226 



ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



Uttering all tlie while, between their gulps, a hoarse, harsh croak, 

 lugubrious enough. , ,. ,. ^. ■ ^ • ^ 



The males and females have no sexual distinction as to size, shape, 

 and plumage; their snow-white breasts are vividly contrasted with 

 their shiny, chocolate necks; backs and wing coverts are always 

 black while beneath them is a continuation of the pure white ot the 

 abdomen They fly with an energetic action of their short, pointed 

 pinions, a nervous; quick, and well-sustained flight, never swerving 

 or deviating from their straight course after they once rise. Ihey 

 plump into the water like stones, and, unless the sea is tuning, it is 

 difficult for them to take to wing from a smooth surface This gives 

 them little concern, however, inasmuch as they dive so ireely. 



It is fitting, perhaps, that I should say in connection ^vith the hnal 

 discussion of this bird, which closes my list of the avifauna pecuhar 

 to these strange islands, that its singular habit of circling &t George 

 as it flies in the morning and in the evening, during the mating sea- 

 son, produces a very extraordinary demonstration as to the exceeding 

 number of their kind. For instance, at St. George Island, while the 

 females begin to sit over their eggs toward the end of June and 1st ot 

 July at regular hours in the morning and in the evening the males 

 o-o flving abound and around the island in great files and platoons, 

 Slways circUng against or quartering on the wind; and they make in 

 this way, during a sustained period of hours at a time, a dark girdle 

 of birds more than a quarter of a mile broad and 30 miles long, flymg 

 so thickly together that the wings of one fairly strike those ot the 

 other; and as they go they whirl in swift, revolving, endless succes- 

 sion during the periods just mentioned. This is a dress parade ot 

 ornithological power which I challenge the world to rival. Certainly 

 the Pribilof Islands possess distinctive exhibitions of mammalia and 



aves which are unrivaled.^ „ , . -, ^ ^ ^i -n -v.,- 



Closing memoranda.— The above list of birds found on the Pribi- 

 lof Islands by myself in the seasons of 1872-1876, inclusive, is perhaps 

 not exhaustive in its application to the straggling visitors Indeed, 1 

 think it more than likely that several names will be added by those 

 who may pay the subject further attention. I do not enumerate the 

 AeqiotMi\vhiGh I shot there June 21, 1872, because the specimens 

 were so badly damaged by my coarse ammunition as to defy proper 

 skinning; therefore I made alcoholics of them, and those collections 

 have been mislaid since my return. Also the natives say that a 

 small brown owl in the summer breeds on St. George, and the large 

 Arctic or snowy Nijdea is occasionally taken at either island, i saw 

 none while there. 



1 1 have said, in my notes of introduction to this monograph, that I have been 

 oblLed to confine myself in its preparation entirely to my own observations and 

 fie dwork When, therefore, I speak as above of such immense ^}y"^d« f Jf t^/" 

 fowl I fear that some kindly critic may declare truly I remind \i^, «* ^^^^^^y 

 Master Gerard, who, in 1636, speaking of Irish birds, announced that the common 

 barnacle goose Brouta leucopsis, was produced m a wonderful fashion, and pro- 

 ceeded to describe its growth from the mollusk, Pe>itelasmis anahfera, m the 

 Sost circumstantial manner, prefacing this amazing story Jy/,^;>"^l^f ^^^^tlS 

 in these words- "What our eyes have seen and hands have touched we shall 

 declare^' Ilso he gives a figure showing the metamorphosis going on from the 

 shelMiito the goose This cirrhipodous origin of the bird in question has not 

 been agreed toMn spite of the weight of evidence, but .stranply enough its 

 eeneric name has been given and retained m accordance with the fable, and the 

 Cnacle iSelf is still called by conchologists "the five-pointed goose bearer 

 or Fentelasmis anatifera. 



