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their time exploring about the grassy hummocks, the males at short inter- 
vals soaring into the air with bursts of song. The Lapland longspur is 
the most brilliant singer of the Arctic. The performance is rendered 
principally from the air. The bird first ascends, almost vertically, to a 
height of 15 or 20 feet, and then on level-spread, motionless wing, soars 
slowly along while the song pours forth. To the writer, at a little distance, 
the song is reminiscent of that of the bobolink. With the singer close at 
hand the bobolink connotation is largely lost; the song is neither so loud 
nor so well sustained. The species has not the repertory of the snow 
bunting, though slight differences can occasionally be detected. The calls 
also are restricted in numbers, the chief being a nasal yeep-yeep, a grating, 
metallic yee-yee, and a yeer-up yeer-up, all so different in tonal quality from 
the beautiful songs. 
Nest building is under way by June 10 or 12. Several completed nests 
were found on June 14; one contained a single egg. The nests are on 
mounds of grass and moss on the tundra, well above the pools of water 
and sheets of snow that mark the ground at this season. The nests are 
about 3 inches deep, in the damp moss of the hummocks. The walls are 
of dead grasses, and the lining usually is caribou hair and ptarmigan 
feathers. After laying commences, an egg is deposited each day until the 
set, usually of six eggs, is complete. Many fresh sets of five and six eggs 
were collected between June 19 and July 3. A set taken on June 23, 
however, was very considerably incubated, thus further demonstrating the 
range of laying time. Nestlings were first observed on July 12, but there 
must have been earlier ones as young were awing on July 15. A nest 
containing two eggs and three newly hatched nestlings was found on July 
22 when hundreds of young longspurs were in flight. The males ceased 
singing about July 20 and were very retiring after August 1, when under- 
going the post-nuptial moult. 
The species was still common at Takuirbing river on August 18 when 
the writer commenced his voyage along the southern shore of Net tilling 
lake. The first signs of autumn flocking were noted between August 10 
and 13. During the voyage on the lake, longspurs were seen at nearly 
every place landed at. They became much less common toward the last 
of the month, though they were seen in fair numbers on the shore of Kouk- 
juak river in early September, and scattered individuals, or groups, were 
noted until Amittok lake was reached on September 11, after which no 
more were observed. 
In the spring of 1926 the first longspurs were seen on June 3 at cape 
Dorset, and were very sparingly observed on the following few days. The 
species was abundant on July 17 at Aitken lakes where the country with 
its swampy bottom-lands and numerous ponds and lakes bears a strong 
resemblance to Nettilling Lake region, probably one of the greatest breeding 
grounds of the species in the Arctic. Two birds were seen near Bowdoin 
harbour on July 25. None was observed at Amadjuak bay during late 
July and early August. Only one was noted on Fox islands during two 
weeks in late June and early July. 
J. C. Ross (1826, p. 97) recorded the Lapland longspur from port 
Bowen, where it arrived later and left earlier than the snow bunting. During 
the autumn of 1877, Kumlien (1879, p. 77) saw many of this species at 
Niantilic in Cumberland sound, but nowhere else. He secured only one 
specimen during the summer of 1878 at the head of the gulf. The species 
