72 BULLETIN L30, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



without guns of auy kind, and were thus unable to frighten them by the noise 

 of tlie discharge. The birds were easily called from their course of flight, as 

 we repeatedly observed. If a flock should be passing a hundred yards or more 

 to one side, the natives would utter a long, peculiar cry, and the flock would 

 turn instantly to one side and sweep by in a circuit, thus affording the coveted 

 opportunity for bringing down some of their number. These flocks generally 

 contained a mixture of about one-twentieth of the number of Pacific eiders, and 

 the remainder about equally divided of stellers and the king eiders. At 

 times the entire community of these birds, which made this vicinity their 

 haunt, would pass out in a solid body, and the flock thus formed exceeded in 

 size anything of the kind I ever witnessed. 



Fall. — At Point Barrow, according to Mr. Murdoch (1885), the 

 fall migration, or rather the movement away from their breeding 

 grounds begins early. 



Birds that have bred, judging from the looks of the ovaries, begin to come 

 back from the first to the middle of July, appearing especially at Pergniak 

 and flying in small parties up and down the coast. They generally keep to 

 themselves, but are sometimes found associating with small parties of king 

 ducks. They disappear from the first to the middle of August, and when 

 gathered in large flocks are exceedingly wild and hard to approach. 



The main migration route in the fall is southward along the 

 Siberian coast of Bering Sea to their winter homes in the Kurile, 

 Commander, and Aleutian Islands. But Doctor Nelson (1887) says 

 that — 



In autumn, as they pass south, stray individuals and parties are found in 

 Norton Sound. Those taken there are usually young of the year. When 

 found at St. Michael they usually frequented outlying rocky islets and ex- 

 posed reefs, and fed in the small tide rips. The shallow turbid water of 

 Norton Sound seems to be offensive to the majority of these birds, as their 

 chosen haunts are along coasts where the water is clear and deep close to 

 the shore. 



Winter. — Steller eiders are almost as abundant in their winter 

 resorts about the Aleutian Islands as they are in summer on the 

 'Siberian coast. Here they gather in large flocks, associated with 

 king eiders, about the harbors which are free from ice. They resort 

 to the vicinity of sunken ledges and rocky islets where they can 

 obtain their food by diving to moderate depths, although they can 

 dive in deep water if necessary. They are rather shy at this season 

 when in large flocks. The winter range extends eastward to Kodiak 

 Island, where this species is said to be abundant. Chase Littlejohn, 

 in some notes sent to Major Bendire in 1892, writes : 



These ducks are by far the most numerous of any duck during the winter, 

 and a few were nesting at Morzhovia Bay in June. They are known locally 

 as soldier ducks, from their habit of swimming single file and then as if by 

 a given signal they all disappear beneath the surface in search of food, 

 where they remain for some time, but when they arise they usually form a 

 solid square or, in other words, a compact bunch, and then single file and 



