358 THE FUB SEALS OF THE PEIBILOF ISLANDS. 



grasses, sedges, and wild peas, together with pieces of driftwood and occasional bones 

 of cetaceans. Occupying the laud side of the more extensive of these sandy areas 

 are many, mostly grass-grown, sand dunes, some in process of demolition by the winds, 

 and all increasing or decreasing in size and shape as its varying velocity or direction 

 compels. The headlands, always rocky, generally have cliffs from 2 or 3 to 60 feet 

 in height, the bases of which are constantly washed by the ever-present surf. The 

 bold and exceedingly broken faces of these cliffs furnish innumerable crevices and 

 shelves in and on which various species of waterfowl breed and roost in great numbers. 

 These cliffs are generally capped by cinder deposits. In other places, where the rocky 

 shores are flat for some distance, numerous huge rounded bowlders have been pushed 

 up by ice pressure until they are mostly above high tide. Under these the choochkie 

 (and a few of other species) lays its solitary egg and is always to be found in compact 

 little flocks perched on their summits. At the southern end of the island, but opening 

 on the west side, is an extensive flat, sandy area — the only one of the kind on the 

 group — in which the tide ebbs and flows, and which is known as the Lagoon. On its 

 beaches during the summer the Pribilof sandpiper flocks in numbers, gulls and ducks 

 are always to be found, and later the migrating swarms rest and feed in and about its 

 waters. 



Otter Island. — This is a small copy of its relative, St. Paul, from which it is dis- 

 tant about 6 miles south-southwest. It is rather more than a mile in length and 

 about half a mile in width. Three sides fronting to the sea consist of bold, rocky cliffs 

 ranging to some 300 feet in height. On the north side, toward St. Paul, is a small 

 rocky beach, back of which is a small pond. Prom this iiond the ground slopes 

 upward to tbe crest of the cliffs. Here occurs most of the species found breeding on 

 St. Paul, and, besides, a colony of fulmars, which are only to be found elsewhere, 

 on St. George. Mr. 0. H. Townsend, in June, 1895, collected here many specimens 

 of fourteen species, breeding and migratory, including an addition to the American 

 avifauna, Tringa damacensis. 



Walrus Island. — Seven miles eastward of Northeast Point, on St. Paul, lies an 

 exceedingly rugged huge rock on which in summer innumerable individuals of com- 

 paratively few species of birds breed and roost. The central portion is an irregular 

 plateau some 40 feet above sea level. (PI. XXXVIII, fig. 1.) Its edges either end in 

 bold cliffs or slope in a series of shelves to the shore line. On the lower and more exten- 

 sive of these shelves are numerous rounded and much-crowded huge bowlders (PI. 

 XXXVIII, fig. 4), while almost entirely around the island low shelves of rock extend 

 irregularly for some distance seaward, and which are always covered at high and but 

 slightly uncovered at low water. The only vegetation are some clumps of grass and a 

 few other i)lants on the central higher portion. The area is about 5 acres, the length 

 about a quarter of a mile, the greatest width less than 80 yards. The various species 

 occupy definite portions, and practically all available space is utilized by the breeding 

 birds. Under the bowlders the horned pufftn and paroquet auk breed in numbers, and 

 on the cliff's of the southern end both species of kittiwakes nest in colonies. Upon 

 the central portion of the plateau, at its southern end, several hundred nests of the 

 glaucous-winged gull are to be seen, and a few of the larger Point Barrow gull. These 

 nests are built but a few feet apart, are large, and their surroundings are invariably 

 clean, in great contrast to the nesting sites of other species. From the edge of the 

 bluffs and extending all over the available space from the shore line to the gull nests 

 are to be found the large, strongly marked, and often gaudily colored eggs of the 



