60 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
obtained under these circumstances were almost spoiled at our return, 
The personal inconveniences during a 12 days’ journey on the ocean, 
along an open coast without harbors or anything like a shelter; of being 
kept wet by continuous fogs and rains; of sleeping under an old sail, 
are serious; but no naturalist would ever count them should the result 
of his work be in inverse proportion to his troubles. 
Unfortunately, I cannot so report, because the animal life, contrary to 
my expectations, was much poorer with regard to species than in the 
northern part, although the number of individuals was considerably 
larger. In fact, the only addition to my list of birds observed on the 
island was a single species, Rissa brevirostris Brandt, a species strangely 
limited in its distribution on the island. 
I inspected a large colony of Rissa kotzebui Bp., situated on the west- 
ern shore, about 18 miles from Cape Manati, the southwestern point of 
the island, where thousands and thousands of this black-legged Kitti- 
wake were now feeding their almost full-grown young ones. Among 
them a single red-legged bird, quite lonely, and apparently without any 
young, had placed itself on a narrow shelf of the rocky wall. It was 
the first and the only one I saw, and I was fortunate enough to shoot 
it. R. kotzebui was observed in countless numbers along the western 
shore; but as soon as we had doubled Cape Manati we met as large or 
still larger flocks of R. brevirostris, among which not a single black- 
legged individual could be detected. I minutely surveyed a breeding 
colony on this side, and the result was the same, not a single black- 
legged one wasseen. And thus the red-legged form completely excluded 
the other along the eastern shore, except at Cape Tonkoj, where the coast 
trends towards the northwest. Here on the cape a larger flock of Kitti- 
wakes was sitting on the shore so closely packed that only the legs of 
the outer row could be seen; they were all red. I shot, however, and 
of the ten lying on the ground, seven were red-legged, while three be- 
longed to the black-legged species. The young of Rissa brevirostris 
also has dark legs, but I need not expressly state that I did not make 
any mistake in this respect. 
On the other side of the last-mentioned cape the old acquaintance 
received us as exclusively as along the western shore. Thus, the genus 
Rissa oceupies the whole shore-line of the island, of which kotzebui, 
however, has usurped nine-tenths, leaving to brevirostris, as an exclu- 
sive possession, but one-tenth, or about 12 miles. 
We found, however, another animal, which I much regretted not to 
have been able to skin and to carry with me. But, as it was a Bale- 
noptera, 50 feet long, I was compelled to leave it where it was found. 
. I spent a day on the spot in order to take the necessary measurements, 
and to make such investigations as the far-advanced decomposition of 
the carcass would allow, as a matter of course. I need not state that 
while this business was to some extent a veritable pleasure to the nat- 
uralist, it was not agreeable at all to the civilized man. Further on I 
shall give some details of the examination. 
