33 



MERRIAM 



consequence remained away for longer periods than usual, 

 was not ascertained. Many sought the steam-enshrouded 

 crags, where, when the vapor clouds were momentarily 

 blown aside by the wind, we repeatedly saw thousands 

 serenely standing side by side as if enveloped in ordinary 

 fog. It seemed remarkable that birds should voluntarily 

 take up quarters in places where hot steam and fumes of 

 sulphur were almost suffocating. Some, indeed, appeared 

 to have met their death from this cause, for we picked up 

 on the rocks below a number of dead birds that bore no 

 sign of external injury. Lieutenant Stoney, speaking of 



the murres he saw 

 about the islands the 

 last of May, 1884, 

 said that " such as 

 flew into the cloud 

 of steam and smoke 

 of the belching vol- 

 cano, as many did, 

 immediately per- 

 ished." 



But great as were the multitudes of murres on the new 

 volcano, their numbers were insignificant compared with 

 those on Old Bogoslof, where every available inch of 

 standing room was occupied. Each bird stood over its 

 single egg, and when suddenly frightened, as by the dis- 

 charge of a gun, started off, carrying its big egg between 

 its legs, and when a short distance away letting it drop, so 

 that the report of the gun and the launching into the air of 

 the birds were followed by a shower of many-colored eggs. 

 When the Harriman Expedition visited Bogoslof on the 

 evening of July 8, 1899, flocks of murres on their way to the 

 islands began to pass the ship while we were still twenty- 

 five or thirty miles away. They became more and more fre- 

 quent until in a short time they formed a continuous stream. 



FIG. 38. MURRES' EGGS. 



