WONDERFUL SEAL ISLANDS. 209 



portion of which is but sHghtly elevated above the sea and is saudy, 

 is not visited and cannot be visited by such myriads of birds as are 

 seen at St. George ; but the small rocky Walrus Islet is fairly cov- 

 ered with sea-fowls, and the Otter Island blufis are crowded by 

 them to their utmost capacity of reception. The birds string them- 

 selves anew around the bluffs with every succeeding season, like 

 endless ribbons stretched across their rugged faces, while their 

 numbers are simply countless. The variety is not great, however, 

 in these millions of breeding-birds. It consists of only ten or 

 twelve names, and the whole list of birds belonging to the Pribylov 

 Islands, stragglers and migratory, contains but forty s^Decies. Con- 

 spicuous among the last-named class is the robin, a straggler which 

 was brought from the mainland, evidently against its own eftbrt, by 

 a storm or a gale of wind, which also brings against their will the 

 solitary hawks, owls, and waders occasionally noticed here. 



After the dead silence of a long ice-bound winter, the arrival of 

 large flocks of those sparrows of the north, the " choochkies," Pha- 

 leris microceros, is most cheerful and interesting. These plump 

 little auks are bright, fearless, vivacious birds, with bodies round 

 and fat. They come usually in chattering flocks on or immediately 

 after May 1st, and are caught by the people with hand-scoojos or 

 dip-nets to any number that may be required for the day's con- 

 sumption, their tiny, rotund forms making pies of rare savory vir- 

 tue, and being also baked and roasted and stewed in every con- 

 ceivable shape by skilful cooks. Indeed, they are equal to the 

 reed-birds of the South. These welcome visitors are succeeded 

 along about July 20tli by large flocks of fat, red-legged turn-stones, 

 Sh'epsilas interpres, which come in suddenly from the west or north, 

 where they have been breeding, and stop on the islands for a month 

 or six weeks, as the case may be, to feed luxuriantly upon the flesh- 

 flies, which Ave have just noticed, and their eggs. These handsome 

 birds go in among the seals, familiarly chasing the flies, gnats, etc. 

 They are followed as they leave in Septeftiber by several species of 

 jack-snipe and a j^lover, Tringa and Charadrius. These, however, 

 soon depart, as early as the end of October and the beginning of 

 November, and then winter fairly closes in upon the islands. The 

 loud, roaring, incessant seal-din, together with the screams and 

 darkening flight of innumerable water-fowl, are replaced in turn 

 again by absolute silence, marking out, as it were, in lines of sharp 

 and vivid contrast, summer's life and winter's deatli. 

 14 



