12 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA [No. i. 



continually uttered a low note, exactly like the creak of my fish-basket cover. 

 A Short-eared Owl made its appearance flying over the tree-tops, but was 

 promptly and vociferously attacked by a pair of Bonaparte's Gulls and driven far 

 away. I saw several of these gulls in the Kowak delta in June in the same local- 

 ities with the Short-billed Gulls. From the actions of the former, I am sure they 

 had nests nearby, and I think also in trees, though I could not find any that I 

 was sure belonged to the smaller gull. 



Xema sabinii (Sab.). 



Sabine's Gui.l. 



I shot an adult female Sabine's Gull at the Mission near Cape Blossom on 

 August 6th, '98. It was alone, nervously alighting and flying short distances 

 along the surf. On September 5th of the same year, at our winter camp on the 

 Kowak, I saw a small flock of perhaps a dozen Sabine's Gulls flying slowly east 

 up the river. By flock, in this case, I mean a straggling company as gulls usually 

 fl}'. "Flock," as applied in reference to diff"erent birds carries different ideas. 

 Thus a flock of geese in flight is not at all the same sort of a company, in arrange- 

 ment or numbers, as a flock of Turkey Buzzards. 



Sterna paradiscsa Briinn. 

 Arctic Tern. 



This was an abundant species throughout the Kotzebue region, and it was 

 the only tern detected. Although fairly common up the Kowak Valley, it w^as 

 much more numerous on the coastwise tundras, where they were to be seen cours- 

 ing over the lakes and marshes. They were ver}' common in the vicinity of Cape 

 Blossom in July, '98. I observed downy young on July 15th. They were seen 

 resting in the grass at the edge of a pond. The parent bird when feeding them 

 does not alight, but hovers over the young with extended neck, the young reach- 

 ing up to receive the morsel offered; meanwhile the juvenile keeps up a chatter- 

 ing noise, not unlike a nestful of linnets. When the downy young are alarmed 

 or approached, they take to the water, swimming rapidly out into the middle of 

 the pond, with head and whole body flattened down close to the water so that they 

 are very hard to discern especially if there is the least ripple on the surface of the 

 water. The parents are very watchful of their 3'oung, and repeatedly dash at an 

 intruder with loud cries. The ordinary note of the Arctic Tern is of a rasping 

 quality. When the young are large enough to fly, the}^ are seen following the 

 parent birds, uttering teasing cries which closely resemble the usual note of the 

 White-throated Swift in California. The young terns are apparently fed by their 

 parents several weeks after they are fully fledged. B}- August ist, flocks of 

 fifty or less had gathered along the beaches, where they would be seen flying 

 back and forth close above the surf, now and then hovering for an instant before 

 diving down into the foaming water. After thus feeding for a time, the flock 

 would settle together on the beach for a rest. If disturbed, the company would 

 take flight all at once as if by a common impulse, with a chorus of cries. The 

 food of the terns consisted largely of a small crayfish which fairl)' swarmed in the 

 surf and brackish sloughs; in the interior, small fish from the rivers and ponds. 



