the famine-stricken Eskimo, and 



