30 BIRDS OF IVIGTUT. 



same place, hunting for food among a few bushes that pro- 

 jected above the snow along the edge of the fjord, which at 

 that time was covered with ice. 



In 1887, the first were seen on April 24, and on April 30 

 a few single individuals, besides three together flying toward 

 west-northwest, about one hundred feet high. On the 6th 

 of May several appeared in the valley, and by the 10th of the 

 same month, they were common. By September 28, most of 

 the flock had migrated, but a few were seen in October, and 

 one on November 21. 



In 1888 one with a red breast was seen on the 27th of 

 January, and one on the 4th of February. The latter were 

 seen in the same bushes where I, had found those on the 

 8th and 9th of December, 1886, and, as then, the weather 

 was mild and the whole country covered with snow. On 

 the 10th of May, 1888, the time of mating, they were quite 

 common. 



Tliese birds usually build wherever a bunch of bushes 

 may be found, but rarely over five hundred or six hundred 

 feet up the hillside, althougli I have met examples on the 

 higher lands during the mating-season. I discovered eight 

 nests with eggs and young. Three of the nests had the full 

 number of eggs in May, the others in June. The earliest 

 newly-laid eggs were found on May 20, the latest on June 

 26. One clutch consisted of four eggs, another of six, and 

 the remainder of five eggs or young. 



These nests were in willow bushes, generally in the low- 

 est branches, close to the ground, and never higher than 

 three and one half feet. An exception was a nest built 

 upon one of the seats in an old boat which lay beside a 

 thoroughfare within the town of Ivigtut. On the 26th of 

 June there were four eggs in the nest^ and on the 4th of 

 July there were, I believe, young in the nest, but I am not 



