22 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



September, 1804, and sent by Grebnitslci to the inn.seuni in St. Petersburg; and (3) 

 Milfim mclanvHs, the blackearcd kite, a mere stragglei-, taken once on Bering Island. 

 The specimen was presentrd to the Veya expedition by Mr. Gi'ebnitski (Palmen, Vega 

 Exp. Vetensk. laktt., v, 18S7, p. 294). 



One of the Commander Island birds {rkalacrocora.rperspicillatuii) deserves at least 

 a passing notice, not only because we know of no other locality in which it has with 

 certainty occurred, but because it has become extinct within recent years through the 

 agency of man. The history of this rare bird (only 4 specimens exist in nniseums) is 

 traced and full description given by me in a separate paper ((Contribution to the His- 

 tory of Pallas's Cormorant; Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xii, 1800, pp. 83-88). In 1882 I 

 fortunately disinterred a number of bones of this bird, which have been described and 

 figured by i\Ir. F. A. Lucas {U>in. cit., pp. 88-94, pis. Ii-iv). An additional collection 

 made by me in 1895 will also shortly be elaborately described and figured by him. A 

 preliminary note may be found in Science, November 15, 1895, p. 601. 



FISHES. 



A collection of littoral and river fishes occurring at the Commander Ishinds, 

 brought together by Mr. Grebnitski and myself, is now being i-epoited upon by Dr. 

 Tarleton H. Bean. The report will be published in the Proceedings of the United 

 States National Museum, as No. 11 of the "Contributions to the Natural History of 

 the Commander Islands." 



TUNICATE8. 



Styela arctica has been described by Swederus (Vega Exp. Vet. lakt., iv, 1887, 

 p. 1(18) as a new si>ecies from Bering Island. 



Mosquitos are numerous on Bering Island and very annoying on the few other- 

 wise pleasant days of whi(;li the summers of that region can boast. GeomctrUlce 

 and Microlepidoptera are rather numerous, Nociuidw less so. I have only seen one 

 specimen of diurnal Lepidoptera, viz, a butterfly very much like Vanessa nrtiva'. Of 

 the Coleoptera, the large staphylinid, Creophilus viUosus, is very numerous on the 

 seal-killing grounds. Mr. John Sahlberg has reported ujion a few (9) Coleoptera 

 and (1) Hemiptera collected by theVega expedition (Vega Exjj.Vet. lakt., iv., 1885, pp. 

 G1-C8), one of which is described as new, viz, Anisotoma ahhreviato, one of the SlphUJw. 

 My own collections are considerably larger and contain (besides the Microlepidoptera), 

 according to a preliminary census by Mr. M. Linell, 40 species, of which 33 are 

 Coleoptera. These include all of Sahlberg's species except Oxijiwdu opaca and xiniso- 

 ioma abbreviata, so that the Coleoptera from the Commander Islands now number 35 

 species. Of these, no less than 12 species behmg to the Stajjhf/Iinidw. The other 

 orders are represented by 2 species of Hemiptera, 5 Dipiera, 3 Ili/menoptera, 1 Sipho- 

 naptera, and 1 Lepidopter, viz, Agrotiphila alaskcc Grote. 



It should be remarked that the insects collected of late years in the neighborhood 

 of the main villages must not be given too great weight in determining the zoological 

 relationship of the islands, for many have undoubtedly been introduced recently from 

 Petropaulski, Kamchatka, in the large quantity of firewood shipped to the islands 

 every year. In fact, some of the species collected by me in 1895 were taken on or 

 near the wood-pile. 



