LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMEEICAN WILD FOWL 115 



It always seemed to me that with tlie exception of the yellow-liilled loon the 

 king eider is the strongest flyer of any of tlie northern waterfowl I met. 



As a diver it is an expert and can penetrate to great depths ; birds 

 are said to have been taken in gill nets at a depth of 150 feet. In 

 diving it partially opens its wings and probably uses them, as w^ell as 

 its feet, in swimming under w^atei'. 



Referring to the behavior of this species in Greenland, Mr. Man- 

 niche (1910) writes: " Every day they used to fly from the lakes and 

 ponds inland down to the bay, and especially to the mouth of Storm- 

 elven, in which the}^ would lie and dive for food. They used to lie 

 for hours on the grass-clad beaches of the lake in order to rest or to 

 sleep, wdth their heads hidden under their wnngs. During their 

 excursions in the field, they always flew very low and sometimes 

 uttered a slight growling or grunting sound." Hagerup (1891) says 

 that "its only note is a single cooing sound, heard especially at 

 night." 



Fall. — Mr, Murdoch (1885) saj^s of the fall migration at Point 

 Barrow : 



By the second week in July, before the ice is gone from the sea or from 

 Elson Bay, the males begin to come back in flocks from the east, and from that 

 time to the middle of September there is a flight of eiders whenever the wind 

 l)lows from the east. The flocks are all males at first, but mixed flocks grad- 

 ually appear, and the young of the year were first observed in these flocks on 

 August 30, 1882. 



Most of the flight birds make no stay, but continue on to the southwest, 

 generally a couple of miles out at sea, though they occasionally stop to rest, 

 especially when there is much drifting ice. Between the regular flights they 

 continue to straggle along, coming off the land, and occasionally sitting ap- 

 parently asleep on the beach. Small flocks and single birds are to be seen 

 till the sea closes, about the end of October, and in 1882 many were seen as 

 late as December 2, when there were many holes of open water. 



When the birds are flying at Pergniak, it is quite a lively scene, as there is 

 a large summer camp of Eskimos close to the point where the ducks cross when 

 the conditions are favorable. When the wind is east or northeast, and not 

 blowing too hard, the birds come from the east and strike the land at a point 

 which runs out on the shore of the bay about half a mile from Pergniak, close 

 to where the lagoons begin. 



They would be apt to turn and fly down these lagoons were it not for a row 

 of stakes, set up by the natives, running round the semicircle of the bay to 

 the camp. As soon as the flock readies this critical point, all the natives, and 

 there may be 50 of tliem on the watch, with guns and slings, just at the nar- 

 rowest part of the beach above the tents, immediately set up a slirill yell. 

 Nine times out of ten the flock will waver, turn, follow round llie row of 

 stakes, and naturally wliirl out to sea at the first open place, where, of course, 

 the gunners are stationed. With a strong wind, however, the ducks do not 

 follow the land, but come straight on from the east and cross wherever they 

 happen to strike the beach, so that the shooting can not be depended on. 



