28 CIRCULAR 3, FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



mice, jumping mice, ground squirrels, flying squiiTels, and other 

 rodents possess real value in Alaska as supporting the fur crop and 

 are not considered pests as in agricultural sections of the United States. 

 In common with snowshoe hares, grouse, and ptarmigans, many of 

 the rodent species in Alaska experience more or less regular epizootics, 

 which reduce them nearly to the vanishing point. Among the rodents, 

 these low periods are often preceded by striking migrations — in the 

 case of the lemmings, thousands of animals have been observed to move 

 out across the polar ice to certain death at sea. 



MIGRATORY BIRDS 



On its vast nesting grounds, where waterfowl may rear theu' broods 

 in comparative safety from the disturbing influence of man, Alaska 

 plays summer host to myriads of valuable migrants. April and 

 May find the winged visitors arriving to seek theu" favorite summer 

 homes; September and Octol^er see them leave, streaming back across 

 the skies in multiplied mnnbers, for wintering grounds in the United 

 States and Mexico. Many of the ducks and geese take an eastward 

 route from Alaska into Canada and mingle with the birds of that 

 country before swinging southward. 



DUCKS 



The commonest duck in Alaska is the pintail, which is the mainstay 

 of gunners in the Western States. The mallard and the American 

 wigeon are next in numbers, although many green-winged teals and 

 greater and lesser scaups breed in the Territory, as do also smaller 

 populations of ringnecks, shovelei's, gadwalls, blue-winged teals, and 

 canvasbacks. The salt-water ducks are well represented by the ubiq- 

 uitous oldsquaw, with its organlike voice, and by the white-winged, 

 surf, and American scoters. The American and Barrow's goldeneyes 

 also are abundant along the coast line, and the bufflehead and the 

 harlequin are nearly as plentiful. Widespread throughout the Terri- 

 tory arc the saw-billed or fish ducks — the American, red-breasted, and 

 hooded mergansers. Nesting along the Arctic and Bering coasts, and 

 migrating southward and westward to Bristol Bay and the Aleutian 

 Islands, are the beautiful eiders, four species in all. The commonest 

 of these is the large Pacific eider, an isolated colony of which nests in 

 the Glacier Bay National Monument in southeastern Alaska. The 

 king eider, the male of which has a characteristic fleshy protuberance 

 on the upj)er bill, is one of the best known of the four. Well-distrib- 

 ted but not quite so abundant are the spectacled eider and the teal- 

 sized Steller's eider. Rare and beautiful ducks from the other hemi- 

 sphere occasionally reach Alaska: the European teal is the common 

 nesting teal of the Aleutians, while the European wigeon, the Baikal 

 and falcated teals, the pochard, and the European goldeneye have 

 been taken as stragglers in other parts of the Territory. 



