| Show lit gob 1 V A VIC ro to n 4 1117 FER larer oy A N interesting account of the birds observed during a trip in r alaska has been published by the smithsonian institution as reported ed by P seymour hersey who was I 1 in n the field lor for AC A C bent collecting data and photographs tor for the completion of th tha a life histories of north Al american merican birds leaving seattie seattle on the revenue cutter bear the party steamed northward through the inside passage where the scenery was delightful all the way to ketchikan from that point the bear passed through dixons du entrance trance and headed tor for As they neared pass various meaders members of the tabi or tube nosed birds were noticed together with sooty shearwaters petrels and albatrosses ses As they approached the pass the number of birds increased to a point almost beyond belief As far as the eye could sae masses of birds were bedded on the water burres and puffins were everywhere it was utterly impossible to form any definite estimate of the number of birds seen says the author hundreds of thousands does not exaggerate their abundance the ship seems to bave literally plowed its way through them the bear lay at three days during which time mr hersey collected a number of species peculiar to that locality after touching at st george and st paul Is islands lande they proceeded on to Nomer port the tha ship did not actually reach on account of the tee ice but anchored out in the stream and sent the mall mail asbor ashor eby dog teams to the yukon in open goat boat at st michael mr hersey left the bear and made arrange arrangements monts with the owner of a small open power boat to carzy carry hira him and his outfit to the mouth of the yukon river they went through the so called canal between st michael island and the mainland but encountered a severe storm w which atz forced them to land and encamp tor for three days birds were plentiful in the neighborhood of f the camp and mr hersey employed the time to good advantage securing many specimens of eggs proceeding onward they arrived at the mouth of the yukon and established their headquarters at the wire lesa station eight miles from the native village tillage of dotlik the country all I 1 around in reported very flat making a safe feeding ground for th little brown cranes and geese since it was impossible to approach them unobserved in describing it mr hersey says so bare and level Is tho the country that a photograph of the river taken frota the shore shows the opposite bank as nothing but a straight line such its a might be made across the print with a ruler and a coarse stub pen hero Her tithe the author remained during the gri greater later part of the breeding season ho he found pint pintails alls and several species of breeding abundantly gulls terns and jaegers coin common andred and red polls alaska yellow wag tails willow ptarmigan and alaska long epurs alst also well represented in this region delayed ln in the ice off barrow later in tho summer he returned to nome noma and again embarked on the beara bear which stopped at many points along alone tha coast among which were golowin bay cape prince of wales cape dyer point franklin and barrow before reaching barrow they encountered considerable ice and were delayed ten days en route at barrow the northernmost point of this trip the bcd conditions were so bad they only remained long enough to land the niall mall and take aboard several men who had been caught in the ice the previous sea season and obliged to winter at barrow among the newcomers was W S brooks of the polar bear party who had been collecting for the museum of comparative zoology As soon boon as the ship was out of the ice her course was changed to west and an effort was made to reach island where the shipwrecked crew of the karluk was known to have wintered but after try ing for ten days in fog sno snow wand and gen eral bad weather they gave it up and put back to nome for coal stopping at jo several everal places on tho way mr ki herbey left the bear at nome and took passage on the steamship victoria to seattle it I 1 is s interesting to note the fact that mr hersey found the aleutian tern which has always been scarce and which was recently thought to be extinct altogether he encountered about 9 one ne hundred of them and collected several specimens this bird is larger and much darker than the common arctic tern and has a peculiar white forehead another rare bird mentioned Is fish ers era petrel once represented to in museum collections by a single spec men and now by only three or four although they have been observed frequently quent ly they are hard to collect and their nesting places are not known the aleutian sparrow Is one of the most interesting birds seen been being one of the twenty or more varieties of this family that cover the united states from east to west occurring in british america and alaska as an well in the islands of alaska it reaches its great est development being very much larger than the ordinary north american sparrow and sometimes as large larga as a catbird even the barn swallow was seen on the trip this bird is a true migratory bird traveling from thlu point as far south as as argentina and chile in the winter months |
