10 NOTES ON TEE KURIL ISLANDS. 



or other land animals, and this is the principal reason why there 

 are so many birds. The burgomaster gull {Larus glaucus) makes 

 its nest more or less all over the islands, around the hot spring and 

 on the bank of sulphurous earth being favourite spots. Here I 

 have often taken the eggs and cooked them in the boiling water of 

 the springs. On the ledges of the rocks and cliffs, tens of thousands 

 of guillemots (Uria troile and U. hrilnnichi) lay their eggs and 

 rear their young, whilst here and there amongst them are large 

 colonies of Kittiwake gulls {Rissa tridactyla), with their nests 

 perched on inaccessible shelves and in little hollows of the cliffs. 



Hundreds of thousands of fulmars {Fulmarus pacijicus) occupy 

 every available grassy tussock and ledge on the steep sides of the 

 island, both inside and outside the crater, whilst millions of little 

 auks, of several species (Phaleris cristatella and P. mystacea 

 being the most numerous), lay their eggs in the hollows and 

 crannies of every nook and beneath every boulder all round the 

 island. 



Towards evening these little auks take their flying exercise. 

 They gather in flocks of many thousands, and hundreds of these 

 flocks will be in the air at one time, forming clouds which almost 

 darken the atmosphere. They fly round and about the island, now 

 rising high above the mountain, and then sweeping down with a 

 great rush towards the water, to rise again and swerve off, and pass 

 and repass each other — each flock as one bird — as if they were 

 going through the intricate figures of a quadrille. 



The guillimots, often accompanied by puffins, a^so take their 

 evening exercise, but in a much quieter manner, theirs being a 

 steady flight round and round the island in an endless line or band. 

 AH the birds that take this apparently regular exercise are con- 

 fined to those species with comparatively heavy bodies and short 

 wings. 



Tufted puffins, black guillimots, and shags also breed here in 

 large numbers. Horned puffins, parrot-billed auks, grey-headed 

 auks, fork-tailed petrels, and Leach's petrels are common, but not 

 numerous. Harlequin ducks are plentiful, but I never have been 

 able to find their eggs. Wild geese {Bernida hutchinsi) in limited 

 numbers breed here also. The land-birds are confined to ravens, 

 falcons, wagtails, and wrens. 



Ushishir was the favourite station of the Kurilsky Ainu. 



