THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 125 



makes substantially the same statement; only differing by charging this deterioration of the blue foxes' fur to the 

 deportation from outside of red ones, on ice-floes; and adds that the natives always hunted down these "krassuie 

 peeschee" as soon as their presence was known; hence my inability, perhaps, to see any sign of their posterity in 

 1872-76. 



The presence of these animals on the Pribylov islands is a real source of happiness to the natives, especially 

 so to the younger ones. The little pup-foxes make pets and playfellows for the children, while hunting the adults 

 during the winter gives wholesome employment to the mind and body of the native who does so. They are trapped 

 in common dead-falls, steel spring-clips, or beaver traps, and shot. A very large portion of the gossip on the 

 island is in relation to this business. 



PINNIPEDIA; 



Callorhinus ursinus. Fuk-seal. Abundant 

 Eumetopias Stelleri. Sea-lion. Common. 

 Phoca vitulina. Hair-seal. A few only. 



While the Phocidce are so scant as to number and variety in the waters of the North Pacific and Bering sea, yet ' , 

 they fairly rival the myriads of the fur-seal here by their presence iu the waters of the North Atlantic ; and, also, their 

 surprising aggregate in the Caspian sea. So great is the volume of hair-seal life in the circumboreal region of the 

 Orient, that the astonishing sum of from 850,000 to 900,000 Phocidce are annually taken there ! and from the Caspian 

 sea an additional count of a yearly average of 130,000, making a round million of these animals slaughtered every 

 season. At least, such are the data which we find in the writings of the only credible authorities known, viz, 

 Bonnycastle, Newfoundland, in 1842, vol. 1, p. 159; Carroll, Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland, 1873, p. 9; 

 Lindeman, Pet. Geogr. Mitth., pp. vi, 118; Die Arktiscke Fiseherei der Beutschen Seestadte, 1020-1868; Brown, Man. 

 Nat. Hist Geol, etc., of Greenland, 1868-1875; Melsom, Pet. Geogr. Mitth., 1809, p. 81; Petersen, Pet. Geogr. Mitth., 

 1870, pp. 194 et scq., 1871, pp. 35 et sea. ; Lovenskiold, Land and Water (newspaper), 1875, p. 100 ; Sehultz, Rep. U. 

 8. Com. Fish and Fisheries, pt. iii, for 1873-'74 and 1874-'75 (a translation of the original published at St, Petersburg 

 in 1873). Allen, in his History N. A. Pinnipeds, has so liberally compiled and quoted from these authors that it 

 would be siuiply superfluous service to reprint those records here. 



Odobaenus obesus, var. rectipennis. Walrus. A few only. 



CETACEA: 

 Orca gladiator. Killer-whales. A few only. 

 Megaptera versabilis. Humpback whales. A few only. 



E0DENTIA: 



Myodes obensis. Lemming. Abundant on St. George only. 



Mus musculus. House mouse. Common iu the villages (imported by man). 



Vii- /& 



, , , ^26. CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS OP THE PRIBYLOV GROUP. 



cWx'fc, "^ .'$(-4, />• *<£?•— >*i«^*fe. / <*ft«. .4c*^. jnrf . /f.ir> . 



Vast numbers of water-fowl.— In the seasons of 1872-'73, respectively, throughout the ornithological 

 breeding terms on St. Paul and St. George, I neglected no opportunities, as they occurred, to secure everything 

 that was peculiar to the feathered life upon these islands. The dreary expanse and lonely solitudes of the North 

 owe their chief enlivenment, and their principal attractiveness for man, to the presence of the vast flocks of 

 circumboreal water-fowl, which repair thither annually. It is true that the mammalian life of the Pribylov group 

 renders its immense aggregate of avifauna insignificant by comparison; but to the naturalist and many who are 

 not technically versed, the following check-list of those species which I found there, together with a brief biography 

 accompanying each title, may be of more than passing interest. 



While a few species of water-fowl come to these islands in myriads for the purpose of breeding, it will be 

 noticed that the list of names met with here is a brief one ; still it is of much value to the naturalist, inasmuch as it 

 comprises so many desiderata scarcely to be obtained elsewhere. 



The immense rookeries of St. George.— Over fifteen miles of the bold, basaltic, bluff line of St. George 

 island is fairly covered with nesting gulls, Bissa, aud "arries", Uria, while down in the countless chinks and holes 

 over the entire surface of the north side of this island millions of " choochkies", Simorhyncus pusillus, breed, filling 

 the air and darkening the light of day with their cries aud fluttering forms. On Walrus islet the nests of the great 

 white gull of the north, Larus glaums, can be visited and inspected, as well as those of the sea-parrot or puffin, 

 Fratercula, sp., shags or cormorants, Graculus sp., and the red-legged kittiwake, Larus brevirostris. These birds are 

 accessible on every side, can be reached, and afford the observer an unequaled opportunity of taking due notice 

 of them through their breeding-season, as it begins in May and continues until the end of September. 



Economic value to inhabitants. — Not one of the water-birds found on and around the islands is exempted 

 from a place in the native's larder; even the delectable " oreelie" are unhesitatingly eaten by the people, and indeed 



