The Birds of Angmagsalik. HÆR ZT 
land, the most frequent and typical being the Snow Bunting, the most 
numerous of the polar perching birds. It is common at Angmagsalik, 
breeds there in probably the same number as in most places on the 
west coast. It easily finds what it requires, a rocky cleft for its nest, 
seeds of various plants for food, and in summer larvae to feed the young, 
and of all these there is sufficient. It seems to thrive well here, too, makes 
its appearance at least as early as in similar places on the west coast 
and stays just as long into the autumn. 
Its relative, the pretty Lapland Bunting, the only one of all the 
birds of the North that has a really metallic clang in its song, also 
breeds in the district, but in smaller numbers; it is the bird of the plains 
and marshes, must have a tussock on marshy ground to built its nest 
by, likes a wet bottom best as does its relative the Reed Bunting in 
Denmark, and at its breeding place prefers to have a few bushes, or, 
for want of these, a clump of stones on which it can sit and look round. 
It has made its way to the Angmagsalik district in no small numbers, 
the only place on the east coast where it has been found breeding. Of 
the Perching birds proper there remains still one, the Greenland Redpoll; 
it is the little, grey race frequently met with all over South Greenland, 
which in North Greenland is replaced by the bigger, whiter form. It is 
rather more particular with regard to nesting place than the two just 
mentioned, requiring a little bush to build in — of the most modest 
type, to be sure, and up the cliff if necessary; it is the only bird breeding 
in Greenland that builds in a bush. Like the other small birds it comes 
in April and leaves in September; before departure it flocks, comes 
in close to the houses and is on the whole one of the species which help 
most to give life to the landscape. The last of the common small breed- 
ing birds is the Greenland Wheatear, the arctic form of the Wheatear, 
which in the Angmagsalik district, as in most parts of East and West 
Greenland, is met with everywhere, both out by the coast and in along 
the fjords, often high up the mountains; it sits on the stones, its dark 
tail with the light spot at the base constantly in motion, easily recognis- 
able from all other small birds; it is a fairly hardy bird and not rarely 
braves the bleak October weather. With these four common Greenland 
species is exhausted the small birds which usually breed at Angmagsalik, 
but there are still two which at any rate in certain years breed up there. 
These are the White Wagtail and the Meadow Pipit. It is true of them 
both that on Iceland they are common breeding birds, that they have 
not been met with as breeding in any other part of Greenland, and that 
they scarcely breed every year at Angmagsalik. The truth is probably 
this, that some birds of both species, during the spring migration to | 
Iceland, get out of their course, are driven in to Angmagsalik, and there 
find conditions which make it not impossible for them to breed. And 
