BIKDS. 69 



At the Yukon mouth aud near Saint Michaels they nest the last of May, and choose a dry 

 knoll near a small pond, where their eggs, numbering from eight to a dozen or more, are laid on a 

 bed of grass stems and feathers. 



Toward the end of August, old and young may be found dabbling in the mud along the bank 

 of some secluded tide creek or the grassy margin of a marshy pool. They are the least suspicious 

 of the ducks, probably because the Eskimo usually consider them too small to waste a charge of 

 powder aud shot upon. 



Anas discoks Linn. Blue-winged Teal. 



In his list of Alaskan birds Mr. Ball reports this handsome duck as being found sparingly at 

 Fort Yukon aud the Yukon mouth, but he did not see it at Kulato, where, however, it undoubtedly 

 occurs. 



Captain Smith secured its eggs at Cape Eomanzoff, just south of the Yukon mouth. 



In the paper just quoted, Mr. Bannister records it as " not very abundant, but not uncommon " 

 at Saint Michaels where several specimens were seen by him in the hands of the hunters in early 

 spring. 



During the four years passed at Saint Michaels by the writer he failed to even see a single 

 individual of this species, although during that time thousands of dead ducks were examined, not 

 to mention the numbers seen in the field ; neither did any of my various collectors along the 

 coast and along the course of the Yukon bring me a skin. From this negative evidence we must 

 consider this species as of great rarity on the coast of Bering Sea, at least north of the Kusko- 

 quim Eiver. It is doiibtfully recorded as a winter visitant at Unalaska Island by Dall, but this is 

 undoubtedlj^ erroneous. 



Spatula clypeata (Linn.). Shoveller. 



Like the preceding species the present bird is one of the least common ducks found on the 

 shore of Bering Sea. It was found on the Commander Islands and in Kamchatka by Stejneger. 

 The Shovellers usually arrive in the vicinity of Saint Michaels about the 11th or 20th of May and 

 are usually found in pairs or singly. They breed on all the marshes with the other water-fowl from 

 Kotzebue Sound to the mouth of the Kuskoquim. 



The eggs are deposited the last of Maj' and first of June in a dry spot near some poud or stream, 

 and the nest is usually lined with grass and feathers, the latter from the j^arent's breast. 



Mr. Dall considered it rather rare along the Yukon, but skins were brought me from Fort 

 Yukon and Xulato, where it was reported to me as being a rather common species. Although not 

 common along the sea-coast, yet one could rarely take a day's hunt in spring or fall without seeing 

 one and often several of these birds. It is also found on the coast in the Sitkan region, but neither 

 Dall nor Elliott mention it among the birds of the Fur Seal and Aleutian Islands. 



Dafila acuta (Linn.). Pintail (Esk. Vk-shfiJc-iik). 



The Pintail is one of the most common, if not the most common, of the ducks which breed 

 along the Alaskan shore of Bering Sea. On one season it reached the vicinity of Saint Michaels 

 April 29, and the ordinary date is from the 1st to 5th of May. One spring a small party was found 

 about a small spring-hole in the ice on the sea-shore the first of May, while a foot of snow still cov- 

 ered the ground and the temperature ranged only a few degrees above zero. As snow and ice dis- 

 appear they become more and more numerous, until they are found about the border of almost 

 every pool on tlie broad flats from the mouth of the Kuskoquim River north to the coast of Kotzebue 

 Sound. 



They are summer residents on the Siberian coast in suitable locations, and we found them also 

 upon Saint Lawrence Island in the summer of 1881. Neither Elliott nor Dall mentions them as 

 occurring on the Fur Seal and Aleutian Islands, although they are certainly found on the latter 

 group. Bischoff found them at Sitka and Kadiak. 



