396 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Once I found this species courting. On June 14 when approaching 

 a small lagoon but still unable to see it owing to a slight elevation 

 of the tundra before me, I heard a strange sound on the other side of 

 the elevation. This peculiar noise came in series of three " Urrr- 

 URRR-URRR," the last being the loudest, a sort of drumming call 

 as when one expels air forcibly through the mouth with the tongue 

 lightly pressed against the palate. I had heard this noise once before 

 during the winter made by an Eskimo and used with indifferent 

 results for encouraging his dog team. I thought this call was an 

 invention of his own at the time, but when in sight of the lagoon 

 I found that the disturbance came from a small flock of King Eiders, 

 three females and five males. They were on the beach and three 

 males were squatted in a triangle about a female, each about a yard 

 from her. They did much neck-stretching as many male ducks do 

 in the spring, and frequently bowed the head forward. The males 

 constantly uttered the above drumming note. During this time the 

 female was very indifferent to the attentions of her suitors doing 

 nothing more than occasionally extending her head towards one of 

 them. After a brief period of these tactics, one or more of the males 

 would enter the water and bathe vigorously with much bowing of 

 heads and stretching of necks, to return to the beach in a few moments 

 and repeat the foregoing performance. Finally they all took wing 

 uttering the croaking sound similar to the Pacific Eider. 



By the middle of July a few small flocks of males were seen flying 

 west. 



SoMATERiA v-NiGRA Gray. 



PACIFIC EIDER. 



Pacific Eiders were first noted at the Semidi Islands, Alaska, on 

 April 18, 1913. At St. Lawrence Island early in June they were 

 common in pairs. At Providence Bay we found a number of nests 

 of this species containing fresh eggs on June 19 and 20. The birds 

 were very tame, always flying low and often passing close to one, 

 The male always flies a few feet behind the female, and as a rule is 

 uttering its characteristic guttural note, the only sound I have heard 

 them make. 



At Demarcation Point on September 1, 1913, a juvenile in the down 

 was taken, and another with the scapulars and sides of back feathered. 



At this Point in the spring of 1914 the first Pacific Eider, a single 

 male, arrived May 26. They were rare and only occasionally seen 



