212 KEELER 



When we finally cast anchor before Muir Glacier, birds 

 were forgotten as we stood under the spell of the ice. 

 Indeed, it scarcely seemed credible that birds could be in 

 such a place so cold, austere, and terrible it appeared. 

 Of course, we expected to find some of the hardy sea 

 birds, and so were not surprised to notice glaucous- 

 winged gulls flying about the inlet as in other parts of the 

 inland channels. One might fancy their feet would get 

 cold, as numbers of them rested upon floating cakes of ice. 

 The California murre, one of the species of diving birds, 

 which we afterwards encountered in great abundance, also 

 rested upon the bergs, and violet-green cormorants swam 

 with agile movements in the icy water. The cormorant 

 when on rocks or ice is a most ungainly bird, but is inter- 

 esting for all that. Its body is heavy and clumsy, and its 

 slender stretched-out neck seems to end in a long, narrow 

 bill, so slight is the enlargement of the head. A naked 

 skin-pocket covers the throat, and the clumsy toes are all 

 connected by a web. The violet-green cormorant, as if 

 to atone for its ungraceful outline, is resplendent in a coat 

 of burnished blackish-green, varied with purple iridescence 

 on the neck. Its gular sac, as the naked skin of the throat 

 is called, is coral red, and its bill and feet are black. To 

 add to its individuality, this species has two crests, one on 

 the top of the head, the other on the back of the neck, 

 while the flanks are adorned with patches of loose, white 

 feathers. 



A few black brants were observed flying overhead, an 

 occasional raven flapped along the shore, and here we had 

 our first glimpse of the beautiful harlequin duck, swimming 

 amid the floating icebergs. Here, too, was that peerless 

 diver, the Pacific black-throated loon; the marbled mur- 

 relet sported in the icy waters, and the pigeon guille- 

 mots and tufted puffins gave variety and animation to the 

 scene. 



