240 
SWIMMERS. 
during September and October coming in from the sea to the west- 
ward, and rapidly passing along the coast towards the northeast. 
They were migrating evidently ; but whither ? and where had they 
come from, — where had they been nesting? These questions are 
still unanswered. It has been suggested that the birds may turn 
southward, and winter in the interior of this continent, — possibly 
in the Barren Ground region. But a more probable supposition is 
that offered, I think by Lieutenant Ray, that the flocks move east- 
ward until they meet the floating ice, and then wheel seaward and 
remain amid the “fields ” during the winter months, drifting south- 
ward, — too far from land to be observed, and feeding at the edge 
of the “pack.” 
But these are speculations only. It has been determined, how- 
ever, that the species is abundant in the vicinity of Bering Sea 
and breeds somewhere along the Siberian shore of the Arctic 
Ocean, that it occurs as an occasional visitor only in other portions 
of the Arctic region, and as an accidental straggler elsewhere. 
Upon what land the nest is placed is still unknown. It must lie 
somewhere in the frozen region to the westward or northward of 
Wrangel Island, and may be amid the Liakoff isles, or on some 
undiscovered island still closer to the Pole. 
