The rock ptarmigan, in several local races, alone represents the 

 grouse family in this district, and is distributed as follows : Nelson's 

 subspecies on Unalaska, Akutan and Qnimak islands; Turner's on 

 Atka and neighboring islands ; Townsend's on Kiska Island ; the Adak 

 on Adak Island ; and Evermann's on Attu Island. These races have 

 become differentiated from each other, and from the type, by their 

 isolation, each being subject to conditions of climate and food not felt 

 by the others. 



Both the bald and golden eagles are commonly seen throughout 

 the long archipelago, and Peale's falcon, a variety of the duck hawk, 

 breeds commonly throughout the archipelago, building its nest like 

 the eagles on the sea-cliffs, almost always close to a colony of eiders, 

 whose young it seizes as dainties for its own. The commonest bird 

 of prey on these islands, as elsewhere in Alaska, is the short-eared 

 owl, from whose liver the Aleuts make a love-philter; the snowy owl 

 also breeds there but is rare. Ravens are numerous and busy every- 

 where, and are the scavengers of the villages, and Turner and other 

 historians relate many curious incidents of their intelligence and 

 impudent tameness. 



48 



