BIKDS. 63 



the seasou auil repair to the cliffs, especially on the south aud east shores of Saiut George's Island, 

 where, selectiug some rocky shelf ou the face of the cliff, safe from all enemies except man, they 

 deposit a single egg upon the bare rock aud proceed at once with the incubation. They are very 

 devoted to their eggs, aud our author states that they may even be pelted to death with stones 

 before they will desert their charge. The eggs are laid by the 1st to tke 5th of June, aud measure 

 about 2.90 by 1.90. The color is soiled white ; the shell is rather rough, aud the egg is scarcely 

 more pointed at one end than the othei'. 



The natives of the islands obtain the eggs, which are said to be very palatable, by lowering 

 one of their number over the cliffs on a rope or raw-hide thong. " The chick comes out a perfect 

 puff-ball of white down, gaiuiug its first plumage in about six weeks. It is a dull gray, black at 

 first, but by the end of the season it becomes like the parents iu coloration, only much darker on 

 the back and scapulavies." The writer saw young birds in both the stages just mentioned, iu Sep- 

 tember and October, ISSl. During September Fulmars were seen about the Straits, and in Octo- 

 ber they were extremely numerous off the harbors in the Aleutian Islands, and so fat that they 

 could scarcely rise from the water duriug calm weather; whether they were of this or the forego- 

 ing species it is impossible to say. The Fulmars taken about Spitzbergen are said to have a red- 

 dish orange suffusion in the white plumage during spring. 



PUFFiNUS TENUiROSTEis (Temm.). Slender-billed Shearwater (Esk. MUk-MJc ting- 



fi-me-fik). 



During the Telegraph Explorations Mr. Dall secured a skin of this bird from an Eskimo. 

 The bird was killed iu Kotzebue Sound, and the natives called it the '' Muklok ting-myuk," or 

 Seal Bird, and said that it followed the seals in their migrations. This record extends the bird's 

 range through Bering Straits to the Arctic Circle. 



The writer saw no biid which could be referred to this species on the eastern side of Bering 

 Sea, but just northwest of the straits, the last of August, 1881, quite a number of dark-plumaged 

 birds were seen, with many Eodgers's Fulmars, which appeared to differ iu size and appearance 

 from the latter, and which I am inclined to think belonged to this species. Many young dark- 

 plumaged Fulmars were seen at the same time. 



Again, the last of September, as we api)roached the harbor of Unalaska, many of the same 

 birds were seen in the same company. 



As the siagle specimen secured by Dall is the only one taken north of the Aleutian chain, 

 the species mast be regarded as very rare there. It is reported from Sitka by Schlegel, aud also 

 from Japan and the Kurile Islands. 



By a slip, my notes upon this bird in the Cruise of the Corwin were given under the name 

 oi Priocella tenuirosfris (And.). 



In addition to the single specimen of this bird taken by Dall iu Kotzebue Sound, one was 

 taken at Unalaska, August 31, 1828, by von Kittlitz, and a third specimen, from Sitka, is said to 

 be iu the Leiden ^Museum (cf. Stejneger, Auk, July, ISSl, p. 2ol). Auother specimen has been 

 taken recently ou Kadiak Island by Mr. W. J. Fisher. 



^STRELATA FISHERI Ridgw. Fisher's Petrel. 



This species was described from a specimen taken on Kadiak Island by Mr. Fisher. (See 

 Proc. U. S. National Museum, 1882, pp. G56-658.) Nothing distinctive is known of its habits. 



OcEANODROMA LEUCORHOA (Vieill.). Leach's Petrel. 



In May aud October I found this petrel abundant in the passes through the Aleutian chain 

 aud for some distance ou each side of the islands, rarelj', however, passing 100 miles to the north, 

 although being found everywhere on the North Pacific, even hundreds of miles offshore. They 

 are always more common, however, near land. 



Bischoff found them abundant near Sitka, and Dall found them breeding ou the rocky islets 

 near Attn and on the highlands of Kyska aud Amchitka, all near the western eud of the Aleutian 



