508 



THE DIVING BIIIDS — PYGOPODES. 



Downy young. 



similar acicular feathers crosses the auricular region, from behind the lower eyelid. Lower parts 

 chii'lly white, the breast and sides more or less spotted with dark slate, tJiis fre([uently forniin"- a 

 distinct and uninterrupted collar across the jugulum, usually in abrupt and marked contrast to the 

 white of the throat ; chin and malar region plumbeous, this usually fading gradually into the 

 white below it. Bill dark reddish ; iris white ; legs and feet dusky in the dried skin. AcluU, in 

 u-intcr (= Uria jJiisilla, Pallas): Bill smaller, more compressed, and destitute of the tubercle at 

 the base of the culnien ; lower i>arts, including the sides of the neck, continuously white, the chin 

 plund)eous, as in the summer plumage ; white ornamental feathers of the forehead, etc., usually 

 less ile\eloped, or, in younger specimens, altogether wanting. Yomuj, first jilnmage : Similar to 



the winter adult, but bill still smaller, no 

 trace of the ornamental i)lumes about the 

 head, and white scapular patches larger and 

 more distinct. DoiLmy yomir/ .- Uniform sooty 

 slate, paler and UKjre grayish on the lower 

 ]iai-ts. 



Wing, 3.50-J.()0 inches ; culmen, .35- 

 .40 ; depth of bill (in summer adult), about 

 .30, in winter adult and young, about .20 ; 

 tarsus, .65 ; middle toe, .80. 



A series of nearly seventy specimens ob- 

 tained on the breeding-grounds in June and 

 July on St. Paul's and St. George's Islands, 

 Alaska, by Mr. H. W. Elliott, affords ample 

 material for studying the individual varia- 

 tions of this species, which, as shown by 

 this immense series, is very considerable. The principal variation consists in the degree to which 

 the wliite (if tlie lower parts is liroken by dark spotting. In none is the white perfectly continu- 

 ous, as in the winter plumage, although in a few it is very nearly so ; there being in all more or 

 less dark spotting acro.ss the jugulum and along the sides. The most highly plumaged specimens 

 have a 1)road and uninterrupted collar of dark slaty across the jugulum, abruptly dehned against 

 the imniarulate white of the throat, but below broken up into coarse spots, which continue along 

 the entiri! .sides, and often over the breast and abdomen also ; in none, however, is there more 

 than an apjiroach to a segregation of the spots on the breast, and the lower parts are probably 

 never uniforndy dark, except the jugular collar. There is also much variation in the distinctness 

 and extent of the white scapular areas, the majority of specimens having these well defined, while 

 in some they are nearly obsolete. In one example (No. 62624), in which the upper parts are a 

 particularly deep and glossy black, there is no trace of them ; this specimen being also wholly 

 destitute of the ornamental filaments of the head, and having the knob on the bill very slightly 

 developed. 



]\[r. H. W. Elliott met Avith this species — the Least, or Knob-billed, Auk — on the 

 l*rybilof Islands. He speaks of it as the most characteristic of the waterfowl fre- 

 quenting these islands, to which it repairs every summer by millions to breed with 

 its allies, Shnoi'hijndius cristutellus (Canooskie) and the Cijdorvhynchus psittandus. 

 It is said to be comically indifferent to the proximity of man, and can be approached 

 almost within arm's length before taking flight, sitting upright, and eying one Avith 

 an air of great wisdom combined with profound astonishment. Usually about the 1st 

 or 4th of May every year the Choochkie — as this bird is called — makes its first 

 appearance around the islands, for the season, in small flocks of a few hundreds or 

 thousands, hovering over, and now and then alighting, upon the Avater, sporting, one 

 with another, in a})parent high glee, and making an incessant Ioav chattering sound. 

 By the 1st to the Gth of June they have arrived in great numbers, and then begin to 

 lay. They frequent the loose stony reefs and bowlder-bars on St. Paul's, together 

 Avith the cliffs on both islands, and an area of over five square miles of basaltic shingle 



