72 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVI 
salmon-berries and devil-club, together with fallen logs, makes the woods almost 
impenetrable. On the slopes of the mountains some distance back from the 
water’s edge are extensive open, boggy meadows covered with coarse grass and 
various kinds of berry bushes, and sparsely timbered with the squaw pine. Above 
timber-line, which is at about 2500 feet altitude, two species of heather flourish, 
furnishing food and protection to ptarmigan, pipits and Savannah sparrows. Iii 
walking through the forests, and swamps, and over the hare tops of the moun- 
tains, one who is familiar with the abundant bird-life of more favored sections of 
the United vStates, is at once .struck by the extreme scarcit}'- of bird-life. I once 
walked for four hours on the mountains of Chichagof Island without seeing a 
single bird. The only places where land birds are in any sense plentiful are around 
Fig. 3v3. The Summer Home of the Dixon Rock Ptarmigan: Great Eastern Moun- 
tains, Baranof Iseand, southeastern Alaska. Photo taken September 2,5,1911. 
the edges of clearings, in the grass and underbrush bordering the beach, and along 
streams. 
When, however, the ornithologist becomes weary looking for birds where 
there seemingly are no birds, he may turn his attention to the salt water and 
the ever interesting variety of water fowl to be found thereon. Gulls, auklets. 
murrelets, puffins, petrels and many other interesting groups are here in plenty, 
many species nesting on the outlying islands, others being migrants or stragglers. 
The most important breeding ground of the water fowl in the vicinity is vSt. 
Lazaria Island, a National Bird Reservation, about fifteen miles from Sitka and 
close to Kruzof Island. There are less important nesting colonies of water birds 
on the small islands off Biorka, and on Sea Lion Rocks west of Kruzof Island. 
This section has iiiany times in the past been visited by ornithologi.sts, the 
