ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 67 



The oruithological spectacle at daybreak the following morning was 

 quite different from what it had been the foregoing day. Hundreds and 

 thousands of Lunda cirrhata crossed and recrossed the island, coming- 

 from all directions, and disappearing on the opposite side, in order to 

 return again and again. A wonderful sight! The black birds, with 

 their conspicuous white face-mask, the long and floating yellow ear- 

 tufts bent like the horns of a ram, and the large green-and red-colored 

 beaks and red legs, looked more like fantastical creatures of the tropics 

 than inhabitants of the less extravagant north. Their flight seemed to 

 have no particular aim except to view and review the spot where they 

 were going to take up their summer abode, for they flew singly upon 

 their straight courses, no one taking notice of the others. Like black 

 specks they rose from the horizon heading for the island; the nearer they 

 came the bigger they grew, until they passed over us, disappearing as 

 specks again on the other side, and when first started nothing seemed to 

 be able to bring them out of their straight course. These clumsy looking, 

 puffy birds possess, nevertheless, a very rapid flight, so that at the first 

 acquaintance one is rather apt to shoot behind them, but they do not 

 rise very high in the air, especially when passing over the upper pla- 

 teau of the island. 



The natives take advantage of these peculiarities, and their device 

 for catching the Toporki is based upon the apparent diflBculty of the 

 bird to make a sudden turn in its straight flight. 



A piece of wide-meshed net-work stretched on a hoop, about 4 

 feet in diameter, fixed to a light pole, 10 to 12 feet long, is the in- 

 strument used in catching the Toj>orki, by suddenly throwing it in 

 the way of the bird, who flies directly into it, and thus falls to the 

 ground and is captured. 



When I turned out the Aleuts were already in their places waiting 

 for the rush of the birds, which had not yet begun. They were scat- 

 tered pretty evenly around the island, seated on the edge of the bluff. 

 Their immovable figures, wrapped in the warm "parka," or the lighter 

 "kamleika," were clearly visible against the gray western sky, and 

 now with the dawning day we discern the net at their side, but, 

 what is more surprising, each one surrounded by a small flock of 

 Toporki. These stretch their necks and point with their bills straight 

 up in the air in quite an unaccountable manner, remaining so long in 

 that rather unnatural position that we become suspicious. A closer 



