ALASKA 171 



ou this little island, staudiDg stacked np together like so many 

 bottles, as thickly as they can be stowed, making all the time 

 a deep, low, hoarse, grunting noise. They quarrel among 

 themselves incessantly, and in this way roll thousands of eggs 

 off into the sea, or into crevices and fissures, where they are 

 lost and broken. 



"The 'arrie' lays but one egg. If this is removed or broken, 

 she will soon lay auother ; but, if undisturbed after depositing 

 the first, she undertakes the hatching at once. The size, shape, 

 and coloration of this egg are exceedingly variable. A large 

 proportion of the eggs become so dirty, by rolling here and 

 there in the excrement while the birds tread and quarrel over 

 them, as to be almost unrecognizable. The shell is very tough, 

 and the natives, when gathering them, fill tubs, baskets, «S:c., 

 on the cliffs, carry them down to the general heap collected 

 near the boats' landing, and pour them out upon the rocks with 

 a single flip of the hand, just as a basket of apples would be 

 emptied ; and, after this, they are again quite as carelessly 

 handled when loaded into the 'bidarrah,' sustaining through it 

 all very little injury. 



'•The small grassy interior of the island, which is sharply 

 margined by the surrounding breeding-belt of 'arries'on the 

 shore-line, is the ouly place, I believe, in this sea where the 

 great white gull {Lariis gJaucus) breeds. Among the little 

 grassy tussocks here, it builds a nest of dry grass, sea-ferns, 

 &c., very nicely laid up and rounded, and in which it lays usu- 

 ally three eggs, sometimes ouly a couple : in exceptional instances 

 I have seen four. These big gulls could not bi'eed on either of 

 the other islands in this manner, for the foxes there would have 

 the upper hand instantly; and the bird is too large to settle 

 on the narrow shelf-ledges of the cliffs, like the smaller gulls 

 and other water-fowls. 



'' The red-legged kittiwake, [Larus hrevirostris,) and its cousin, 

 Larus tridactijhts, build in the most amicable manner together 

 on the faces of the cliffs, associated with cormorants, sea-par- 

 rots, and auks, all together, and, with the exception of the 

 latter, the nests are easy of access. 



"As we land, the ' arries ' fly from their eggs off and around 

 for a short distance, and then settle down into the sea in platoons 

 or files, swaying hither and thither with the movement of swell 

 and tide, trailed out over the water like great whip-lashes. 



