8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 66 



rounded by ice cakes. The size of the patch of open water was not 

 sufficient to allow him to take wing, and the surrounding ice kept him 

 for a time, from escaping by diving. As we could not stop to pick 

 him up, I did not shoot the bird, but watched him uhtil the move- 

 ment of the ice at last opened up a lane of open water allowing him 

 to swim out. 



GAVIA STELLATA 



Red-throated Loon 



The most common Loon in Alaska. The heads and necks of this 

 species are used by the Eskimos for a variety of fancy articles. The 

 skin is removed and made into tobacco pouches or split open and 

 spread out flat and then trimmed into square or oblong-shaped pieces 

 which are combined with similar pieces from the various Eiders and 

 made into small mats. These are often very neatly and smoothly 

 made and are quite pretty. 



LUNDA CIRRHATA 



Tufted Puffin 



From the Aleutian Islands southward, this is the commonest 

 Puffin. In Unimak Pass they are particularly abundant as already 

 stated. North of this locality the Horned Puffin takes the place of 

 the Tufted, although a limited number were noted in all the Horned 

 Puffin colonies as far north as East Cape, Siberia, and Kotzebue 

 Sound. 



FRATERCULA CORNICULATA 



Horned Puffin 



As we steamed through Unimak Pass large numbers of this 

 species were met with for the first time. Although the total num- 

 ber of individuals was large, it is probable that corniculata did not 

 compose more than lO per cent of the thousands of Puffins that 

 abound in these waters. Throughout Bering Sea, wherever there are 

 steep, rocky cliffs or suitable islands, colonies of these curious birds 

 may be found breeding. These colonies range in size from lOO or 

 so pairs, as at St. Michael, to the great hordes found at Chamisso 

 Island, where it would be difficult, if not impossible, to estimate their 

 numbers. 



North of East Cape, Siberia, and Chamisso Island the species 

 was not seen, but I did not visit the large colony of Pallas's ^lurres 

 at Cape Lisburne where Nelson reports it as also breeding. 



