104 BULLETIN 130, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



A pair of Peale falcons were flying about some cliffs, and probably 

 had a nest, not very far from where we found these eiders' nests. 

 This reminds me of what Mr. Lucien M. Turner (1886) says, on 

 this subject : 



Another peculiarity that was brought to my notice by a native, was that 

 these birds (the eiders) usually seek some slope where the duck hawk has its 

 nest on the high point forming one end of the slope. This was true in three 

 instances that came under my observation. The eiders were more numerous 

 in such localities than otherwise. The natives always are glad when the hawk 

 comes screaming overhead, as the canoe is being paddled along the shore, for 

 they know the nest of the hawk is near and that many nests of the eider will 

 be found close by. 



About St. Michael the nesting habits of the Pacific eider are some- 

 what different. Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) says : 



Their courtship must be conducted before the birds reach the breeding 

 ground, as I have never seen any demonstrations such as are usual among 

 mating birds. The small flocks seen at first glance give place at once to soli- 

 tary pairs, which resort to the salt marshes. The nesting site is usually a dry 

 spot close to a small pond or a tide creek and not often in close proximity 

 to the seashore. The moss-grown slope of some small knoll, a grassy tussock, 

 or a depression made on an open flat, but hidden by the thin growth of sur- 

 rounding vegetation, are all chosen as nest sites. 



The first evening after my arrival at St. Michael I walked back on the flat 

 about 200 yards from the fort and put up a female from 5 fresh eggs. The 

 nest was thickly lined with down and concealed by dwarf willows and other 

 low Arctic vegetation. This was the only instance noted by me where the 

 nest was so near human habitations. The nest is usually lined with dead 

 grasses and sometimes fragments of moss when the first egg is laid, and the 

 down is added as the eggs multiply. The male is a constant attendant of the 

 female until her eggs are nearly all deposited, when he begins to lose interest 

 in family affairs, and dozens of them may be found at all hours sunning them- 

 selves upon the long reefs about shore, and if we are behind the scenes on the 

 marshes they may be seen fiying silently back to their partners as the dusky 

 twilight of night approaches from 8 to 10 in the evening. 



Mr. F. Seymour Hersey contributes the following notes : 



Unlike the spectacled, Steller, and king eiders, which spend considerable time 

 and frequently nest among the tundra ponds some distance back from salt 

 water, I found the Pacific eider to be almost exclusively a bird of the seacoast 

 during the breeding season. About St. Michael Bay, portions of the shore of 

 which is covered by volcanic rocks, these birds were quite abundant and were 

 often seen about the rocky island at the entrance to the " canal," swimming 

 in the surf or resting on the rocks and preening their feathers. They were 

 also frequently met with in pairs flying up or down the canal near the 

 entrance, but did not seem to follow it farther than the point where it begins 

 to narrow, a mile or so from the bay. The land at this point is 6 or 7 feet 

 above the reach of normal high tides, level, and quite dry, and with very few 

 ponds. The ground is thickly and softly carpeted with a growth of mosses, 

 creeping vines, and such Arctic vegetation as is common to this region. Here 

 the birds nest, making a deep cup-like hollow in the thick mosses, the edge 

 flush with the surface and abundantly lined with a thick wall of soft gray 

 down. 



