68 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



mile or two beyond the natives' liuts and came streaming out in a floclc wliicti 

 appeared endless. It was fully 3 to 4 miles in length, and considering the 

 species which made up this gathering of birds it was enough to make an 

 enthusiastic ornithologist wild with a desire to possess some of the beautiful 

 specimens which were seen filing by within gunshot of the vessel. 



Mr. F. S. Hersey's notes of July 26, 1914, state : 



As we steamed into St. Lawrence Bay there appeared in the distance a long 

 low, sandy island known as Lutke Island. As we drew nearer we could see a 

 cloud of birds hovering above it which our glasses showed us were Arctic terns. 

 The island itself was very low, hardly above the sea level, and as we looked at 

 it seemed to be strewn with small black rocks. With our glasses, however, we 

 could see some movement among these black objects. At last we made them 

 out to be birds, then suddenly they arose and swept out toward us, their black 

 and white plumage flashing in the sunlight, and we saw that they were eiders. 

 There were many kings and Pacifies among them, and these separated from 

 the main flock and went out to sea, but the remainder, which were Steller 

 eiders, returned to the farther side of the island. A boat was soon lowered 

 and a party of us put off from the ship. When we landed and started to walk 

 across the island the eiders again took flight but soon settled on the water a 

 short distance offshore. They were not at all shy. While we stayed on the 

 island small parties of from 2 or 3 to 8 or 10 were constantly flying back and 

 forth, often close to us, although we were in plain sight at all times, for the 

 island offered no concealment. We had no difficulty in obtaining all the 

 specimens we wanted. 



Spring. — From their winter home in the Aleutian Islands the main 

 flight of the spring migration seems to pass westward through the 

 Commander Islands, where they are very abundant in April, to the 

 Siberian coast and northward. There is also a northward migration 

 through Bering Straits to the Arctic coast of Alaska. Mr. John 

 Murdoch (1885) found these eiders common at Point Barrow; he 

 says: 



Early in June they are to be found at the " leads " of open water at some 

 distance from the shore, and perhaps the majority of them pass on in this 

 way to their breeding grounds. From the middle to the end of June they 

 appear on land in small parties scattered over the tundra. At this time they 

 are in full breeding plumage, and the males are generally in excess in the 

 flocks. They ai'e generally to be found in small " pond-holes," frequently sitting 

 on the bank asleep, and are very tame, easily approached within gunshot, and 

 generally swimming together when alarmed, before taking wing, so that sev- 

 eral can be secured at one discharge. I have stopped a whole flock of five 

 with a single shot. 



Mr. Alfred M. Bailey writes to me : 



At Cape Prince of Wales, during the spring of 1922, the first Steller eiders 

 were seen May 12. At this time the straits are still choked with pack ice 

 and salt water freezes on the leads. On May 18 a few birds were seen and 

 again on May 29, but the big migration past this westernmost point was on 

 June 3. We had been walrus hunting in the straits for two days and were 

 returning heavily loaded with meat when the wind suddenly died down and a 

 slick calm prevailed — a very unusual occurrence. Immediately great strings 

 of birds appeared on their northward journey, gulls, loons, ducks, and geese, 



