BIRDS. 81 



come iuto the sheltered bays, sometiaies to the number of a thousand or more. At such times 

 they show great uneasiness, and frequently pass hours in circling about the bay, sometimes a 

 hundred yards high and again close over the water, the shrill whistling of their wings making a 

 noise which is distinctly audible nearly or quite half a mile. Until the young are about half 

 grown the female usually keeps them in some large pond near the nesting place, but as August 

 passes they gradually work their way to the coast and are found, like the eiders of the same age, 

 along the reefs and about the shores of the inner bays until able to fly. 



Prom the 10th to 15th of October the last ones leave the coast and move southward. This 

 species rarely ascends the Yukon, even to Nulato, and is more strictly a sea-shore species than 

 either of the two following. 



OiDEMiA DEGLANDi Bonap. Whitc-winged Scoter. 



This is less common in Alaska than either the 0. perspicillata or 0. americana. The last of May, 

 1877, 1 saw a few of them about TJnalaska Harbor, and during the succeeding seasons they were 

 found as not rare visitors to the vicinity of Saint Michaels, where they breed in very small 

 numbers. As fall approaches they become more common there, and are found in company with 

 the Velvet Scoter about the seaward face of the islands. During the last of September, and up to 

 the time the formation of sea-ice forces them away, they are rather common all along the coast. 



I found nothing in their habits differing from those of the allied species with which they 

 associated. 



Several specimens were brought me from Nulato and the Lower Yukon, taken during the 

 breeding season. 



Bischoff secured this species with its eggs at Sitka during the Telegraph Expedition, and dur- 

 ing the cruise of the Corwin I found them on both shores of Bering Straits and in Kotzebue Sound, 

 where they breed. A few were also seen along the Siberian coast northwest of the straits. 



The scoter taken at Bristol Bay by McKay and announced by Mr. Ridgway in the Proceedings 

 of the U. S. National Museum as Oidemia fusca, the European Velvet Scoter, proves, as he now 

 informs me, to be the present species. 



The notes under Melanetta fusca in the Cruise of the Corwin really belong under deglandi. 



Oidemia PERSPiciLLATA (Linn.). Surf Scoter (Esk. Tii-talik). 



In company with the 0. americana these birds first appear in the vicinity of Saint Michaels 

 about the middle of May. Although not rare during the breeding season on the marshes of the 

 Yukon delta and about Saint Michaels, yet it is very much less common than the latter. 



It breeds commonly on the marshes along the Yukon, even above Fort Yukon. A consider- 

 able number of specimens was brought me from the latter point and from Nulato. Dall procured 

 the downy young below Fort Yukon on June 23, and records that they were found abundant at 

 Sitka by Bischoff. 



In the Aleutian Islands they are winter residents. It was found breeding at Sitka by Bean, 

 and Turner reports it as a common resident in the Near Islands. During the summer of 1881 I 

 found them common about the head of Norton Sound, on both shores of Bering Straits, and in 

 Kotzebue Sound. 



Although I did not find these birds nesting commonly near Saint Michaels, yet from about 

 the last of June or first of July, until autumn, immense flocks of males frequented the shores of Saint 

 Michaels and the adjoining Stewart Islands. The seaward shores formed the ordinary haunts of 

 these birds until the approach of a gale forced them to seek the lee of the islands or the sheltering 

 bays. From the fact that these flocks are formed exclusively of males it is evident that the females 

 assume the duties of incubating the eggs and rearing the young. 



The main breeding ground of this species remains unknown to me, for, although females and 

 young were not rare in summer, yet they were never numerous enough to account for the vast 

 numbers of males to be found. 



On August 23, 1878, 1 visited Stewart Island, about 10 miles to the seaward of Saint Michaels. 

 As I neared the island in my kyak I found the water literally black with the males of this species, 

 S. Mis. 156 11 



