BIRDS OF PRIBILOF ISLANDS 227 



On anchoring off St. Paul Island, one of the Pribilofs 

 the famous fur-seal islands of Bering Sea our entire 

 party went ashore in boats to inspect the seals on their 

 native beaches. On the verdant hills the Aleutian rosy 

 finch and Alaska Lapland longspur were the common 

 birds, and a royal time they had of it amid the fields of 

 frail golden poppies and pale-blue polemoniums. With 

 such a coverlet in which to nestle, what cared they if the 

 salt winds swept down from the Arctic Sea! There were 

 acres of lupines, too beautiful blue-purple clusters where 

 the Pribilof snowflake might hide. 



Along the shore we saw the kittiwake gulls in great 

 numbers, and both the horned and tufted puffins. The 

 least auklets nested in large assemblies among the rocks 

 close to the breaking surf, and Pallas's murre was present 

 in immense flocks. 



While our ship is plowing northward over the inhospit- 

 able sea, it may be well to take a general survey of some 

 of the low forms of bird life which delight in its chill air, 

 congregating in vast numbers upon its storm-beaten rocks 

 to rear their young. 



The sea birds are divided into five easily recognized 

 groups the diving birds, including such queer creatures 

 as the auks, murres, and puffins; the long-winged swim- 

 mers, into which group fall the gulls and their allies; the 

 tube-nosed swimmers, which are the most perfect birds of 

 flight and embrace the albatrosses and petrels ; the wholly- 

 webbed swimmers, in which division the cormorants are 

 placed; and the ducks, geese, and swans. Each of these 

 groups is abundantly represented in Bering Sea, for it is 

 in such northern waters that the sea birds love most to 

 dwell. 



The puffins are among the most outlandish birds which 

 ingenious mother nature has contrived to evolve. They 

 are trim in build, about a foot in length, with very short 



