302 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE 
167. LopJiodt/tes cucttllatus Reich. (613.) Hooded Merganser. 
Not obtained by any member of tlie party. If an inhabitant of the 
country, it is extremely rare. D. 
I observed one large flock of this species, in October, 1865, only a 
short time Ifefore the harbor froze up. I shot one, but having no boat, 
was unable to secure it. Not observed at any other time. B. 
168. Graculus dilophus Gray. (623.) Double-crested Cormorant. 
Two specimens were obtained at Sitka by BischolF. D. 
169. Gracidus violaceus Gray. (627.) Violet-green Cormorant. 
Very common at Sitka and Kadiak, where it was collected by Bischoff". 
Plenty at St. George's Island, Behring's Sea, where Captain Smith 
obtained several specimens. D. 
I quote both this name and the preceding with some doubt. Baird. 
Common. Found in the same situations as the puffins, Mormon corni- 
culata and 31. cirrhata. B. 
170. Gractdus hicristatus Pallas. (627a.) Plenty at St. George's, 
where I obtained specimens. The colors reflected from the feathers, in 
life, are very brilliant, and the skin near the eye and bill passes from 
bright crimson, near the bill, to a bright blue purple, toward the feathers. 
(See Pro£ Baird's paper.) D. 
171. Diomedea nigripes And. (633a.) Gony. This bird is very 
common in the North Pacific, following the ships for weeks. They are 
not found in Behring's Sea ; but several times, as soon as we had passed 
the islands, we were joined by a company of these birds, who accompa- 
nied us to San Francisco. They are generally dusky, but the old males 
have more or less white on the head. They are very greedy, swallowing 
all sorts of scraps thrown overboard, and a favorite amusement in a 
calm is to fish for them with a hook and line, baited with pork. With 
the exception of the small petrels, they are the only birds I have seen in 
the North Pacific off" soundings. 
These "gonies" follow the ship for hundreds of miles. They feed 
upon all manner of filth, and have no good qualities that I know of, 
except that of being indefatig;ible on the wing. They are dirty, awk- 
ward, ugly, and cruel to wounded ones of the same kind. They have 
an angry, envious note, only uttered when some more fortunate bird has 
secured a greedy morsel, and a croaking whine, in which they give vent 
to their apprehensions just before a storm. They hardly ever fly moie 
than fifty feet above the water, and usually keep about thirty feet above 
it. They rise by unfolding their wings and running a few steps in the 
water, and then a few strokes send them into the air. On a rough day 
they rise quickly, but always in the same manner, while, in a dead calm, 
they often have to run ten or twenty feet before getting out of the water. 
They can not rise from the deck. Their wings are so long that the 
motion of unfolding them is like unfolding a carpenter's rule, and the 
