ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 225 



they are just as large and just as heavy as their parents. I am 

 strongly inclined to think that the male bird feeds the female while 

 incubating, but have not been able to verify this observation, as they 

 are always hidden from sight at the time, and they can not be told 

 apart by size or color. 



39. Lomvia troile, var. californica. Murre; " Guillemot." 



Limited numbers of the Californian guillemot are found occasion- 

 ally perched on the cliffs with the arrie. They can only be distin- 

 guished at a short distance by a practiced eye, for they resemble their 

 allies so closely and conform so strictly to their habits that it will be 

 but repeating the description of the L. arra, given below, should I 

 attempt it. The largest gathering in any one place that I have seen 

 on the islands of these birds was a squad of about fifty on the high 

 bluffs at St. George, but they are generally scattered by ones, twos, 

 and threes among thousands and tens of thousands of the arra. 



40. Lomvia arra. Thick-billed Guillemot; "Arrie." 



This is the onlj^ egg-bird that has the slightest economic value to 

 man on the Pribilof Islands. The bird itself is in bodily size a true 

 counterpart of our ordinary barnyard duck, only it can not walk or 

 even waddle as the domestic swimmer does. It lays a single egg, 

 large and very fancifully colored — a bluish-green ground, shot with 

 dark-brown mottlings and patches — but exceedingly variable as to 

 definite size and color. The outline of the egg is pyriform, sometimes 

 more acute, again more ovate. It is the most palatable of all the 

 varieties found on the islands, except the fulmar ; and when perfectly 

 fresh I can testify to its practical equality with our deservedly prized 

 hen's eggs. It never has any disagreeable flavor whatever, for the 

 birds feed entirely upon marine Crustacea. I have never found any 

 fish in their craws. 



This bird is the true ojrra of Pallas, a name derired undoubtedly from 

 its striking similarity to the harsh sound uttered by the bird. It is 

 present in immense multitudes, countless flocks, principally surround- 

 ing St. George Island, although Walrus Islet is fairly covered by them. 

 They appear very early in the season, but are slow in laying, not 

 beginning usually until the 18th or 25th of June. I feel quite well 

 assured that these birds do not migrate far from Bering Sea during 

 the most severe winters, and in the milder hyemal seasons numbers 

 of them are around the islands during the entire year. They lay their 

 eggs upon the points and narrow shelves, on the faces of the cliff 

 fronts to the islands, straddling over the eggs, side by side, as thickly 

 as they can crowd, making no nests. They quarrel desjDerately, but 

 not by scolding. It is spirited action ; and so earnestly do they fight, 

 that all along below the high bluffs of the north shore of St. George, 

 when I passed thereunder during the breeding season, I stepped over 

 hundreds of dead birds which had fallen and dashed themselves to 

 death upon the rocks while clinched in combat with their rivals; for 

 they seize one another in mid-air and hang with their strong man- 

 dibles so savagely to each other's skin and feathers, that, with the 

 swift whirring of their powerful wings, they are blinded to their peril, 

 and strike the earth beneath ere they realize their danger and imme- 

 diate death. Their curious straddling, whereby the e'^^ is warmed 

 and hatched, lasts nearly twenty-eight days, and then the young comes 

 out with a dark, thick coat of down, which is supplanted by the plum- 

 age and color of the old bird in less than six weeks. They are fed by 

 the disgorging parents, seemingly without a moment's intermission, 

 H. Doc. 92, pt. 3 16 



