424 THE PUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



tlie bird inhabiting tlie adjacent shores of Alaska proper. Its larger size, much longer 

 and larger bill, more extensive whiteness, and more strongly colored larger eggs, give 

 it a distinctiveness which should entitle it to specific rank. It inhabits the Aleutian, 

 Pribilof, and Commander islands. 



"The snowbird is another permanent resident of these islands, but one which, 

 unlike the Leucosticte, is rather shy and retiring, nesting high on the rocky, broken 

 uplands, and only entering the village during unusually severe or protracted cold 

 weather."— {Ulliott.) 



It is always in sight wherever one goes, either singing its cheery song on the 

 uplands or else flying to the rocky shores at low water, where it often picks up a meal. 

 Ordinarily it utters only a "chir-r-r," but the song of the male is quite striking in its 

 brilliancy, but though louder than the longspur's is hardly as sweet. They sing very 

 early in the morning, about 3 or 4 a. m., and I often heard them while lying in bed. 

 A pair had a nest just behind the house in which I lived, and often on awaking I 

 could have sworn that I heard a white-eyed vireo, so close is the resemblance some- 

 times to the well-known notes of that bird. Usually, however, it has a higher i)itch 

 and is sweeter. They nest commonly under the bowlders which dot the hillsides, the 

 entrance, well worn, being on the southern side and looking more like the entrance 

 to the burrow of a mammal. The nest is placed on 'the ground, just about an arm's 

 length in, so that it can not be reached by a fox. Some nests are built in crevices, or 

 behind a rock in the face of a cliff, not, however, in those which face the sea, our bird 

 having no such inclination for the surf-swept shores like the Leucosticte. " 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 in 

 the air, as the syklark does, and at the end of the strain drops suddenly to the ground 

 again." — [Elliott.) 



' I have seen a female repeatedly make trips to the lagoon shore, where she picked 

 up dead sea fleas for her young. They are also not averse to the capabilities of the 

 killing grounds to produce food, for the young bred about the village are soon found 

 in those places, the eflects soon being visible on their plumage, which becomes 

 extremely dirty beneath. A series of nine young from the nestling to quite long- 

 tailed birds illustrates the changes incident to the nestling plumage. In three, taken 

 June 16 from a nestful of six, the long dusky down' is abundant along the sides of 

 the head and along the sides of the back and on the rump. The nestling plumage is 

 covering the body except on the throat and down the center of the breast. This 

 plumage is as follows, and, curiously enough, the females are much the darkest: 



Nestling $ . — Above, mouse gray, obscurely streaked with darkish; beiieath, very 



1 This down has received the name of Neossoptiles, given by Dr. Gadow in Newton's Dictionary 

 of Birds, 1893, page 243. To the mature feathers, all that follow, he has applied the name Teleoptiles, 

 but curiously enough he does not distinguish between the really mature feathers — those to which every 

 species ultimately attains — and the nestling plumage, which in many species is so transitory and 

 always intermediate ; that is, between the Neossoptile and the first Teleoptile. This so-called nestling 

 plumage, which is always, in point of time and position, between the other two named, may be 

 called the Mesoptile. Thus first we have the Neossoptile, which is usually attached to the tips of 

 the rami of the Mesoptile, and this again as the succeeding growth appears is seen (often) attached 

 to the tips of the rami of the Teleoptile, which sometimes are found entering the umbilicus inferior 

 of the Mesoptile. Thus these feather growths are common to nearly all birds in the order mentioned 

 are quite different in structure, are variously connected, and differ in their uses and periods of growth 

 and disconnection. 



