Steller's Eider. ^79 



their course of flight, as we repeatedly observed. If a flock should be passing a 

 hundred yards or more to one side, the natives would utter a long peculiar cry, 

 and the flock would turn instantly to one side and sweep by in a circuit, thus 

 affording the coveted opportunity for bringing down some of their number. These 

 flocks generally contained a mixture of about one-twentieth of the number Pacific 

 Eiders, and the remainder about equally divided of Steller's and the King- Eiders. 

 At times the entire community of these birds, which made this vicinity their 

 haunt, would pass out in a solid body, and the flock thus formed exceeded in 

 size anything of the kind I ever witnessed. 



The first night of our arrival was calm and misty, the water having that 

 peculiar glassy smoothness seen at such times, and the landscape rendered indistinct 

 at a short distance by a slight mistiness. Soon after we came to anchor before 

 the native village, this body of birds arose from the estuary, a mile or two beyond 

 the native's hnts, and came streaming out in a flock which appeared endless ; it 

 was fully three to four miles in length, and considering the species which made 

 up this gathering of birds, it was enough to make an enthusiastic ornithologist 

 wild with a desire to possess some of the beautiful specimens which were seen 

 filing by within gunshot of the vessel. * A little later in the evening the natives 

 brought off a considerable number of the birds which they had killed with their 

 slings, and during our stay at this place, the following day, we saw large numbers 

 of them killed with these implements, and a few were obtained with our guns. 

 This portion of the Siberian coast appears to be the grand summer resort of this 

 Eider, as the Aleutian Islands form its wintering grounds. One of the remarkable 

 facts in the history of its distribution, however, is shewn in its total absence on 

 the opposite American coast of the Arctic where the surroundings appear to be 

 almost identical with those found on the Siberian shore, yet for all the thousands 

 of these birds seen on this latter coast, not one was noted on the American 

 shore, although the King- Eider occurs equally numerous upon both sides of the 

 Arctic." 



Steller's Duck is said to be not uncommon in some parts of the Baltic in the 

 winter, probably migrating to and fro over the land from Russian Finmerk. Mr. 

 E. Hartert says, that between 1840-50, it was not very rare on the Baltic coast 

 of East Prussia, and many were shot near Pillau and Danzig, but only on the sea. 

 It has occurred four times at Heligoland; three young grey birds were obtained 

 in the winter of 1844-5, ^^^ ^ young male in transition plumage, which I have 

 seen in Mr. Gatke's collection, was procured on February nth, in 1855. 



There are only two records for the British Islands, both on the east coast 

 of England, an adult male in nearly perfect plumage, at Caistor, in Norfolk, on 



