360 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



THE OBNITHOLOGICAL HISTORY OP THE ISLANDS. 



I have had little opportunity for looking up ancient references to the birds. They 

 are but meager and fragmentary. Coinde in 1860 made a list of but nine species that 

 were collected by an officer of the Eussian navy, Mr. Warnect, in 3,352. The jealous 

 care exercised by the Russians for the preservation of the seals prevented any out- 

 siders from studying the avifauna, so that it was not until the islands passed under 

 the control of this Government, and Mr. Elliott made his investigations, that any great 

 effort was made to study the bird life. Dr. W. H. Dall had indeed in 1868 spent a 

 short time at the islands and, together with the officers of his surveying vessel, had 

 collected some specimens, one of which was described as new by Prof, S. P. Baird, 

 but the first systematic investigation was made by Mr. Henry W. Elliott. The result 

 of this gentleman's work was a list of 40 species, based on copious notes and numerous 

 specimens which were named and elaborated by Dr. Elliott Ooues in Mr. Elliott's 

 report for 1873, and which was reprinted in 1875. Mr. Elliott made another more 

 extensive elaboration in his monograph of the seal islands in 1882. Besides the 

 above, various other Government expeditions which have visited the waters of Bering 

 Sea for different reasons during the past sixteen years have generally touched at the 

 seal islands and given several naturalists oijportunities for collecting and noting the 

 bird life. Thus, Mr. L. M. Turner in 1878, Dr. T. H. Bean in 1880, Mr. B. W. Nelson 

 in 1881, Lieut. J. B. Lutz in 1884, Mr. 0. H. Townsend in 1885 to 1896, myself in 1890, 

 Messrs. P. W. True and D. W. 'Prentiss, jr., in 1895, Mr. F. A. Lucas in 1896-97 have 

 spent from a day or two to several months on the islands. The results I have brought 

 together in the following list. Besides, several employees of the sealing companies 

 and several Treasury agents have collected and preserved some specimens, though 

 few of them have been noted in publications or are available for study. The specimens 

 collected by the naturalists of the various Government expeditions were deposited in 

 the collection of the National Museum, of which they are now a part. The following 

 list is based on them; but of many of the species a better series would have been 

 more acceptable. Of many but a single specimen is available, while of many more 

 only the observations of the collectors have been the means of incorporating the 

 species in the list. Mr. Elliott translated for his 1873 report the following bird note 

 from Bishop Yeuiaminof's work, Zapieska ob Octrovah Oonahlashkenskaho Otdayla, 

 1840: 



Birds: The guillemots (or arries); gulls; puffins; crested, horned, and white-breasted auks ; snow 

 finches ; geese (two tinds) ; a few kinds of Tringa; sea ducks, hlaok and gray. Most of these hirds 

 come here to lay, and with Wae.m jagers, hawks, owls, and "ehikees" (big Lariis glauous), and the 

 albatross is frequently to be seen around the beaches. 



Mr. Elliott has enumerated 41 species in his various lists, 3 M'ere added by Mr. 

 Townsend in 1885, 3 others were collected by Messrs. True and Prentiss in 1895, Mr. 

 Lucas added another in 1897, and I am responsible for 21 others, thus bringing the 

 total to 69. 



EXAMINATION OF ■ STOMACHS. 



I preserved a number of stomachs of many of the species, which were turned over 

 to the Division of Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture. Dr. 0. H. 

 Merriam, the chief of that division, has kindly permitted Mr. Sylvester D. Judd, one 



