264 WEAK-WINGED DIVING BIRDS 



effort, and flies heavily, but in migrating its powers of flight 

 are sufiicient to carry it wherever it wishes to go. 



In the Potomac River, and along the Virginia coast, this 

 bird is called the "War Loon." 



TEE CLIFF DWELLERS OF THE SEA 



There is a Family of weak-winged birds whose members 

 are all fisher-folk, and live high up on the ledges of the bold 

 and precipitous cliffs which hem in the northern oceans. 

 They are sociable birds, and where not destroyed by man 

 live in great companies varying from hundreds to thousands. 

 They form, as a whole, a great and diverse company, divided 

 into 23 well-defined species. Collectively, they are known as 

 the Auk Family, and include 4 puffins, 6 auklets, or little auks, 

 5 murrelets, 3 guillemots, 2 murres, 2 auks and 1 dovekie. 



Whenever you visit Alaska, or the arctic regions, almost 

 anywhere on salt water, you will be surprised by the abundance 

 of the birds belonging to this Family. Wherever rocky cliffs 

 rise out of blue water, you will find them tenanted by these 

 interesting creatures. Doubtless, also, you will find that 

 when such great gatherings of bird life are to be studied and 

 recorded, one good camera is better than ten guns. 



Like the Aztecs who, like eagles, built high up in the 

 crevices of the rock-cliffs of the gloomy Canyon de Chelly, 

 to be inaccessible to the hostile enemies who gave no quarter, 

 for similar reasons the feathered cliff dwellers of the sea build 

 in similar situations. Dearest of all spots to the nesting sea- 

 bird is a precipitous islet of rock rising out of the sea, wholly 

 inaccessible to the prowling wolf, fox and wolverine, and, if 



