THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 127 



breeding birds; for here the " arrie" and many gulls, cormorants, sea-parrots, and auks come to lay their eggs in 

 countless numbers. The foot and brow of the low, cliff-like sea fronts to this island are occupied almost exclusively 

 by the "arries", Lomvia arra, which lay a single egg, each, on the surface of the bare rock, and stand, just like 

 so many champagne bottles, straddling over them while hatching; only leaving at irregular intervals to feed, and 

 then not until their mates relieve them. Hundreds of thousands of these birds, alone, are thus engaged about the 

 29th of every June, on this little rocky island, standing stacked up together as tight as so many sardines in a box — 

 as thickly as they can be stowed — each of them uttering an incessant, deep, low, hoarse, grunting noise. How 

 fiercely they quarrel among themselves — everlastingly; and in this way thousands of eggs are rolled off into the 

 sea, or into crevices, or into fissures, where they are lost and broken. 



Toughness of aerie egg-shells. — The "arrie" lays but one egg. If it is removed or broken she will 

 soon lay another; but, if undisturbed after depositing the first, she undertakes its hatching at once. The size, 

 shape, and coloration of this egg, among the thousands which came under my observation, are exceedingly variable. 

 A huge proportion of the eggs become so dirty, by rolling here and there in the guano while the birds tread and fight 

 over them, as to be almost unrecognizable. I was struck by the happy adaptation of nature to their rough nesting; 

 it is found in the toughness of the shell of the egg — so tough that the natives, when gathering them, throw them as 

 farmers do apples into their tubs and baskets, on the cliffs, and then carry them down to the general heap of 

 collection near the boats' landing, where they pour them out upon the rocks with a single flip of the hand, just as 

 a sack of potatoes would be emptied; and then again, after this, they are quite as carelessly handled when loaded 

 into the " bidarrah", sustaining through it all a very trifling loss from crushed or broken ones. 



Bird zones on Walrus islet. — Those "arries" seem to occupy a ribbon in width, and draw around the 

 outward edges of the flat table-top to Walrus island a regular belt, keeping all to themselves; while the small 

 giassy interior from which they are thus excluded is the only place, I believe, in Bering sea where the great white 

 gull, Litnis glaucus, breeds. Here I found among the little mossy tussocks the burgomaster building a nest of 

 dry grass, sea ferns, Sertularidce, etc., very nicely laid up and rounded, and in which it laid usually three eggs, 

 sometimes only a couple; occasionally I would look into a nest with four. These big birds could not breed on 

 eilher of the other islands in this manner, for the glaucous gull is too large to settle on the narrow shelf ledges of 

 the cliffs, as the smaller Laridm and other water-fowls do; and those places which would receive it might also be a 

 hunting-ground and footing to the foxes. 



The red-legged kittiwake, Larus brevirostris, and its cousin, Larus tridactylus, build in the most amicable 

 manner together on the faces of the elifl's, for they are little gulls, and they associate with the cormorants, sea- 

 parrots, and auks, all together; and, with the exception of the latter, the nests are very easy of access. All birds, 

 especially the "arries". have an exceedingly happy time of it on this Walrus islet — nothing to disturb them, in my 

 opinion — free from the ravenous maw of the foxes over at St. Paul, and from the piratical and death-dealing 

 sweep of owls and hawks, which infest the Aleutian chain and the mainland. 



Systematic list of the avifauna. — I will now offer, in natural sequence, a list of the names which are 

 to be seen every year upon the ornithological register of the Pribylov islands, and the transient ones, also : 



1. Turdus migratorius. Robin; "Rat-o-loof." 



Casual, and rarely seen ; never resident. Specimen secured October, 1872. 



2. Aiiovthura troglodytes var. alascensis. Alaskan Wixtei: Wrkn; " Limmer-shin." 



This wee bird is not migratory, but remains permanently upon St. George ; its nest is built in small, deep holes 

 and crevices of the cliffs. I have not myself seen it, but the natives say that it lays from eight to ten eggs in a 

 nest made of dry grass and feathers, roofed over, with an entrance at the side to the nest-chamber, being thus 

 elaborately constructed. 



The male is exceedingly gay during the period of mating and incubation, flying incessantly from plant to 

 plant, or from rock to rock, and singing a rather loud song for a small bird. I shot the young, fully fledged, on the 

 28th of July ; it differed only from the parent in having a much shorter bill, and a darker and more diffuse 

 coloration. Although St. Paul island is but twenty-seven miles to the northwest, as the crow flies, from St. George, 

 not a single specimen of this little wren has been seen there. I made, during the whole season of 1872, unavailing 

 search for it. 



The natives' name, "limmer-shin," signifies a chew of tobacco; and, as the bird is not as large as some quids 

 which I have seen, the name is quite appropriate, for the dull brown and black plumage of the bird suggests it also. 



3. Leucosticte tephrocotis vur. griseimicha. Gray-eared Finch; 'Tahtoshkie. " 



This agreeable little bird, always cheerful and self-possessed, is a regular and permanent settler on the islands, 

 which it never leaves. In the depth of dismal winter, as well as in the halo of a summer's day, the pahtoshkjit 

 greets you with the same pleasant chirrup, wearing the same neat dress, as if determined to make the best of 

 everything. It is particularly abundant on St. George, where its habit may be studied to great advantage. The 

 pahtoshkic nests in a chink or crevice of the cliffs, building a warm, snug home for its little ones, of dried grasses 

 and moss, very neatly put together, and then lined with a few superfluous feathers. The eggs vary in number from 



