100 CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 
place, and lay directly in the track of flight followed by these Eiders as they passed to or from 
the sea. As these flocks passed back and forth the birds were being continually brought down 
by the slings thrown into the midst of the passing birds by the natives; yet, notwithstanding 
this, the birds continued from day to day the entire season to pass and repass this place. Their 
heedlessness in this respect may be accounted for from the fact that these people were without 
guns of any kind, and were thus unable to frighten them by the noise of the discharge. The birds 
were easily called from their course of flight, as we repeatedly observed. If a flock should be 
passing a hundred yards or more to one side, the natives would utter a long, peculiar ery, and 
the flock would turn instantly to one side and sweep by in a circuit, thus affording the coveted 
opportunity for bringing down some of their number. These flocks generally contained a mixture 
of about one-twentieth of the number Pacifie Eiders, and the remainder about equally divided of 
Stellers and the King Hiders. At times the entire community of these birds, which made this 
vicinity their haunt, would pass out in a solid body, and the flock thus formed exceeded in size 
anything of the kind I ever witnessed. 
The first night of our arrival was calm and misty, the water having that peculiar glassy smooth- 
ness seen at such times, and the landseape rendered indistinct at a short distance by a slight misti- 
ness. Soon after we came to anchor before the native village this body of birds arose from the 
estuary a mile or two beyond the natives’ huts, and came streaming out in a flock which appeared 
endless. It was fully three to four miles in length, and considering the species which made up this 
gathering of birds it was enough to make an enthusiastic ornithologist wild with a desire to possess 
some of the beautiful specimens which were seen filing by within gunshot of the vessel. A little 
later in the evening the natives brought off a considerable number of the birds which they had 
killed with their slings, and during our stay at this place, the following day, we saw large num- 
bers of them killed with these implements, and a few were obtained with our guns. This portion 
of the Siberian coast appears to be the grand summer resort of this Eider, as the Aleutian Islands 
form its wintering ground. One of the remarkable facts in the history of its distribution, however, 
is shown in its total absence on the opposite American coast of the Arctic where the surroundings 
appear to be almost identical with those found on the Siberian shore, yet for all the thousands of 
these birds seen on this latter coast not one was noted on the American shore, although the King 
Hider occurs equally numerous upon both sides of the Arctic. 
LAMPRONETTA FISCHERI Brandt. 
(134.) SPECTACLED EIDER. 
Along the Alaskan shore of the Bering Sea, from the mouth of the Kuskoquim River north to 
the head of Norton Sound, the present bird is a rather common and in some places abundant 
summer resident, nesting and rearing its young along the borders of the numerous brackish pools 
which are found so abundantly in the low marshy land of this region. It,was not seen else- 
where during the cruise of the Corwin, and it is doubtful if it ever reaches the shores of the 
Arctic Ocean, although it may occur occasionally about Kotzebue Sound. Dall records it as 
occuring rarely at Unalaska, and we learn from him that it is a rather rare and very shy winter 
visitant, migrating early in May to its breeding grounds to the north. The southern limit of its 
winter habitat is unknown, and from the known range of this species at present it appears to be 
one of the most narrowly limited of our sea fowl, even haying a narrower territory than is covered 
by the Emperor Goose, which joins with it in a great portion of its range. 
September 15, 1881, when we were approaching Saint Michael’s and about twenty-five miles 
otf the outer end of Stewart’s Island, in Norton Sound, a large flock of these Wider were seen, 
consisting almost entirely of males. They were in fall plumage, with the dark areas much more 
extended than in spring, and appearing considerably different from the bird as seen then, but 
readily recognizable by the large velvety white patch surrounding the eye. Unlike the common 
Wider of the North, V-nigra, the males do not pass the most of their time at sea during the breeding 
season but keep near their mates, frequenting the brackish ponds and tide creeks along the shore 
until the young are hatched. 
