eter Wee ULB ON, Br U ly BRN Tai oN 5 
nesting. The majority of these birds were non-breeding individuals. The 
nest was very beautiful, being constructed of caribou moss and placed in the 
small, wind-blown spruce trees. 
Arctic terns nested in great profusion on the islands in the lakes. These 
are shot extensively by the Indians and their eggs often taken for food. The 
Indians will eat any egg, even those as small as the red-poll, and likewise 
find the flesh of gulls and nearly any other bird to their liking. 
Both the semipalmated and least sandpipers nest in the Churchill sec- 
tion. These species we had thought might be rather hard to distinguish since 
the sure way is by the color of the legs, a difficult fieid identification, and 
it is against our wishes to have to kill any bird in order to identify it. We 
found, however, that after flushing either species from the nest it would 
fly only a short distance and alight, often walking back to the nest while we 
stood motionless, thereby making positive identification easy. Also, as a 
general rule we found the semipalmated to be a little more shy when flushed 
from the nest. The eggs are so similar that identification can hardly be 
made from them. The eggs of the least average slightly smaller and weigh 
a little less; however, individual sets might not always run true to form and 
consequently we always make identification from the bird itself. 
Red-backed sandpiper nests were not so common as the others and they 
were found through using the same general methods. The red-backed is a 
slightly earlier nester than other shore birds. 
Nests of the semipalmated plover were hollows in the gravel ridges and 
in the gravel along switch tracks in the townsite, or else a hollow in the 
tundra moss. The only way to find nests of this bird is by watching it from 
concealment. | 
We found Pacific loons nesting on the shores of several of the larger 
tundra lakes, the nests being nothing more than matted down grass within 
a foot or two of the water. We were never able to see the birds leave the 
nests or return to them, although we saw them in the lakes near the nest 
sites. They apparently go some distance to obtain their food since there 
are no fish or other forms of life in these small lakes. 
The northern phalarope was another species which we were unable to 
flush from the nest, and the finding of these nests was rather difficult, 
demanding some search, although they nested commonly. 
The nests of the eastern tree sparrow, which were built in the small 
pines, were a great deal different from those found on the ground. The 
ground nests were mostly of grasses and quite bulky, while the tree nest, 
of which we found but one, was very beautifully constructed of caribou 
moss and lined with ptarmigan feathers. The single nest of the Lapland 
longspur which we found was built in the side of a hummock in the open 
tundra. 
Our rarest find was that of the eastern dowitcher, a species whose nest 
had been found but a few times previously in the Churchill section. I must 
confess that we stumbled on this nest purely through accident, flushing the 
sitting bird in front of us. The nest was simply a hollow in a grassy hum- 
mock in a marshy section of tundra. This was one of the few shore bird 
sets which we found that was complete with three eggs. 
