ioo ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



taken our seats again to start off, when, as I stooped down to 

 disengage the hind leg of one of my deer, lo and behold, there 

 was a nest under my sleigh. The whole train of sleighs had 

 passed over this nest, and yet the single egg was not broken. 

 On August 7 we picked up a young Skua and brought it back 

 alive. This bird was almost full-grown, and had well-developed 

 primaries. Its parents showed no anxiety about it. It was 

 beside a lake, and as we approached, ran and hid in some 

 grasses. It bit viciously, but made no noise." 



" I never in any single instance knew an Arctic Skua to stoop 

 at a visitor near its nest. On the contrary, an intrusion was met 

 by every wile of allurement. It was the old game of ' hot or 

 cold ; ' until at last, when you stood close to the nest, both the 

 birds were reduced to a state of helplessness. At such a time 

 they behaved exactly alike. Sitting on their tails, either in the 

 water or on the grass, and beating forwards with their wings, 

 they mewed all the time like cats." 



I have taken the following notes from Mr. E. W. Nelson's 

 "Report on Collections from Alaska": "During summer 

 these Jaegers show a much greater preference for marshes and 

 the low barren grounds so common in the north than they do 

 for the vicinity of the sea-coast. At the Yukon mouth and 

 near Saint Michael's they arrive with the first open water, from 

 the loth to the i5th of May. The snow still lies in heavy 

 drifts on most of the open country, but the Jaegers take pos- 

 session and feed upon the Shrew-mice and Lemmings which 

 are common on this ground. By the last of May they are 

 very common, and twenty or thirty may be seen in a day's 

 hunt. 



" The young are on the wing by the end of July and early 

 August. The last birds move southward, or keep out to sea, 

 after the 20th of September. On cloudy days, or in the dusky 

 twilight, these birds have a habit of uttering loud wailing cries, 

 interspersed with harsh shrieks, which are among the most 

 peculiar notes heard in the northern breeding-grounds. At all 

 times the Jaegers are given to wandering, and one is likely to 

 find them almost anywhere along the coast. They are not 

 infrequently seen harrying Terns or Gulls to make them disgorge 

 fish just caught. If successful, they dart down, and rising 

 under the falling morsel catch it in their capacious mouth. 



