4 
Gavia Stella ta (Pontoppidan). Red-throated Loon 
“As we emerged from the harbour of Prince Rupert, May 6, among 
the protecting islands, several small, rocky islets were black and white 
with sea-birds, mainly cormorants and gulls. A dense flock of perhaps 
two thousand gulls (Glaucous-winged and Herring Gulls) mixed with 
cormorants, loons, Red-breasted Mergansers, and murres, were evidently 
working a herring shoal. The loons to the number of about twenty were 
seen, mainly on the wing, and were all in the white and grey plumage 
suggesting Red-throats. One close to the bow seemed grey-brown and 
had little or no black evident about him.” 
The Red-throated Loon was not met again until the return voyage, 
when two were seen on the wing at Broughton bay in the Kurils (Shimishir 
island), July 13. At Petropavlovsk, July 17, 19, and 31, two were seen 
on each date idling in the bay close to the wooded sand-spit. On August 3 
two were seen in the bay at Nikolski, Bering island. 
Lunda cirrhata (Pallas). Tufted Puffin 
Not observed anywhere during outward voyage. On April 25 a short 
visit to the rookery on Toporkov island, off the bay at Nikolski, Bering 
island, revealed that the previous season a large number of young had been 
left behind to perish. The snow was not yet gone from the hummocky 
top of the island — it was a vast rookery of holes — but many dead birds, 
only partly decomposed, were in evidence 
On the return voyage this species was seen daily in varying numbers 
from the northern end of Hokkaido island, Japan, right around the circuit 
of the north Pacific and Bering sea to Forrester island, near Prince Rupert, 
B.C. The bird was seldom out of sight of the ship. It mattered not 
whether the Thiepval was skirting the land, or far at sea, these grotesque 
yet beautiful birds always were at hand, either winging across the rolling 
swell, bobbing lightly upon it, or flapping away from the bow unable to rise, 
in the manner of a half -fledged duckling. Evidently these birds fed very 
far at sea from the breeding rookeries. On August 2, “in the evening, when 
90 miles from the mainland of Kamchatka and 35 from Bering island, many 
Tufted Puffins were in sight and a few bobbing on the swell.” 
The greatest numbers were seen near Bering island. At the time of 
our return to Nikolski, Toporkov island was a populous place. “At 6 a.m., 
August 3, we were entering the harbour, Toporkov island on our port bow. 
This island now presented a wonderful sight; it was the site of a puffin 
rookery thousands and thousands strong. The air was full of whizzing 
puffins dotting the grey, foggy sky everywhere. There were puffins 
around us on the water, and in the air were singles, doubles, threes, and 
fours, dozens, strings, and long ranks that in the distance resembled geese — 
all hurrying homeward. A cloud of dots constantly swirled over the green- 
topped island; dots from the sky dropped and disappeared in the greenery. 
Only a gull or two and some murres were in evidence, other than the 
puffins.” 
“At 9 a.m. the distant puffin storm over Toporkov had only slightly 
abated. Birds were still coming in strings, and always more seemed coming 
in than going out again. No estimate of the Toporkov population could 
be other than a guess.” 
