trels — adventurous northern representatives of several great tropical 

 families. The last two reside in extensive breeding-companies on the 

 heights of St. Lazaria, where their young are hatched beneath the 

 grass-roots in midsummer. 



With a mention of the white-breasted and the violet-green cor- 

 morants, that breed in large numbers on the westernmost islands, we 

 come to the end of the list of sea-birds, and turn to that of the fresh- 

 water species. Many sea-birds, which used to nest numerously near 

 Sitka, now are rare there, owing mainly, it is believed, to the de- 

 struction of their eggs or young by crows and ravens. 



Ducks are not so numerous in this district as in the interior or 

 on the tundras. Of the mergansers, the only one regularly seen is 

 the red-breasted, the other being scarce. Mallards, green-winged 

 teals, Barrow's golden-eyes (whistlewings), the scaups, harlequins, 

 bufHeheads (butter-balls), and the scoters, appear to be the only 

 ducks nesting at all frequently near the coast; and few except the 

 pintail, scaup, old-squaw, scoters, and eiders, occur in winter. The 

 white-winged scoter is the most abundant of the surf-ducks, and is 

 numerous on salt water all through the year. 



The same may be said of the geese, the white-fronted and the 

 white-cheeked alone nesting on the southern coast, while the snow- 

 goose, Hutchins's, and the cackling goose, the brant and some others, 

 are occasionally seen in .migrations or during the winter. The climate 

 and other conditions are too unfavorable to induce or permit such 

 wading-birds as herons, bitterns, rails, and gallinules, to dwell in any 

 part of Alaska, except that the Pacific-coast variety of the great blue 

 heron visits the southern part of the Territory. 



The situation is a little better for the shore-birds, which can 

 pick up food along the margins of sheltered bays, especially west of 

 the Copper River; but such of these as are seen in the course of a 

 year are principally autumnal migrants. Only Wilson's snipe, the 

 Aleutian, Pribilof, and least sandpipers, the greater yellowlegs, and 

 the wandering tattler, halt to rear their young south of the Yukon 

 Valley. Nests of the black oyster-catchers, however, have been dis- 

 covered near Prince WiUiam Sound. The northern phalarope is com- 

 mon on salt water at all seasons. 



12 



