122 EXPEDITION TO POINT BAttKOW. ALASKA. 



faded and worn. Tin- cream color of the throat and shoulders is inucli paler, fading almost to 

 white on the back, and beginning to become mottled with darker patches between the .shoulders. 

 The white leathers on the neck are thin and spar.se, arid drop out very easily, while very young 

 brown feathers are making their appearance among them. The black Von the throat has assumed 

 a "spotty" appearance, caused by the dropping out of some of the black-tipped leathers, so as to 

 expose their white roots. The preen feathers of the cheeks are faded, thin, and hairy. The blue- 

 gray of the crown and back of the head appears at first sight to be merely faded, but drawing 

 aside the feathers discloses at their roots a crop of brown feathers rather more advanced than 

 those on the neck. All the leathers of the head and neck except the brown ones fall out very 

 easily and appear faded and worn. The bill has grown dark, the protuberance at its base much 

 shrunken, and the epidermis is coming off the frontal processes, patches only remaining. 



i'. Museum No. 03,207. The head and neck now show about equal proportions of the new 

 brown feathers and the old light-colored ones. The back between the shoulders and the front part 

 of the throat shows a large proportion of new brown feathers (still growing from the capsule, as 

 may be easily seen by pulling out one or two), and many of the white or cream-colored feathers 

 of the throat have been lost. A few new brown feathers have also appeared at the Hanks. 



.'>. Museum No. 93,298. The white and light-colored feathers are nearly gone from the head 

 and neck, remaining only in a few patches on the cheeks and forehead, while the brown feathers 

 are fairly well developed, so that the fore part of the throat and back is nearly as in the female. 

 The breast is still cream-colored. 



The drakes grow almost entirely dark before the migrations are over, the wing- pat dies remaining 

 white the longest. The Pacific eider and Steller's duck both undergo a similar change, but we 

 were unable to secure any specimens to illustrate this. 



None of the eiders of any species molt their wing-feathers so as to be incapable of flight until 

 after leaving the neighborhood of Point Barrow. 



657. PAGOPHILA EBURNEA (Phipps) Kaup. 



IVORY GULL ya 



The Ivory Gull is at best a rare visitor at Point Harrow. Early in the spring of 1882, Lieu- 

 tenant L'ay reported seeing two in full plumage out at the lead of open water, some six mile.s 

 from the shore. 



No others, however, were seen or reported until late in the fall, when large numbers of Kosy 

 Gulls were flying np the coast and among them a few of this species, of which one was taken. 



The bird was not observed in the season of 1883. 



660. LARUS GLAUCUS Briinn. 

 GLAUCOUS GULL; BURGOMASTER (Xaiiya). 



Large gulls, mostly in the immature plumage of this species, were plenty round the station 

 from the time we landed np to the middle of October, flying up and down the beach, sitting on the 

 water, or feeding at the edge of the beach. The first two of the large lagoons were always favorite 

 resorts for the gulls at all seasons when they were open, and even after they were partially fro/en 

 gulls were to be seen sitting on the ice. 



After the middle of October, they became scarcer, sometimes disappearing for days, but a few- 

 stragglers remained as long as the sea was open, up to the middle of November. In the autumn 

 of 1882 none were seen after October 18, except one solitary straggler reported November 1. 



They arrive in the spring, about the first week in May, and during May and June a few are to 

 be seen nearly every day, though they sometimes disappear altogether for a day or two, and 

 occasionally are rather numerous specially round the lagoons and near Pergniak. They always 

 turn out in full force, when there is a flight of eiders, aud make themselves troublesome by picking 

 up dead and wounded duck>. 



