2l8 KEELER 



The woods back of our camp were like other forests of 

 the Alaska coast, dense and impenetrable. Hemlock 

 boughs reached out their flattened sprays, and the Sitka 

 spruce held forth its branches tipped with bright new 

 tassels. Raindrops clung to every leaf and showered us 

 with spray as we passed under the overhanging limbs. 

 Mosses, liverworts, and lichens covered the ground and 

 crowded upon the trunks of the trees. At every step the 

 foot sank into a cushion of heavy velvet or a pool of water. 

 Ferns grew in profusion, and bright green scouring-rushes 

 fringed the forest. Salmon berries and the famous Yaku- 

 tat strawberries were in blossom. Besides the birds we 

 had previously observed as abundant in the vicinity, we 

 saw the pert little brown winter wren, and heard its 

 merry, wheezy, rattling attempt at a song. Here also Mr. 

 Ridgway secured a specimen of the Kadiak pine grosbeak 

 in full plumage. We had observed a number of birds of 

 that species in the forest, but from their note had mistaken 

 them for purple finches. This large, beautiful finch, with 

 its very thick beak and showy rosy-red plumage, varied 

 on the back and belly with ashen-gray, is an inhabitant of 

 the forested regions of Alaska, where it rears its young in 

 the solitude of the dark groves of spruce. 



During the two following days, which were spent aboard 

 ship cruising about Yakutat Bay, we secured specimens of 

 both the pomarine and parasitic jaeger, and I observed one 

 of the latter birds pursuing an Arctic tern which held a 

 fish in its beak. The jaegers are the winged pirates of 

 these northern seas. They belong to the gull family, but 

 differ much from other members of the group, both in 

 habits and plumage. Imagine a trim-built bird of vigor- 

 ous and sustained flight, agile in turning, and impetuous 

 in attack a bird about afoot and a half in length, with a 

 rather long tail terminating in two elongated central feath- 

 ers projecting two or more inches beyond the rest such 



