Birds observed in Kamchatka. 
283 
too, were occasionally seen, tlie more frequent species being 
Stercorarius crepidatus. On the 17th, as we were leaving 
Avacha Bay, I thought I saw the long-tailed Buffon’s Skua, 
but it is hard to identify the two species on the wing. 
Terns were numerous, parties of old and young birds fishing 
together, especially in August 1897, over the small lagoon 
behind Petropavlovsk. They were very tame, and it was a 
pleasure to see their white forms and to hear their peevish 
cries, as with down-pointed beak they eagerly scanned the 
water, and, occasionally seeing a fish, dropped headlong down¬ 
ward like a Gannet. Specimens which we brought home have 
been identified as Sterna longipennisNoYdim., by Mr. Howard 
Saunders. 
The most conspicuous water-birds of Avacha Bay were 
the Divers, of perhaps two species: two obtained for me 
by Mr. Jacobleff proved to be the red-throated species, 
Colymbus septentrionalis Gm., but it was among the 
birds of prey that the most interesting species were to be 
observed. In Avacha Bay it was hardly ever possible to 
be out of sight of a pair or more of Ospreys, Pandion 
haliaetus. The size of these birds, combined with their rather 
strongly contrasted upper and under sides, made them very 
conspicuous. A pair seen at Tareinski seemed to have a nest 
in a locality which the mosquitoes prevented me from visiting. 
Although very active and frequently on the wing, the Ospreys 
did not seem to be destructive to other birds, for the Gulls 
paid no attention to them, although one or other of the pair 
was nearly always circling around or hovering at a good 
height above the water. The fishing of these birds was 
by no means always rewarded by success. Often one 
would drop meteor-like for a distance as if intent on securing 
its prey, but the bird usually stopped, as if disappointed, 
before it reached the lake’s surface, and then resumed its 
hovering. On July 16th I saw one of these large birds 
carrying something in its claws, so that they could not have 
been always so unsuccessful as I at first imagined; but it was 
not until August 1897 that I actually observed one descend 
to the water from a height, seize a fish in its claws, and. 
t 
