Birds observed in Kamchatka. 
279 
sea-bird with a red breast. Later in the day we saw 
floeks of these fairy-like little birds, all dressed in the red 
livery of summer, and engaged either in flying over the 
sea with the sharp, quick wing-beats of a Sandpiper or in 
resting on the water with the cork-like buoyancy of a 
Petrel. I did not see among them any of the Bed-necked 
species, Phalaropus hyperboreus (Linn.), so common on 
Bering Island, not 200 miles away, and which was abundant 
at sea off Avacha Bay on our return journey on August 31st, 
1897. Both these Phalaropes are surprisingly tame and 
confiding in their habits while on shore, and at Tareinski 
Harbour on the 16th a bluejacket brought to me alive a speci¬ 
men of the grey species, which he had secured by knocking it 
over with a stone. It was a male in the red-breasted plumage, 
which is not nearly so bright as that of the female. These 
were the only Grey Phalaropes which I met with, but the 
abundance of the species as seen off the coast makes one marvel 
that Dr. Stejneger, in his account of the birds of the country^ 
could give no instance of its occurrence in the peninsula 
other than the record of a flock seen by himself near Bering 
Island on August 21,1882 *, and the statement “ that Merck 
observed this species, f circa Camtschatcam/ according to 
Pallas " +• 
The other species seen were mostly those with which I was 
already familiar, having met with them either off the coast of 
Yezo or in the Okhotsk Sea. Such were the Albatrosses, 
Diomedea albatrus Pall., of which we saw several, including 
an immature bird in the dark plumage inside Avacha Bay, 
near Petropavlovsk. 
Fulmars, Fulmarus glacialis glupischa Stejn., in the grey 
phase prevalent in the western Pacific, were numerous, as 
they are at that season of the year in almost all parts of 
Bering’s Sea and of the Pacific north of about lat. 45° N. 
which I have visited. Although this species comes quite 
close in to the shore both at the Commander Islands and at 
Bobben Beef, I did not see it inside the mouth of Avacha 
Bay. 
* Op. cit. p. 140. f Op. cit. p. 317. 
