342 LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS — LONGIPENNES. 



The young, when ready to leave the nest, are deep gray on the top of the head ; 

 neck light gray, with longitudinal streaks of brown, with a mixture of umber-brown, 

 yellowish brown, and reddish in the residue of their plumage. 



This species was procured by Mr. Dall at the mouth of the Yukon Eiver, and by 

 Mr. E. K. Laborne at Anadyr Gulf, in Eastern Siberia. Mr. Bannister found it com- 

 mon at St. Michael's. All the specimens that he obtained were shot on the ground, 

 they having apparently a habit of sitting on the mossy tundi^as, or heaths ; and not 

 infrequently he has followed one for more than a mile at a time, the bird flying 

 short distances, and alighting just out of range. This habit is explained by some by 

 the statement that it feeds on the berries that abound in these situations ; by others, 

 that it is in quest of the eggs of some other species, which it is accused of devouring. 

 Mr. Bannister was not able to verify either explanation. 



Mr. E. Adams ('' Ibis," 1878) mentions the arrival of this species on Norton Sound, 

 Alaska, on the 7th of May ; after which several were always to be found near the 

 stages for drying fish, by plundering which they seemed chiefly to subsist. Some 

 of them frequented the marshes, hunting about for eggs, and robbing the Terns and 

 small Gulls. They bred about the dry knolls in the marshes. 



Mr. MacFarlane found it abundant throughout the Barren Grovmds, as well as in 

 the neighborhood of Fort Anderson, and also on the shores of Franklin Bay and the 

 Arctic Ocean. The nests were all mere depressions in the soil, scantily lined with 

 dry hay, leaves, and the like, and the number of eggs was never more than two. One 

 nest is mentioned as having been discovered in a very thinly wooded plain, June 28. 

 The eggs contained well-developed embryos. The parents were both present, but did - 



not make so much noise as usual, and when closely approached flew off to a tree in 9 



the vicinity. One nest was near a small lake, and it was lined with a few withered 

 "leaves of grasses. Another was some distance from a lake, and both parents flew 

 and screamed over the heads of the intruders wliile these were searching for the 

 nest. One egg was only slightly advanced, Avhile the other was nearly ready to 

 hatch. In another instance the parents made an unprecedented disturbance, flying 

 close overhead, and were easily secured. In some instances the birds examined were 

 found to have partaken of a quantity of last year's berries, thus confirming the state- 

 ments to that effect made by the natives to Mr. Dall. Another memorandum states 

 that a nest with two eggs was found, June 27, on a dry turfy piece of ground, about 

 fifty yards from the beach, on Franklin Bay. There really was no nest, and the eggs 

 were extremely difficult to find, owing partly to their color being exactly similar to 

 that of the soil, and partly to the efforts of both parents to mislead those searching 

 for the nest — to effect which they scream and fly over the liead of the intruder ; and 

 if their treasure seems on the point of being discovered, the parent birds — espe- 

 cially the female — become so savage that there is danger of actual injury resulting 

 from their attacks. In another instance, where a nest was being sought for on the 

 Barren Grounds, June 26, 1863, the parents endeavored by various stratagems to 

 lead the intruder away from the place ; and when the eggs were finally discovered, 

 they began a furious attack upon his head, so that it was necessary to shoot them 

 in self-defence. In another instance, on the same day, a female sitting on her nest 

 fluttered off when discovered, as if with a broken wing, much as a I'lover would do 

 in a similar case. 



In a note made June 28, 1863, Mr. MacFarlane says : " At midnight the sun is sev- 

 eral degrees above the horizon, and there is, of course, no night. During the period 

 answering to it, however, as many as twenty or thirty birds of the genus Stercorarius 

 are sometimes seen sitting or standing on the ground, each bird at the distance of a 



