46 . NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



mer of 1881 small parties of these birds invariably came oft' to us wbeu we were within afewmiles, 

 and, circling about the ship with outstretched necks and inquiring eyes, seemed to demand the 

 cause of this first intrusion into their solitudes. On the Fur Seal Islands they breed in countless 

 multitudes, and although they do not begin to lay until the 18th or 25th of June, yet ou mild 

 winters some of the birds never leave the vicinity of these islands. 



They lay their eggs as thickly as they can be crowded together on the points and narrow 

 shelves of the clifi's. Each female deposits a single egg. They quarrel desperately, and Elliott, 

 from whose observations we take these notes, records the fact that hundreds of dead birds are 

 found along the bases of the high cliffs on Saint George's, these birds having fallen and been 

 dashed upon the rocks while clinched in combat. Incubation lasts about twenty-eight days, and 

 the young attain their first plumage about six weeks later. 



On Saint George's Island, towards the end of June, when the females begin to set, the males 

 fly around the island in great files and platoons, always circling against or quartering on the wind 

 at regular hours in the morning and evening, making a darlc ijirdle of birds more than a quarter of 

 a mile broad and 30 miles Jong. Thej' utter a peculiar growling or Iroarse chattering note when 

 ou the clilfs. The birds are very stupid, and pay but little attention to the presence of a person 

 near their nests. 



I have frequently amused myself by aiiproaching the birds within 10 or 15 feet, as they sat 

 almost bolt uiiright on their single egg, and tossing stones at them. They stared at me without 

 any sign of fear, only duckin-g their heads to avoid the stones. 



In spring they are found scattered over much of the North Pacific and all of Bering Sea. 

 Wherever these birds occur abundantly in the north they are of great value to the Eskimo, as 

 their flesh and eggs are easily obtained for food, and their skins afibrd very warm and durable 

 clothing. 



The most common outer garment worn in Saint Lawrence and the Diomede Islands in Bering 

 • Straits is made of murre skins. 



Steecobarius pomaeinus (Temm.). Pomarine Jaeger (Esk. A-lcliikhtatyu-Hk). 



Strangely enough, although this bird is a common species about the Yukon mouth and along 

 much of the coast north to Point Barrow, where, according to Murdoch, it is the least com- 

 mon of the Jaegers, yet until Dr. Bean's recent paper {loc. cit.) none of the later explorers in that 

 region had noted it, with the single exception of the record by Elliott that it is a rare visitant to 

 the Fur Seal Islands. 



The earliest arrival of this bird in spring was May 13 at the Yukon mouth, where the writer 

 found it searching for food along the ice-covered river channels. They became more common, until, 

 by the last of the month, from a dozen to twenty might be seen every day. 



They are clumsy and cowardly as compared with their smaller relatives. AYhen one of this 

 species chances to cross the path of the smaller species, the latter almost invariably gives chase 

 and beats its clumsy antagonist oft' the field by repeatedly darting down from above. This attack 

 embarrasses the large bird so that it flinches and dives, and often alights and watches an oppor- 

 tunity to escape from its nimble assailant. One that was driven to alight in the river thrust its 

 head under water at every swoop of its assailant, and exhibited the most ludicrous terror. When 

 on the wing they usually ward oft' an attack from one side by a half closed wing, and if above, both 

 wings are raised, forming an arched shield above the back. 



While camping at the Y'ukon mouth in May my tent was pitched directly on the river bank, and 

 I frequently amused myself by throwing pieces of flesh upon the ice, some 20 yards away, and 

 thus attracting the Jaegers. Ou several occasions the smaller species drove the larger ones oft' and 

 proceeded to devour the spoil. 



The large bird has a low, harsh, chattering cry when feeding with its companions. They 

 measure about 22 inches long by 48 inches in spread of wing, and have a hazel iris ; beak dark horn 

 color on distal third, and light horn color on the remainder. The feet and legs are either uniform 

 black or are mottled with a varying amount of livid blue, the latter sometimes covering over half 



