stepping-stones between America and Asia, are occupied in spring 

 and summer by uncounted millions of murres, murrelets, auklets, 

 cormorants, and gulls, nesting in crevices and on ledges along the 

 ragged fronts and slopes of the rocky cliffs, which often rise a thou- 

 sand feet or more sheer from the stormy sea at their base. When 

 startled from their perches on ihe Diomede and King islands in 

 Bering Strait the murres and auklets fill the air with whirring forms, 

 so that the islets appear like huge bee-hives in swarming time. For- 

 tunately the vast nurseries of the Aleutian Islands are now set aside 

 as National bird-refuges, where, through all the coming years, the 

 birds may rear their young in comparative safety. 



The Aleutian Islands are swept by so many gales and fierce local 

 storms, or "woollys," that if birds are to exist there they must con- 

 tinue their affairs despite them and they have become able to a ■ so. 

 As a consequence, even in the fiercest gales, when a man has hard 

 work to face the wind, he may hear the ptarmigan crowing on the 

 hills and song sparrows and wrens singing in the little valleys and 

 coves near the shore. 



The number of land-birds on these islands is extremely limited 

 nevertheless. Most notable are the ptarmigan. These are close rela- 

 tives of the rock ptarmigan of the mainland, and are found throughout 

 the Aleutian chain. Owing to climatic influences and isolation the 

 ptarmigan on each of the larger islands or groups of islands have be- 

 come a little different from the others and naturalists have recognized 

 seven kinds among them. 



On Akutan Island I once saw an Aleutian wren, a little brown 

 bird, clinging to a twig of dwarf willow a foot or so high on the crest 

 of a cliff, and pouring forth its soul in melodious song, while a heavy 

 gale swept over the island and whipped the bird on its perch back 

 and forth until it seemed as if the songster must be torn loose and 

 blown away to sea. Another conspicuous habitue is a gigantic 

 song sparrow, so strongly built that he can well withstand his harsh 

 surroundings. A large brown finch with rosy sides also makes its 

 home there ; and three species of snowflakes dwell on the barren 

 coasts and islands of Bering Sea, their contrasting black-and-white 

 plumage making them conspicuous on the dull brown tundra. The 

 presence of eagles and certain other birds of prey is elsewhere 

 alluded to. 



Qn the heavily wooded islands of southeastern Alaska the bird- 

 life is closely related to that of the adjoining humid and forested area 

 of Bri*^^^ Columbia and the coast of Washington. Among the most 



33 



