248 Hanna, New Birds for the Pribilofs. [April 



ADDITIONS TO THE AVIFAUNA OF THE PRIBILOF 



ISLANDS, ALASKA, INCLUDING FOUR SPECIES NEW 



TO NORTH AMERICA. 



BY G. DALLAS HANNA. 



The Pribilof Islands are perhaps more favorably situated for 

 intensive biological study than any other place in our Arctic pos- 

 sessions. They lie near the center of Bering Sea where there is a 

 very prolific development of marine life. They are the home of 

 the famous Alaska fur seal and the seat of extensive Government 

 establishments for the care of the skins of these animals. Good 

 facilities exist for field collecting in almost all branches of biology 

 and much detailed study might be done with the equipment and 

 laboratories that are maintained there. 



Ornithology is especially interesting in the region because of the 

 enormous numbers of sea birds. Various employees of the Gov- 

 ernment have given the subject more or less attention and several 

 large collections have been made. Whenever even a compara- 

 tively small amount of collecting has been done, some unusual 

 visitors have been discovered. The permanent bird population, 

 comprising breeders and regular migrants, numbers but 35 species, 

 of which 21 have been found nesting, while the migrants and acci- 

 dental stragglers which have been secured or observed have swelled 

 the list to 129 species, including those reported in this paper. Of 

 this number specimens have been collected of all excepting 6, and 

 the U. S. National Museum contains specimens of all which have 

 been collected excepting one. The stragglers come from all di- 

 rections, at all seasons, and it appears that the end of the list may 

 not be reached until practically all of the avifauna of Northwest- 

 ern America and Northeastern Asia shall have been recorded. No 

 less than 13 new records for North America have been made here. 

 Some remarkable and unexpected visitors have landed, such as 

 the northern flicker, Japanese cuckoo, Japanese haw finch, Kam- 

 chatkan pine grosbeak, brambling, and Kamchatkan sea eagle. 



iThis list was first given before the Biological Society of Washington and a short 

 reveiw containing the names of the additions was published in the Journal of the 

 Washington Academy of Sciences, Vol. IX, No. 6. (cf. Auk 1919, p. 443.) 



