EXPEDITION TO POINT BARROW, ALASKA. 121 



Early in June straggling pairs and small parties Bottle about the tundra pools and breed 

 sparingly in the neighborhood of the station. A few nests were found. After the main (light 

 and during the latter part of June a few stragglers and small flocks are to be seen almost daily. . 



Captain Owen, of the steam whaler North Star, who got up to the station June 25, 1882, reported 

 that the day before there were myriads of eiders of both sexes in the open water oft' Point Belcher. 



By the second week in July, before the ice is gone from the sea or from Elson Bay, the males 

 begin to come back in Mocks from the east, and from that time to the middle of September there is 

 a flight of eiders whenever the wind .blows from the east. The flocks are all males at first, but 

 mixed flocks gradually appear, and the young of the year were first observed in these (locks on 

 August 30, 1882. 



Most of the night birds make no stay but continue on to the southwest, generally a couple of 

 miles out at sea, though they occasionally stop to rest, especially when there is much drifting ice. 

 Between the regular flights they continue to straggle along, coming off the land, and occasionally 

 sitting apparently asleep on the beach. Small flocks and single birds are to be seen till the sea 

 closes, about the end of October, and in 18S2 many were seen as late as December 2, when there 

 were many holes of open water. 



When the birds are (lying at Pergniak, it is quite a lively scene, as there is a large summer 

 camp of Eskimos close to the point where the ducks cross when the conditions are favorable. 

 When the wind is east or northeast, and not blowing too hard, the birds come from the cast and 

 strike the laud at a point which runs out on the shore of the bay about half a mile from Pergniak, 

 close to where the lagoons begin. 



They would be apt to turn and fly down these lagoons were it not for a row of .stakes, set up 

 by the natives, running round the semicircle of the bay to the camp. As soon as the flock reaches 

 this critical point, all the natives, and there may be fifty of them on the watch with guns aud 

 slings, just at the narrowest part of the beach above the tents, immediately set up a shrill yell. 

 Nine times out of ten the flock will waver, turn, follow round the row of stakes, and naturally 

 whirl out to sea at the lirst open place, where of course the gunners are stationed. With a strong 

 wind, however, the ducks do not follow the laud, but come straight on from the cast and cross 

 wherever they happen to strike the beach, so that the shooting cannot be depended on. 



The flocks during the fall flight are not so large aud do not follow one another in such rapid 

 succession as in the spring, and though they arrive from the east in the same stringing order, they 

 huddle into a compact body as they whirl along the Hue of stakes and out over the beach. 



The natives, although as a rule they are far from good shots, are provided with poor guns, 

 and appear particularly averse to putting in enough powder and shot to kill a strong eider duck, 

 nevertheless succeed in capturing a good many with guns and slings. They reap a plentiful 

 harvest of them in the spring, when they are all at home, and the crews of the whaling umiaks 

 out at the open water spend their leisure time while they are waiting for whales in shooting ducks, 

 which form an important article of food. They of course always boil their ducks, as they do all 

 the rest of their food, and usually skin iustead of plucking them. They are very fond of the fat 

 which adheres to the skin, scraping it off with their knives industriously till not a particle remains, 

 licking their knives with great relish. The intestines, boiled by themselves, are also considered a 

 great delicacy. 



The males that appear at Pergniak at the beginning of the autumn migrations are at first in 

 full breeding dress, perhaps a little faded, especially about the bill. As the season advances they 

 show more aud more extensive patches of brown feathers, until at the end of the migrations they 

 cannot be distinguished from the females except by the white wing and back patches. 



I do not find this autumnal change of plumage mentioned in any published account of the 

 species, and it has been questioned on general principles by experienced ornithologists. I accord- 

 ingly give a detailed description of three specimens brought home by our party, which illustrates 

 this process very well. They were all taken on July 2G, 1883, and exhibit three different stages 

 of the change. 



1. Museum No. 93,290. Compared with a drake in full breeding dress, all the colors are more 

 dingy. The black of the back has lost its rich velvety gloss, and the remigcs and tail-feathers are 

 H. Ex. 44 l(j 



