100 (JliUISE OF STEAMP:ii COKWIN IN TllK ARCTIC OCEAN. 



place, and lay directly in the track of tiigbt followed by these Eiders as they passed to or from 

 the sea. As these Hocks passed back and fortli the birds were beini; continnally broujiht down 

 by the slings thrown into the midst of the passing birds by the natives ; yet, notwithstanding 

 this, the birds eontinned from day to day the entire season to pass and repass this place. Their 

 heedlessness in this respect may be accounted for from the fact that these people were without 

 guns of any kind, and were thus unable to frighten them by the noise of the discharge. The birds 

 were easily called from their course of llight, as we repeatedly observed. If a flock should be 

 passing a hundred yards or more to one side, the natives would ntter a long, peculiar cry, and 

 the flock would turn instantly to one side and sweep by in a circuit, thus artbrding the coveted 

 opportunity for bringing down some of their number. These Hocks geucrally contained a mixture 

 of about one-twentieth of the number Paeiflc Eiders, aiul the remainder about equally divided of 

 Stellers and the King Eiders. At times the entire community of these birds, which made this 

 vicinity their haunt, would pass out in a .solid body, and the flock thus formed exceeded in size 

 anything of the kind I ever witnessed. 



The first night of our arrival was calm and misty, the water having that peculiar glassy smooth- 

 ness seen at such times, and the landscape rendered indistinct at a short distance by a slight misti- 

 ness. Soon after we came to anchor before the native ^illagc this body of birds arose from the 

 estuary a mile or two beyond the natives' huts, and came streaming out in a flock which appeared 

 endless. It was fully three to four miles in length, and considering the species which made np this 

 gathering of birds it was enough to make an enthusiastic ornithologist wild with a desire to possess 

 some of the beautiful specimens which were seen flling by within gunshot of the vessel. A little 

 later in the evening the natives brought oti' a cousiderable number of the birds which they had 

 killed with their slings, and during our stay at this place, the following day, we saw large num- 

 bers of them killed with these implements, and a few were obtained with our guns. This portion 

 of the Siberian coast appears to be the grand summer resort of this Eider, as the Aleutian Islands 

 form its wintering ground. One of the remarkable facts in the history of its distribution, however, 

 is shown in its total absence on the opposite American coast of the Arctic where the suft-oundings 

 appear to be almost identical with those found on the Siberian shore, yet for all the thousands of 

 these birds seen on this latter coast not one was noted on the American .shore, although the King 

 Eider occurs equally numerous upon both sides of the Arctic. 



LAMPRONETTA FISCHERI Brandt. 



(134.) Spectacled Eidek. 



Along the Alaskan shore of the Bering Sea, from the mouth of the Kusko(pnm River north to 

 the head of Norton Sound, the present bird is a rather common and in some places abundant 

 summer resident, nesting and rearing its young along the borders of the numerous brackish jvools 

 which are found so abundantly in the low marshy laud of this region. It was not seen else- 

 where during the cruise of the Corwiii, and it is doubtful if it ever reaches the shores of the 

 Arctic Ocean, although it may occur occasionally about Kotzebue Sound. Dall records it as 

 occuring rarely at Unalaska, and we learn from him that it is a rather rare and ver^- shy winter 

 visitant, migrating early in May to its breeding grounds to the north. The southern limit of its 

 winter habitat is unknown, and from the known range of this species at present it appears to be 

 one of the uu)st narrowly limited of our sea fowl, even having a narrower territory than is covered 

 by the Empenu' (ioo.'^e, which joins with it in a great portion of its range. 



September 1"), 1S81, when we were approaching Saint Jlichael's and about twenty-five miles 

 off the outer end of Stewart's Island, in Norton Sound, a large flock of these Eider were seen, 

 consisting abnost entirely of males. They were in fall plumage, with the dark areas much more 

 extended than in spring, and appearing considerably difterent from the bird as seen then, but 

 readily recognizable by the large velvety white patch surrounding the eye. Unlike the common 

 Eider of the North, V-niyra, the males do not pass the most of their time at sea duiing the breeding 

 season but keep near their mates, frequenting the brackish ponds and tide creeks along the shore 

 until the young are hatched. 



