ALASKA. 207 



Tylorhamphus ictracidii>i, iJoXAi-. Coniptes Kendus, xlii, 774, 



(18.%.) 

 ritakris {Ti/Iorhamphii>i) teiracula, Cass. li. N. A., 907, (IS.'ir-.) 

 ^imorlninciin tttraadus, CoUKS. Proc. Tbilu. Acad., (l-iC-^.)— 



CouKS. Key N. A. 13., 342, ( 1872. ) 

 rimlcna jmtlaciihi, Tkmm. Man. «r<Jrnitli., i, p. cxii, (18i0.) 

 riialeria siqKrciliata, Aud. Oni. Uio-;., iv, pi. -Mhi, (lc:3'J.) (Xcc 



LiciiT. ; iiec Bi'.) 



'' This faiitastic-l()okiii«4' bird, conspicuous by reason of its cuil- 

 in<;- crest and bright crimson bill, breeds iu company with the 

 aS. microco'os, but in no number whatever comi»ared with the 

 'choochkie'— a few thousand pairs only at Saint Paul's, aud 

 relatively more on Saint George's, of course. 



" It makes its appearance iu early May, and repairs to chinks 

 and holes in the rocky clift's, or deep down under large bowlders 

 aud rough basaltic shingle, to lay, making no nest whatever, 

 depositing the egg upon the bare earth or rock. But so well 

 do these birds succeed in secreting it that, although I was con- 

 stantly upon the ground where several thousand pairs were 

 hiying, I was unable to successfully overturn the rocks (under 

 which they hide) and get more than four eggs, the result of 

 over a hundred attempts. 



•' The note of the ' canooskie' while mating is a loud, clanging, 

 honlc-Wke sound ; at all other seasons they are silent. 



" The Slmorhynchus cristateJlus lays but one egg, and the 

 parents take turns, I am inclined to believe, in the labor of 

 incubation aud in feeding their young. The egg is rough, pure 

 Avhite, but with frequent discolorations, aud, compared with 

 size and weight of the parent, very large. It is an elongated 

 oblong-oval, the smaller end being quite pointed. Length, 

 2.10; width, 1.40. 



" I have not seen a chick, nor could I get any notes upon its 

 appearance from the natives, but I have shot the young as 

 they came out for the first time from their dark, secure hidiug- 

 places, fully Hedged, with exception of crest, being by this 

 time, the 10th to 15th August, as large as the old birds, aud of 

 the same color and feathering. 



"The 'canooskie,' like its cousin, the ^choochkie,' has no sex- 

 ual variation in size or plumage. Males aud females are, to all 

 external view, precisely alike. 



"The bright crimson bill, however, varies considerably, not 

 in color, but in its relative strength and curve, the slenderer 

 bill not being confined, as far as I could see, to the young 



