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ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

 BULLETIN 



Vol. XX. 



Published by the New York Zoological Society 



NOVEMBER, 1917 



Number 6 



BIRD LIFE ON A SEA VOLCANO 



By C. H. TOWNSEND 



Illustrated from photographs made on the U. S. S. Albatross, 1891. 



THERE is no reason why pictures showing 

 animal life in out of the way places 

 should not be published by the Zoologi- 

 cal Society, even if they do not relate directly 

 to the work of the Zoological Park and the 

 Aquarium. 



The photographs of sea birds reproduced in 

 this Bulletin, have been brought to light be- 

 cause they deserve a better fate than to remain 

 buried in a private photograph file. They were 

 made by the writer and his assistants in 1891 

 while serving with the Fisheries Steamship 

 Albatross. 



Bogoslof Volcano in Bering Sea, where the 

 photographs were made, has had a century-long 

 struggle with the sea for its existence and is of 

 alluring interest quite aside from its ornitho- 

 logical wonders. It rose from the sea on May 

 7, 1796, and its birth was accompanied by earth- 

 quake. Volcanic rocks were hurled as far as 

 Umnak in the Aleutian Islands, thirty miles 

 away. It has changed in height and form many 

 times since then. In 1806, lava flowed from it 

 into the sea. In 1883, its volcanic ashes fell on 

 Unalaska Island forty miles away. 



The ever changing form of Bogoslof has been 

 recorded by many vessels. During recent years, 

 beaches connecting the newer and older parts 

 of Bogoslof have appeared, disappeared and re- 

 appeared. The writer has observed marked 

 changes during successive visits. 



Bogoslof has been a stronghold of the sea 

 birds from the beginning, but the bird tenants 

 must have been ejected often with great vio- 

 lence. On the rough volcanic pile the birds nest 

 almost anywhere. While there are portions of 



the volcano from which they are excluded by 

 clouds of steam and sulphurous vapors, they 

 nest so close to such areas that the eggs in some 

 places are doubtless warmed as much by the 

 volcanic heat of the rocks as by the sitting 

 birds. I have climbed among nesting guille- 

 mots where the rocks were heated enough to 

 warm my chilled fingers. There are enough 

 dead birds in some places to show that they 

 often fly too close to the danger zones, not al- 

 ways being able to discriminate between hot 

 steam or poisonous vapors, and the dense fog 

 banks that drift about the island. Nevertheless 

 they multiply amazingly and their numbers can 

 only be described as myriads. 



The guillemot makes no nest, laying its large 

 single egg on any ledge wide enough to hold it, 

 so that the egg comes in direct contact with the 

 rock. The great mass of the birds of Bogoslof 

 are guillemots, (Uria lomvia arra), but there 

 are a few puffins and kittiwake gulls. Perhaps 

 the scarcity of nest-building birds can be ex- 

 plained by the total lack of nest-making mate- 

 rials such as grasses and dry seaweeds. Bogos- 

 lof has neither land nor sea vegetation and is 

 unique in this respect as compared with other 

 bird islands. The guillemots hold almost undis- 

 puted possession, while on other bird islands of 

 the region they share the cliffs with puffins, ful- 

 mars, kittiwakes, auklets, cormorants and other 

 nest builders. Birds like puffins, fulmars and 

 auklets, seeking deep crevices for their nests, 

 would have a hard time on Bogoslof where 

 deadly vapors may ooze forth almost anywhere. 



The numbers of guillemots to be seen on the 

 rocks at a given time do not indicate the actual 



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