76 SNOWFLAKE. 



35°, where ttiey are replaced by the Lapland Longspur. Most of them have left Wis- 

 consin for the North by the first of April. 



The breeding range of the Snowflake is found in the circumpolar regions, except the 

 islands in Behring Sea. It has been observed by various Arctic expeditions. Mr. E. W. 

 Nelson, who had a good opportunity of observing the bird in Alaska, writes as follows: 



"But few remain during the season in Alaska, and these mainly on the Aleutian 

 chain and the south-east 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 commence to return to the North, and are found on this date at" Fort 

 Reliance, on the Upper Yukon, and thence they advance slowly with the returning sun 

 until during this rnonth 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 Vega during his famous voyage, and notes its arrival at 

 Tapkan, on the Sibirian Arctic shore, north-west of Behring Straits, on April 23. During 

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

 Alaska to Point Barrow, along the entire north-east Sibirian coast, and again on Harald 

 and Wrangel Islands. 



"Elliott found it resident on the Seal Islands in Behring Sea, and informs us that 

 this bird builds an elegant and elaborate nest of soft, dry mosses 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 boulder. Five eggs are usually laid, 

 about the first of June. They are an inch long by two-thirds broad of a grayish or 

 greenish-white, spotted sometimes all over, sometimes at or around the larger end only, 

 with various shades of rich dark brown, purple-brown, and paler neutral tints. Some- 

 times 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 Sky Lark 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 can not 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." 



A variety, the Prybilof Snowflake, P. nivalis townsendii Ridgw., inhabits the 

 Prybilof Islands of Alaska, and Kamschatka. 



McKay's Snowflake, P. hyperboreus Ridgw., breeds on Hall Island and probably 



also on St. Matthew's Island, Behring Sea, and in winter visiting the west coast of Alaska. 



NAMES: Snowflake, Snow Bunting.— Schneeammer (German). 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Emberiza nivalis Linn. (1766). Plectrophanes nivalis Meyer. — PLECTROPHBNAX 

 NIVALIS Stejn. (1882). 



DESCRIPTION: "In summer: Pure white, the middle of the bacli, the wings, and the tail, mostly black; 

 bill and feet, black. Seldom if ever seen in this perfect dress in the United States. As found with us 



