136 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



of the cliff-fronts to the islands, straddling over the eggs, side by side, as thickly as they can crowd, making no nests. 

 They quarrel desperately, but not by scolding; it is spirited action, and so earnestly do they right, that all along 

 below the high bluffs of the north shore of St. George, when I passed thereunder during the breeding-season, I 

 stepped over hundreds of dead birds which had fallen and dashed themselves to death upon the rocks while 

 clinched in combat with their rivals ; for they seize one another in mid-air aud hang with their strong mandibles so 

 savagely to each other's skin and feathers, that, with the swift whirring of their powerful wings they are blinded to 

 their peril, and strike the earth beneath ere they realize their danger and immediate death. Their curious straddling, 

 whereby the egg is warmed aud hatched, lasts nearly twenty-eight days, and then the young comes out with a 

 dark, thick coat of down, which is supplanted by the plumage and color of the old bird, in less than six weeks. 

 They are fed by the disgorging parents, seemingly without a moment's intermission, uttering, all the while between 

 their gulps, a hoarse, harsh, croak, lugubrious enough. 



The males aud females have no sexual distinction as to size, shape, and plumage; their snow-white breasts 

 are vividly contrasted with their shiny, chocolate necks; backs aud wing coverts are always black, while beneath 

 them is a continuation of the pure white of 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. They plump into the water like stones ; and, unless the sea is running, it is difficult for them to 

 take to wing from a smooth surface; this gives them little concern, however, inasmuch as they dive so freely. 



It is fitting, perhaps, that I should say in connection with the final discussion of this bird, which closes my list 

 of the avifauna peculiar to these strange islands, that its singular habit of circling St. George as it flies in the 

 morning and in the evening, during the mating season, 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 aad first of July, at regular hours in the morning and in the evening, the males go 

 flying around and around the island, in great files and platoons, always circling agaiust, 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 thirty miles long, fiying so thickly together that the wings of one fairly strike those 

 of the other; and, as they go, they whirl in swift, revolving, endless succession, during the periods just 

 mentioned. This is a dress-parade of ornithological power, which I challenge the world to rival; certainly the 

 Pribylov islands possess distinctive exhibitions of mammalia and aves, which are unrivaled.* 



Closing memoranda. — The above list of birds found on the Pribylov islands by myself in the seasons of 

 1872-'76, inclusive, is perhaps not exhaustive in its application to the straggling visitors; indeed, I 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 

 Aegiothii which I shot there June 21, 1S72, 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 Nyctea is occasionally taken at either island. I saw none while there. 



27. CATALOGUE OF THE FISHES OF THE PRIBYLOV GROUP. 



[A memorandum of the fishes collected at the Pribylov islauds, 1872-73, by Henry W. Elliott,] 



Anarrhichas lepturus. Rare ; seals drive them off. 

 Gadus morrhua. "TBEESCA."t Rare ; seals drive them off. 

 Hippoglossus vulgaris. " Poltoos." Common ; only large ones caught. 

 Melletes papilio.t " Kalog." Common ; a beach cottoid. 



*I have said, in my notes of introduction to this monograph, that I have been obliged to confine myself in its preparation entirely to 

 my own observations aDd field-woi - k; when, therefore, I speak as above of such immense myriads of water-fowl, I fear that some kindly 

 critic may declare truly I remind him of worthy Master Gerard, who, in 1636, speaking of Irish birds, announced that the common barnacle 

 goose, Branta leucopsis, was produced in a wonderful fashion, and proceeded to describe its growth from the mollusk, PeiiMasmis 

 anatifera, in the most circumstantial manner, prefacing this amazing story by a voucher couched in these words: "What our eyes have 

 seen, and hands have touched, we shall declare ;" also he gives a figure showing the metamorphosis going on from the shell into the 

 goose! This cirrhipodous origin of the bird in question has not been agreed to, in spite of the weight of evidence, but strangely enough 

 its generic name has been given and retained in accordance with the fable, and the barnacle itself is still called by conchologists "the 

 five-pointed goose bearer"! or Pentelasmis anatifera. 



tThe St. George natives have caught codfish just off the Tolstoi head early in June, but it is a rare occurrence ; by going out two or 

 three miles from the village at either island, during July and August, the native fisherman usually captures large halibut; not in 

 abundance, however. The St. Paul people, as well as their relatives on St. George, fish in small, "one hole" bidarkies; they venture 

 together in squads of four to six; one man alone in the kyack is not able to secure a " bolshoi poltoos"; the method, when the halibut is 

 hooked, is to call for your nearest neighbor in his bidarka, who paddles swiftly up ; you extend your paddle to him, retaining your own 

 hold, and he grasps it, then you seize his in turn, thus making it impossible to capsize, while the large and powerfully struggling fish is 

 brought to the surface between the canoes, and knocked on the head; it is then towed ashore and carried, in triumph, to the lucky 

 captor's house. 



I New genus aud species determined by Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, based upon my type specimen. 



