Birds observed in Kamchatka. 283 



too, were occasionally seen, the more frequent species being 

 Stercorariiis crepidatus. On the 17th, as we were leaving 

 Avacha Bay, I thought I saw the long-tailed Buffon^s Skua, 

 but it is hard to identify the two species on the wing. 



Terns were numerous, parties of old and young birds fishing 

 together, especially in August 1897, over the small lagoon 

 behind Petropavlovsk. They were very tame, and it was a 

 pleasure to see their white forms and to hear their peevish 

 cries_, as with down-pointed beak they eagerly scanned the 

 water, and, occasionally seeing a fish, dropped headlong down- 

 ward like a Gannet. Specimens which we brought home have 

 been identified as Sterna lon(/ipennis^ordm.,hy Mr. Howard 

 Saunders. 



The most conspicuous water-birds of Avacha Bay were 

 the Divers, of perhaps two species; two obtained for me 

 by Mr. Jacobleff proved to be the red-throated species, 

 Coh/mhus septentrionalis Gm., but it was among the 

 birds of prey that the most interesting species were to be 

 observed. In Avacha Bay it was hardly ever possible to 

 be out of sight of a pair or more of Ospreys, Pandion 

 haliaetus. The size of these birds, combined with their rather 

 strongly contrasted upper and under sides, made them very 

 conspicuous. A pair seen at Tareinski seemed to have a nest 

 in a locality which the mosquitoes prevented me from visiting. 

 Although very active and frequently on the wing, the Ospreys 

 did not seem to be destructive to other birds, for the Gulls 

 paid no attention to them, although one or other of the pair 

 Avas nearly always circling around or hovering at a good 

 height above the water. The fishing of these birds was 

 by no means always rewarded by success. Often one 

 would drop meteor-like for a di-tance as if intent on securing 

 its prey, but the bird usually stopped, as if disappointed, 

 before it reached the lake's surface, and then resumed its 

 hovering. On July 16th I saw one of these large birds 

 carrying something in its claws, so that they could not have 

 been always so unsuccessful as I at first imagined ; but it was 

 not until August 1897 that I actually observed one descend 

 to the water from a height, seize a fish in its claws, and. 



