CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 61 
lands of the interior, holding their own against the inclement winter with its cold and famine, 
render them the most interesting of the winter inhabitants of northern forests. Their odd self- 
assertion and seeming importance render them noticeable and attractive wherever one goes. 
Like its relatives, a few of the more adventurous of this species also pay flying visits to the 
sea-shore, where for a short time they flit about searching the crevices of the log houses, climbing 
about the fences, and making themselves thoroughly at home for a short season and then betake 
themselves to more suitable quarters again. 
TROGLODYTIDZA. WRENS. 
ANORTHURA ALASCENSIS (Baird) Coues. 
(13.) THE ALASKAN WREN. 
This sturdy representative of the common winter wren of the Eastern United States makes 
its permanent home on the foggy, storm-beaten Aleutian and Fur Seal Islands. Here, in spite of 
inclement weather and the harsh, cheerless form assumed by nature on all sides, this plain but 
interesting Wren passes its life. All about snow-clad hills or rugged, rock-strewn cliffs and steep 
mountain slopes rise against a cloud-hidden sky. Masses of sleet and rain dash down the slopes 
and ravines, sending sheets of spray across the water and driving all else to seek shelter; yet this 
bird holds its own on some partly sheltered slope or grassy flat, and if spring be at hand its clear 
notes may be heard breaking forth during a lull in the storm as the hardy songster holds by a 
firm grasp upon some small bush beaten back and forth in the wind, or perhaps from some jutting 
rock. 
The ravines are still bedded with snow in many places, when he has already chosen a partner 
and is deep in the mysteries of family life. In autumn he is found sprightly as before, but less 
musical, as he flits about the grassy flats and hilly slopes, generally in pairs, so that it may be 
possible he is paired for life. 
What its habits are during winter I cannot say, but so brave a heart in so small a body, that 
bids its owner endure this long, cheerless season, with its weeks of tempests raging over the snow- 
covered mountains and through the narrow valleys, commands one’s admiration. Though the 
smallest of the birds found on these islands if seems capable of enduring as much as the hardiest 
of them. It is one of the peculiar forms, limited to these forbidding islands, whose influence upon 
their inhabitants is not alone shown by the peculiar character of their bird life, but also in their 
people as well, the language and customs of the latter having their insular peculiarities as striking 
as those distinguishing this wren from its mainland kin, though in some customs our little 
troglodyte has varied less than his human fellow-inhabitant, and he still makes his snug nest in 
some cosy nook in the rocky cliffs bounding the grim faces of the many surrounding mountains, or 
a cleft in a rocky ledge becomes the chosen spot. 
While the Corwin lay at Ounalaska, the last of September and first of October, 1881, these 
birds were common in pairs, as if permanently mated. They kept among the tall grasses, ferns, 
and small willows formed on the flats at the heads of the inner bays, but were remarkably silent ; 
and though their movements were active and they were frequently seen balancing on the tops of 
the tall plants, not a note was heard, and their movements can only be described as similar to those 
of any wren in such a position. 
Mr. Elliott tells me that during exceptionally severe winters on Saint George Island large 
numbers of these birds perish. A few seasons, however, suffice to bring the number up to its 
original stand-point. 
Another curious point in the history of this bird is the fact, as ascertained by the same observer, 
that although one of the commonest birds on Saint George Island it is totally unknown on the 
adjoining island of Saint Paul. This is a remarkable instance of the strange and often unaccount- 
able limitation to the distribution of birds. Saint Paul Island is only about thirty miles from Saint 
George, where the wren is abundant, but not one is known to pass from one island to the other. 
One hundred and eighty miles separate Saint George Island from the nearest of the Aleutian, 
which latter islands must be considered as the birds’ original habitat. 
