THE AUK A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY VOL. 63 JANUARY,1946 No. 1 ORNITHOLOGICAL RESULTS OF THE BAFFIN ISLAND EXPEDITIONS OF 1928-1929 AND 1930-1931, TOGETHER WITH MORE RECENT RECORDS x BY J. 'DEWEYSOPER Plates I, • INTRODUCTION THE chiefobject of the presentpaper is to recordthe writcr'sbird observationsof the two southernBarfin Island expeditionswhich were carried out for the Dominion Government from 1928 to 1931. Thesewcrc closelyinterrelated in the broaderobjectives; they also constituteda logical continuationof the work commencedon two formerexpeditions undertaken for the National Museumof Canada. The first of the latter projectscovered the easternCanadian Arctic, in general,during the cruiseof the C. G. S. Arctic in 1923,while the secondwas devotedto widespreadinvestigations in south-central and southwesternBaliin Island from 19•4 to 1926. The results of thesefirst two expeditions,together with many notesby earlier nat- uralists,were publishedin 'A Faunal Investigationof Southern BaffinIsland,' 1928. To securea completepicture of the avifaunal resourcesof the territory in question,this publicationshould be read in conjunctionwith the presentreport. In addition,there are many valuablepapers listed in the bibliographywhich deal with variousphases of the subject. The bird investigationsof 1928to 1931,recorded in the present paper,were &signedas muchas possibleto coverterritory not ex- ploredon the twoearlier expeditions. In actualfield work the plan was notably successful,although a slight overlappingnecessarily occurredin the Cape Dorsetlocality. However,as mostof the work wasconducted here earlier and later in the seasonthan during the Publishedwith the permissionof the NorthwestTerritories Administration, Ottawa, Canada. 1 THE AuK, VOL. 63 PLATE 1 (Upl•er figure), COASTALHILLS Ol• PRE-CAMBRIANROCK AT LAKE HARBOUR, BAFFIN ISLAND, JuLY, 1931. ALL HIGHER ELEVATIONS ARE R•RABL• TO • Desert Tundra (c). MODIF•D Grass Tundra (b) CONDITIONSPREVAIL IN MANY OF • MOIST, S•L•R•D VALLEYS. (L•e•e), HE•v• CROWTHOF W•LOWS ALONCA BROOKTRIBUTARY TO SOPER Ri• • LATITUDE 63 ø 08' •3" •., •O• OF L• H•OU•, B•F• Is•. •LOCICAL •NDITIONS REPRESENTAT•EOF T• POLAR•F•S•I•O• Zone (•). •ARLY •, l•31. 2 Soe•R,Results ofBa•n Island Expeditions •aUnk. summerof 1926, there is scarcelyany similarity in the results. By far the greater part of the investigationswas carried out in more remote areas. Most of the region at that time had not been previ- ously visited by any naturalist, and, incidentally,it still holds true that as yet the author is the only one to have primarily pursued wild-life inquiries over certain extensivecoastal and interior areas of southern Barfin Island. On his third Arctic expedition,the writer proceededto south- westernBarfin Island aboard the S.S. Nascopie,arriving at Cape Dorset in late July, 1928. Headquarterswere establishedin the Hudson'sBay Companypost at that place for the followingyear. Long journeyswere immediatelyundertaken with Eskimo assistants along the coastto the eastand west and into the interior. During August, a trip was made to Cape Dorchester. In September,the party travelledto AndrewGordon Bay, thencenorth througha chain of lakesto UngrnaluktukLake in latitude65 ø N.; return to Cape Dorsetwas made on October1. As winter wasnow settingin, serious travel was impossiblefor many followingweeks and investigations were consequentlyconfined to the Cape Dorset locality. In January, 1929, an overland traverseof Foxe Peninsulawas run from AndrewGordon Bay to Nuwata,thence eastward to Ungrna- luktuk, Shidawatalik,and Tessikjuaklakes, with a return to Cape Dorsetvia AndrewGordon Bay. This was followedby extensive detail work in the CapeDorset sector. The party then left on the longestjourney of the expedition;a third crossingof the Foxe Pen- insulainterior was made from Andrew Gordon Bay to BowmanBay, thencethe westcoast was explored to the mouthof HantzschRiver in latitude 67 ø 33' 30" N., and the latter ascended for 39 miles from the sea. A return was then made to Foxe Basin over a new route acrossthe tundra; this part of the coastwas then retraced to Bow- manBay to recoversupplies at previouslyestablished depots en route. Following a reconnaissancesurvey to Putnam Highland as a side- trip, the fourth traverseof Foxe Peninsulawas run from Bowman Bay to AndrewGordon Bay, via a route westof TessikjuakLake. This entaileda non-stopjourney of 35 days,from March 11 to April 14, over a distance of 820 miles. The fifth and last major undertakinginvolved a journeyeast from Cape Dorset to Chorkbak Inlet, from which the fifth track survey of Foxe Peninsula was carried northeast acrossthe interior to BowmanBay and north. A summercamp (Camp Kunkovik) was establishedon Blue GooseRiver in latitude 65ø 35' 18" N., which was Vol.1946 63]J 80PI•R•Results ofBa.•n Island Exp•itions 3 occupiedfrom May 24 to July 20. It was during this period that a studyof the Blue Goosewas made and zoologicalactivities in gen- eral carriedout on a comparativelylarge scale. Return was made by canoedown Blue GooseRiver to BowmanBay and along the south coast of Foxe Basin to the mouth of Kommanik River. This river wasthen ascendedand the journeycontinued via the lake chain over the heightof land to AndrewGordon Bay, and thenceto Dorset. The party was absentfrom headquartersfor three months,begin- ning May 17, 1929 (Soper, 1930d). Work was then carried out in late August from Cape Dorset to Lake Harbour. The writer re- turned to civilization on the S.S. Beothic. Again under instructionsfrom the Department of the Interior, Ottawa, the writer sailedfor Lake Harbour in July, 1930, aboard the S.S. Nascopiefrom Montreal, and took up residencethere for a year. Sufficient materials were taken north a few weeks later on the S.S. Beothicto build a researchstation as headquarters.During the year in the region,the sameplans for investigationswere fol- lowedas on the former expedition,in which biologicaland other work was combinedwith surveysof coastsand interior. Minute attention was given to the main coastfrom CrooksInlet southeastwardto Ayde Point, near Icy Cove, with somewhatex- tended investigationslocally into the interior from severalfeasible points. Much detailedwork was carried out in the generalneigh- borhoodof Lake Harbour and west throughWhite Strait. The major undertakingof 1931,aside from the investigationson the outercoastline east and west of North Bay,was the explorationand surveyof SoperRiver, north throughthe mountainsto Mount Joy and beyond,to latitude63 ø 16' N. (Soper,1936). Taking the Hud- son'sBay Company'sS.S. Ungava from Lake Harbour, the return was made to Ottawa via Port Churchill,Hudson Bay, during the early part of August, 1931. The region coveredby theseinvestigations embraces a direct coast- line distanceof nearly800 miles,as well as large borderingand extraterritorialareas of the interior. In pursuit of the desiredin- formationthe writer madejourneys by freightercanoe and dog sledgeover a total travelleddistance of some4,500 miles, bringing under more or lessdirect observationan area of not lessthan 10,000 squaremiles. From a geographicangle, uniting directobservation with correlationof widespreadroute surveydata, the area retrieved from the unknownmay be said to representa tract of no lessthan 20,000square miles. It wasin this newlyexplored territory in 4 SOP•R,Results ofBa.•n Island Expeditions [pau• southern and western Baffin Island that the avifaunal information of the presentreport was secured. It is with deep personalpleasure that acknowledgementis here made of the numerouscourtesies received during the courseof the Baffin Island investigationsthrough the unvaryingkindness and co- 6peration of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Hudson's Bay Companyofficers. It is alsowith lastinggratitude that the many faithful Eskimoassistants of the expeditionsare remembered,with- out whoseloyal help the more ambitiousplans could not have suc- ceeded. At home, much appreciatedco6peration was receivedfrom Dr. R. M. Anderson and Dr. A. L. Rand, National Museum of Canada,Ottawa, and especiallyMr. P. A. Taverner who was for- merly in charge of the ornithological section of that institution. Finally, acknowledgementsare due to Mr. E. F. G. White, officers of the Royal Ontario Museumof Zoologyand Mr. T. H. Manning, for kindly placingat my disposalBaffin Island recordsof birds acquiredat various times after the closeof the 1931 expedition. Sincethen mostof thesehave been published. The writer's total contribution to a knowledgeof Baffin Island's higher vertebrates,so far as collected material is concerned,em- bracesa total of about 1,850 specimenstaken from 1923 to 1931. Those preservedfrom 1923 to 1926,inclusive, were collecteddirectly for the National Museum of Canada, while those taken from 1928 to 1931 were presentedto that museumby the former Northwest Territories and Yukon Branch,Department of the Interior, Ottawa. In nomenclatureand sequenceof species,the bird list follows the Fourth Edition of the American Ornithologists'Union Check- List, 1931,and the Nineteenthand Twentieth Supplementsthereto. Descriptivecolors are basedon Ridgway's'Color Standardsand Color Nomenclature,'1912. Measurementsare in inches. The following accountincludes only thosebirds which were observedduring the expeditionsfrom 1928 to 1931,together with a few othersthat have been added to the southernBaffin Island list sincethat time. By following this course,the presentreport and that of 1928 conveni- ently include all speciesand subspeciesrecorded in the territory