36 [BIRDS OF IVIGTUT. 



highlands, where, according to HolboU, a great number pass 

 the winter. 



In 1886, when I arrived, it was common on the 22d of 

 April, and loud in its songs. On the 16th of October the 

 greater number had left Ivigtut ; the last were seen on the 

 25th of October. 



In 1887, the first, a single one, was seen on the 30th of 

 March, then one on April 3, and five or six on the following 

 day. On April 8, a flock of twenty to thirty was seen, and 

 a week later single individuals were observed ; but they were 

 not common until April 23. , The last were seen on the 17th 

 ~ of October. 



In 1888 the first, a single one, was seen on the 5th of 

 . April ; on tlie 7th and the following days a number were 

 observed ; and from the 13th of April on, they were common. 

 On the 5th of May a flock of about forty was seen among 

 the bushes in the valley, where they have not been seen at 

 other times. On the 15th of October they were still common. 



I have found six nests with eggs or young, always six in 

 each. The earliest eggs were found on the 26th of May, 

 the last on June the 14th. The nests were generally at an 

 elevation of fifty to three hundred feet above sea-level ; but 

 I have also found the birds, though rarely, during the hatch- 

 ing-season, as high as two thousand feet in the uplands. 



Their favored hatching-places are the mountain slopes, 

 where numerpus stone-heaps afford them a convenient place 

 for nest-building. On one occasion I noticed a male coming 

 about every five minutes to a bright sunny spot, where it 

 caught a few blue-bottles, and then flew away in a definite 

 direction. By following it, I found about fifteen hundred 

 feet distant a nest with some half-grown young. 



All the nests I saw were built between stones, sometimes 

 far in among the heaps, and occasionally I was obliged to 



