110 CRUISE OF STEAMER CORWIN IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 
Siberian coast. As noted by the naturalist of the Jeannette, who saw several of these birds at 
Saint Lawrence Bay the last of August, 1879, it is very irregular in its distribution, as the coast 
for a hundred miles may not have a single pair, and again they may occur in the greatest abun- 
dance. Rather low rocky islets appear to be their choice for breeding places, as shown by their 
habits in the vicinity of Saint Michael’s, where they nest among the low vegetation covering the 
rocks, making no artificial nest, or but a slight attempt at one, usually depositing their eggs in a 
slight hollow made in the dead grasses and moss. The nests were difficult to find from the close 
resemblance of the eggs to the ground upon which they are placed. The birds hover overhead 
when disturbed, but become very shy after a little persecution in the way of shooting, so that 
although I made repeated efforts to secure a considerable number of specimens I was able to get 
but comparatively few. They are far more suspicious than the Arctic Tern, which abound in the 
same localities and may be killed by hundreds if desired. 
STERCORARIUS POMATORHINUS (Temm.) Vieill. 
\ 
(161.) POMARINE JAEGER. 
During the summer season these birds are found breeding around the northern coast of Bering 
Sea from the vicinity of the mouth of Kuskoquim River to Bering Strait, and among the northern 
islands of this sea, and along the Siberian shore. They extend their range at this time through 
the Straits, and are found scattered over the entire part of the Arctic navigable for vessels, breeding 
upon both shores. During this season they reach south to the Aleutian chain, and it is possible 
that some remain there to breed; but as these birds have a northerly distribution in summer the 
probabilities are against the supposition. A few were seen at Plover Bay and then scatteringly 
throughout the Arctic, generally near shore, during the cruise of the Corwin. They were more 
numerous on the Asiatic coast than on the American side, except when we reached the vicinity 
of Point Barrow, where a considerable number of these birds were seen among the drift ice. 
On June 29 they were very numerous off Cape Serdze Kamen, on the Siberian shore. About 
Nova Zemlya, Nordenskidld informs us, this species is much less numerous than the parasitic 
Jaéger; but like this latter species the present bird has a circumpolar distribution. As we 
approached Herald and Wrangel Islands on our various visits to that vicinity these Gulls were 
seen at times, and were very numerous near, Herald Island the day we made our landing there, 
July 30. 
STERCORARIUS CREPIDATUS (Banks) Vieill. 
(162.) RICHARDSON’S JAEGER. 
On the coast of Bering Sea, having there almost precisely the same range as the large 
Jaéger just mentioned, this bird is found in about equal numbers. It is confined to the vicinity 
of the shore more closely than the large species, and during the breeding season, at least, prefers 
the brackish pools and marsby land along the low portions of the coast, such as that -from the 
Yukon mouth north along the shore of Norton Sound. It was seen at nearly all the points visited 
by us both in Bering Sea and the adjoining portions of the Arctic. As we passed north to the 
vicinity of the ice it became much-rarer or was entirely absent; uone were seen in the vicinity of 
Wrangel or Herald Islands, nor were any noted north of ley Cape on the Alaskan shore, although 
they probably reach Point Barrow at times. This bird is said to breed on Spitzbergen and 
Nova Zemlya, where it lays two eggs upon the bare ground on low, unsheltered, and often wet 
islets or headlands. It is very greedy, and in its haste will frequently swallow so much as to be 
sometimes unable to fly until it has disgorged. 
According to Nordenskidld, when it is disturbed in the vicinity of its nests it creeps along 
the ground with odd motions and flapping wings to draw attention from its eggs. This same 
habit is possessed by the birds on the Alaskan shore, as I have frequently observed during the 
breeding season. 
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