THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 131 



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supply tbey can draw upon for fresh meat, soups, and stews, always wanted by the sick; and, were these shags 

 sought after throughout the year near as diligently as thej' are during the long spell of bitter tempei'ature that occurs 

 here in severe winters, driving other water-fowl away, they certainly would be speedily exterminated ; yet, they are 

 seldom shot, however, when anything else can be obtained. The terrible storms in February and March, when the 

 wind " boorgas" blow as tornadoes, are unable to drive the shag away, but all other water-fowl, even the big northern 

 gulls, depart for the open water south. It comes under the cliffs to make its nest and lay — the earliest of the birds 

 in Bering sea. Two eggs were taken from a bed on the reef, St. Paul island, June 1, 1872, nearly hatched, which 

 is more than three weeks in advance of the other water-fowls, almost without exception. The nest is large, carefully 

 rounded up, and built upon some jutting point or narrow shelf along the face of a cliff or bluff; in its construction 

 sea-ferns {ISertularidce), grass, etc., are used, together with a cement made largely of their own excrement. 



The eggs are usually three in number, sometimes lour, and, compared with the size of the bird, are exceedingly 

 small. They are oval, of a dirty, whitish gray, green, and blue color, but soon become soiled ; for, although this 

 bird's plumage is sleek and bright, yet it is very slovenly and fllthj' about the nest — the dirtiest bird of all the north 

 when we regard its domestic economy. The young come from the shell at the expiration of three weeks' incubation, 

 without leathers and almost bare, even of down ; they grow, however, rapidly, fed by the old birds, who eject the 

 contents of their stomachs, such as small fish, crabs, and shrimps, allover and around the nest. In about six weeks 

 the young cormorant can take to its wings, and, strange as it may seem, it is then fidly as large and heavy as the 

 parents; but it is not until the beginning of its second year that it shimmers out in the bright plumage and metallic 

 gloss of the adult, wearing, during the first year of probation, a dull, dingy, drab-brown coat, with the brilliant red 

 colors at the base of the bill, and-gular sac, subdued. 



This cormorant is a stupid and very inquisitive bird. It utters no sound whatever, except when ilying over, 

 about, or around a boat or ship, which seems to possess a magnetic i)ower of attraction for them. When they are 

 thus hovering and circling aloft in this method, they utter a low, droning croak. It cannot be called a bird of 

 graceful action at any ijlace, either on the wing, in the sea, or perched. Its flight is a quick beating of the wings, 

 which are usually more or less ragged at the edge, with the neck and head stretched out full length horizontal to 

 the axis of the body. So curious is it, that in flying, around and ai-ound again to satisfy itself, it comes close enough 

 for an observer, should he stand erect in the bow of a boat, almost to touch it with his hand. It is very dirty on 

 the rocks, and does not keep its nest in tidy trim like the gulls ; but, in regard to its plumage, I frankly confess 

 that I have sat for long intervals near'a shelf whereupon fifteen or twenty of these birds were resting, absorbed in 

 true admiration of the brilliant gloss and glittering sheen of their feathers ; their coats really scintillate when in the 

 sunlight with a confused blending of rich brownish and deep purple reflections, as though clothed in steel armor 

 beautifully damascened. 



24. Diomedea brachyura. Shoi'.t-tailkd ALBATnoss. 



This bird was the only real suggestion which arose to my mind, during my sojourn on the Pribylovs, of the 

 past epoch of noted activity in the whale fisheries of the Xorth Pacific and the Arctic; for, as I first discerned the 

 large bulk and spread of the albatross prior to shooting, the natives clapped their hands and said, "You should 

 have been here twenty years ago when, instead of this solitary example, you would have seen thousands." They 

 came with the whalers, and disappeared, as they had done; but, as if prompted by legends among their kind, now 

 and then an adventurous one comes north again and looks in vain for its whale food, or the skinned carcasses 

 rather, turned adrift by the whalemen; they were in sight of the island constantly, year in and year out, during 

 that period of great whaling industry. The bird just cited, and this one only, was a solitary examjde of its kind 

 observed by me. Two hundred miles to the southward, however, it is quite frequent about the Aleutian islands. 



25. Fulmarus glacialis. Rodger's Fulmar; "Lupus." 



This is the only representative of the FroceUarina: I have seen on or about the Pribylov islands. It repairs to the 

 clifts, especially on the south and east shores of St. George; comes very early in the season, and selects some rocky 

 shelf, secure from all enemies save man, where, making no nest whatever, but squatting on the rock itself, it lays a 

 single, large, white, oblong-oval egg, and immediately commences the duty and the labor of incubation. It is of all 

 the Winter fowl the most devoted to its charge, for it will not be scared from the egg by any demonstration that may 

 be made in the way of throwing rocks or yelling, and it will even die as it sits rather than take flight, as I have 

 frequently witnessed. The fulmar lays about the 1st to the 5th of June. The egg is very palatable, fully equal to 

 that of our domestic duck ; indeed, it is somewhat like it. The natives prize them highly, and hence they undertalio 

 at St. George to gather their eggs by a method and a suspension supi-emely hazardous, as they lower themselves 

 over clirts five to seven hundred feet above the water. The sensation experienced by myself, when dangled over 

 these precipices attached to a slight thong of raw-hide, with the surf boiling and churning three or four hundred feet 

 below, and loose rocks rattling down from aliove, any one of which was suflicient to destroy life should it have 

 struck me, is not a sensation to be expressed adequately by language; and, after having passed through the 

 ordeal, I came to the surface perfectly satisfied witli what I had called the iiiiprovi;lence of the Aleuts. They 

 have quite sufficient excuse in my mind to be content with as few fidmar eggs as possible.* The " Lupus", laying so 



*0n the head at Tolstoi Mees, St. George, the natives pointed out to me a basaltic eggahelf which marked the death of one of their 

 townsmen. It occurred iu the following singular manner: he the vii'tini, had been very successful in securing a large baskijt of the tii'st 



