THE BIRDS OF ST. LAWRENCE ISLAND, BERING SEA 



By Herbert Friedmann 

 Curator, Division of Birds, United States National Museum 



During the summer of 1930, Henry B. Collins, jr., of the Division 

 of Anthropology of the United States National Museum, made an 

 expedition to St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea. Although the chief 

 aims of his trip were in the fields of archeology and anthropology, 

 he used his spare time to advantage in collecting biological material 

 as well. Among the latter were 109 bird skins, constituting the 

 largest single ornithological collection ever made on that island. 

 These specimens have been carefully studied and form the basis 

 of this paper, but inasmuch as so little has been written about the 

 bird life of St. Lawrence Island, I have included all previously 

 published data as well, making the present contribution as complete 

 as possible. 



St. Lawrence Island is one of the northwestern outliers of the 

 area covered by the American Ornithologists' Union Check-List, 

 the official list of the birds of the North American faunal region, 

 but geographically it is as much a part of Asia as of North America. 

 Because of its position as a spatial link between the Palearctic and 

 the Nearctic regions, St. Lawrence Island possesses more interest 

 than might otherwise be attached to a semibarren island of its size. 

 (Figs. 1 and 2.) 



The best description of St. Lawrence Island is that given by John 

 Muir in his book " The Cruise of the Corwlny Unfortunately many 

 of his statements about the theoretical glaciation of the island have 

 since been discredited, and recent expert opinion has been to the 

 effect that the island never was glaciated. By omitting the inaccu- 

 rate statements of past history, however, we may extract a fair 

 picture of the place from Muir's writings. 



St. Lawrence Islautl, the largest in Bering Sea, is situated at a distance of 

 about 120 miles off tlie moutli of the Yuljon, and 45 miles from the nearest 

 point on the coast of Siberia. It is about 100 miles in length from east to 

 west and 15 miles in average width, a dreary, cheerless-looking mass of black 

 lava, dotted with volcanoes, covered with snow, without a single tree ♦ * *. 



No. 2912.— Proceedings U. S. National Museum. Vol. 80. Art. 12. 

 70631—31 1 1 



