BIEDS. 45 



They nest upon the Pur Seal Islands, and are especially numerous on the Diomedes in Bering 

 Straits, where we secured fresh eggs the middle of July, 1881. They are not common on the east 

 coast of the sea, where the wu.ter is shallow, and are scarce also in ISTorton Sound for the same 

 reason. • 



A few pairs of a black Guillemot, which at the time I took to be this species, were seen in 

 Kotzebue Sound and others at Cape Lisburne, but the deep bays and deep water on the Siberian 

 coast of Bering Sea and the adjacent Arctic afford them a favorite summer resort, and they find 

 an abundance of breeding places on the cliffs there. The red feet of these birds are used by the 

 Eskimo of the straits for ornaments on some of their clothing, and the skins are used for clothing. 

 In winter their plumage changes to a pied mixture of black and white, and when hunting far out 

 at sea the Eskimo of Norton Sound find them late in November about the holes in the ice. 



A specimen in this mottled dress was brought me on August 24 one season at Saint Michaels. 

 It measured 13 inches in length by 22.50 inches in extent. Its beak. was dark horn-colored, except 

 a streak of light flesh color along the ciilraen over the nostrils. The iris was hazel and the feet and 

 legs dirty flesh color. In spring, the last of March and first of April, they are again found among 

 the open spaces at sea by the native hunters. 



Ueia teoile calipobnica (Bryant). California Murre (Esk. Athl'-pa). 



An abundant resident along the entire Aleutian chain and the mainland coast of the Pacific. 



Birds and eggs have been taken at Sitka and Kadiak, and they occur throughout this region. 

 On the Fur Seal Islands Elliott found them to occur in small numbers. They breed on the 

 Commander Islands. They swarmed about Herald Island when we visited there August 12, 

 1881, and the downy young, small black balls of down, only a day or two old, were taken 

 there. When we landed upon the unknown shores of Wrangel Island we found them breeding 

 on the cliffs there, but in smaller numbers. While we were scaling the cliffs on Herald Island 

 these Guillemots would scarcely make way for us, and a few feet away sat almost bolt upright and 

 stared at us with a comical expression of amazement. Their close resemblance to the next species 

 with which they were associated rendered it impossible to distinguish them except at very close 

 quarters. A party of about fifty was seen on the cliff of Saint George's Island on one occasion, 

 but they were more common in twos and threes. 



Ueia lomvia aeea (Pall.). Pallas's Murre (Esk. AthV-pa.) 



Wherever the coasts and islands of Alaska are bordered by rugged cliff's and rocky declivi- 

 ties this bird is found in great abundance. They occur at Kadiak and along the adjacent coast 

 from Sitka to the peninsula of Aliaska. The precipitous shore lines of the Aleutian Islands afford 

 them a favorite resort during the breeding season, and the surrounding waters make their winter- 

 ing place. They were extremdy plentiful in great flocks in the passes near Unalaska during May, 

 1877, and storms forced them to find shelter in the deep bays. The middle of June, the same sea- 

 son, they were seen in large numbers off the Fur Seal Islands and off Saint Lawrence Island. It 

 is an abundant resident of the Near Islands. At Point Barrow it is reported by Murdoch to be an 

 occasional visitor, usually in the broken ice offshore. The Eskimo sometimes found a stray indi- 

 vidual off Saint Michaels the first of May, but they were rarely seen until the last of this month. 



During June they gathered about their nesting places in Norton Sound as the ice disap- 

 peared, but several seasons fresh eggs were brought in the last of July and first of August. 

 Cape Denbigh and a long cliff west of Cape Darby, on the north shore of Norton Sound, are njoted 

 breeding resorts, the latter place being called Athlpul t git (or Murre Place) by the Eskimos. All 

 the islands of Bering Sea are frequented by myriads of them in summer, their abundance about 

 the Fur Seal group and the Diomede Islands in the straits being specially noticeable. They breed 

 in small numbers on Chamisso Islet, in Kotzebue Sound, and on the cliff's near Cape Lisburne, but 

 were not seen by us north of that point. They are very numerous on the Siberian coast, and were 

 the most numerous birds on Herald and Wrangel Islands. They breed abundantly on the Com- 

 mander Islands, according to Stejneger. Whenever we approached these islands during the sum- 



