102 CRUISE OF STAEMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 
approached within fifty or sixty yards, when they splashed off into the water and took wing. 
Again the next morning, as we landed at the mouth of the river on Wrangel Island, a female with 
her young swam away from the beach and passed out of sight around the adjacent point, thus 
proving conclusively that the bird nests upon this land. 
At Cape Wankarem, Siberia, August 5, the same summer, the natives brought off to us large 
numbers of these birds, which they killed with slings as described under the Steller’s Eider. This 
latter species, with the King Eider, formed the main body of the great flocks of Eiders which were 
continually passing and repassing during the time of our stay at that place. At Point Barrow, 
Alaska, on August 16, they were also in great abundance, and appeared to have the same habit as 
observed at Wankarem of flying to and from the sea across the low sandy spit separating the bay 
at the point from the sea. 
2 
CEDEMIA AMERICANA Sw. & Rich. 
(137.) AMERICAN SCOTER. 
Along the Alaskan coast of Bering Sea this species nests in considerable numbers wherever 
the low, marshy character of the coast affords it proper ground. It oecurs sparingly upon Saint 
Lawrence Island, and thence north through Bering Strait to the shores of Kotzebue Sound, in the 
Aretic, and upon the northeastern coast of Siberia mainly south of Bering Strait. In the Aleutian 
Islands it is a common winter resident, but is not known to breed there. 
MELANETTA FUSCA (Linn.) Boie. 
(138.) VELVET SCOTER. 
Like the preceding, this bird is rather numerous along the coast of Norton Sound, but occurs 
mainly in autumn after the breeding season is finished. It is not found nesting so commonly as 
the American Scoter in this region, but probably passes farther to the north. It was seen in the 
vicinity of Kotzebue Sound during the cruise of the Corwin, and across the Arctic to the Siberian 
shore, where, at Cape Wankarem, on August 7, 1881, a considerable number of these birds were 
seen upon the rocks at the points of the cape. Later in the summer, as we steamed south along 
the shore of Siberia from Bering Strait, quite a number of these birds with the last named spegies 
were seen in the sea off shore. A month earlier in the season none had been seen at this point, 
but these birds were probably those which had nested on shore at these points and were now 
returning to their usual habits of frequenting the sea. This species is also found at Ounalaska, 
where Dall obtained specimens in October; and at the last of May, 1877, they were quite numer 
ous there and I secured several individuals during my stay at that place. 
PELIONETTA PERSPICILLATA (Linn.) Kaup. 
(139.) THE SurF Duck. 
This is perhaps the least common of the Scoters on the shores of Bering Sea, but occurs 
rather commonly in the vicinity of Saint Michael’s, Norton Sound, every autumn, and again in 
spring. A number of individuals were seen off the northeast coast of Siberia the last of 
August as we passed out of the Aretic in the Corwin. It was also seen with the preceding 
species on the rocks at Cape Wankarem the Ist of August, and several times along the American 
shore of the Arctic in autumn. It was not observed by me during the breeding season at the 
Yukon mouth in 1879, nor in the vicinity of Saint Michael’s, but as its eggs were obtained by 
sischoff in the vicinity of Sitka, it undoubtedly imeludes the entire coast, thence north, in its 
breeding range. 
MERGUS MERGANSER AMERICANUS (Cass.) Ridgw. 
(140.) AMERICAN SHELDRAKE. 
Dall records several specimens killed on December 20 at Ounalaska in the outer bay after a 
storm, and states that it cannot be considered as more than an accidental visitor, although it is 
