40 NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



cover is removed a callous meinbraue bearing feathers is exposed, and tbese feathers extend up 

 and pierce the fallen scale. The basal angle of the lower mandible becomes pliable before the 

 horny cover breaks, and a dark suffusion shows as though a watery tinid had exuded between the 

 horny sheath and the cartilage. 



A bird taken the middle of September had the bill only a little over one-half the size usual in 

 spring and the beak was soft and pliable. When these birds are at rest the membranous horns 

 over the eyes are soft and incline inwards over the top of the head, but when the bird becomes 

 excited they are erected and stand stiffly upright over the eyes. 



From the island already described a number of these birds, both young and old, were taken 

 home alive, and kept iu a pen for some time. They fed upon the fragments of fish thrown to them, 

 and but for the cold weather could have been retained for months. They were awkward-appear- 

 ing birds and would sit blinking iu the same spot for hours at a time. The moment they caught 

 sight of a person, however, they became panic-struck and would rush to the darkest corner of 

 the pen, where every bird tried to hide its head iu the corner. When first taken they were ex- 

 tremely vicious, biting and using their long sharp claws with considerable effect. Although bitten 

 by them dozens of times j'et they never drew blood, but when they secured a good hold they 

 could pinch pretty hard. 



Young and old leave their northern breeding grounds about the 20th of September. A small 

 island iu Kotzebue Sound is a resort for thousands of these birds in summer. Eggs of this bird 

 measure about 2.75 by 1.75, and are white, more or less soiled, and indistinctly marked with fine 

 reddish-brown specks. 



Cerokhinca 3I0NOCERATA (Pall.). Ehiuoceros Auklet. 



Bischoff secured nine specimens of this bird at Sitka during the Telegraph Explorations 

 Since that time nothing additional coucerning the habits and distribution of this species in Alaska 

 has been learned. 



Ptychoramphus aleuticus (Pal!.). Cassiu's Auklet. 



This species occurs on the coast of the North Pacific from the Aleutian Islands to Lower Cali- 

 fornia. 



Cyclorrhynchus psitxaculus (Pall.). Paroquet Auklet. 



In the passes among the Aleutian Islands these birds were common in May, 1877, and on June 

 17, the same season, they were again seen off the eastern end of Saint Lawrence Island. We 

 were on our way to Norton Sound, when, during the day mentioned, we became beset by the pack- 

 ice and held for about a day. When the ice opened and allowed us to escape, the water became 

 covered by thousands of these strange little birds. The sun was just rising after its brief disap- 

 pearance below the northern horizon when we made sail from our unsafe berth aud made slow 

 progress through the moving ice. The cakes were of every shape aud size, aud were rendered still 

 more fantastic by the peculiar light. The ice showed beautiful shades of blue and green topped in 

 dazzling white. The sea was almost black, except where it reflected the vivid crimsons of the sky. 

 Far off to the west arose the tall cliffs on the shores of Saint Lawrence Island. A thin white 

 mist formed and vanished over the ice, which the rising wind began to force on before it. The 

 grinding of ice-cakes, one against the other, and the low but increasing roar of the waves as they 

 gained power among the separating fragments, all united to render this one of the most grand and 

 imijressive scenes witnessed during my northern experience. The only sounds of animate creat- 

 ures heard as the vessel made its perilous way in a zigzag course, every now aud then coming iu 

 contact with a piece of ice so as to wreuch everything on board, were the low whistled noter 

 of the Parrot and the Crested Auks, which now suiToanded us by thousands. For some hours, iu 

 fact until we had left the ice well behind, these birds were all about swimming buoyantly from 

 side to side or skurrying away from the bow of the vessel. The following day a few were seen off 

 the Yukon mouth, but my subsequent experience showed that this bird is very rare along the 

 east coast of Bering Sea. Like a number of other species they ai)pear to have a strong prefer- 

 ence for deep water and the islands situated iu it. 



