74 NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



Islands two years ago, and takes, therefore, the liberty to introduce a sketch of his 

 experience willi this little known hut very interesting species, extracted from an ad- 

 vanced slu'C't of his rc])ort. "With the heginning of May the ' to])orok ' (jilnr. 

 Hopork-t") as it is called by the Russians, makes its apjiearance at the islands, an 

 event to which the natives, heartily tired of their winter food, the salted seal-meat, 

 look forwanl with great imjiatience. On a bright afternoon we therefore starteil, a 

 "ay i>icnic jiarty, consisting mostly of Aleuts and their wives or lady friends, for the 

 small islet Toporkoff, about three miles off. During our jiassage out only a few birds 

 were seen, as it was no ' land-day,' but I was assured by the natives who had watched 

 them that they would be in on the following morning. The to]>orki and their allies 

 show during this season, previous to the breeding, the peculiarity of a]>peariiig regu- 

 larly — as it seems — in great abundance near shore on one day, while next <lay they 

 all disai)pear, staying away on the high sea for two days, when again they take a 

 ' land-d.iy.' Tojiorkoff Island, which has received its name from the fact that it is 

 one of the greatest rookeries of these birds, consists of a horizontal jilateau about thirty 

 feet above the level of the sea, rising abruptly from a beach fifty to two hundred feet 

 broacl. The jilateaii is covered with a thick hummocky sod, wliich in every direction 

 is i)erforated by the numberless nest holes dug out by tlie toporki. When evening 

 set in, the picnic party went home, leaving us men to pass the night on the island. 

 The ornithological spectacle at daybreak the following morning was unique and 

 f'rand. Hundreds and thousands of Lunda cirrhata cros^^vd ami recrossed the island, 

 coming from ;ill directions, .and disappearing on the o])posite side, in order to return 

 again and again. A wonderful sight ! The black Itirds with their conspicuous white 

 face-mask, the long, floating, yellow ear-tufts, bent like the liorns of a ram, with Large 

 red-and-grcen-eolorcd beaks and red legs, looked like fantastical creatures of the 

 trojiics rather than inhabitants of the less extravagant north. Like black sjjccks they 

 rose from the horizon, heailing for the island ; the nearer they came, the larger they 

 grew, until they passed over us, disappearing as specks again on the other side, and 

 when once started, nothing seemed to be able to bring them out of their straight 

 course. These clumsy looking, puffy birds possess, nevertheless, a very rapid flight, 

 so that, at the first aci|uaintancc, one is rather apt to shoot behind them ; but they ao 

 not tly very high. The naliycs take advantage of this diflicuity of making a .sudden 

 tuin, and liirow a net, fastened to a long pole, in the way of tlie flying bird, which 

 thus falls to the gromid and is ca])tured. When I turned out, the Aleuts were already 

 in their jilaces, \vaitiiig for the rush. Dy the dawning day we discern a small (lock of 

 to]iorki surrounding each of them, stretching their necks and poinung their bills 

 heayenward in quite an unaccountable manner. A closer inspection reveals that these 

 are only decoys: cnqity skins held in i)osition by a stick thrust into the ground. It is 

 'land-day' indeed, and we only wonder that the innunu'rablc birds <h> lujt suffer 

 collision din-ing their airy sailing, for they are thick as May-tlies round an electric 

 light. Siuhlenly the nearest Aleut raises his net ; a bird, unable to turn aside, runs 

 uito it with a dash, falls to the ground, and in a twinkling is added to the heap of 

 other unfortunates with broken necks." 



Though in their external ap]>earance extremely tiulike the Alcoidesp, the birds con- 

 stituting the sujierfaniily LAROIDE.E, or the gulls, are intimately related to them. 

 Their ^yings are long; the feet are i)laced more under the middle of the body, which 

 therefore is carried nearly horizontal, instead nf upright, they have usually four toes, 

 tlie three anterior ones palmate. But the ch.iracters of the jilumage agree pretty 



