14 AUKS, MURRES, AND PUFFINS 



At Monterey Mr. Loomis has found comparatively few Cassin 

 auklets near land, but reports them as common off shore, especially 

 on the ocean. In July he has found eggs and young birds on the 

 Farallone Islands, and in one case discovered an auklet sharing its 

 apartment with two rabbits. The numbers of these birds on the 

 islands was impressively shown one night during Mr. Loomis's visit. 

 At sundown he saw several flocks flying high overhead and at two 

 in the morning awakened to find the bird population in au uproar. 

 Although it was pitch dark the voices of the auklets — which he com- 

 pares to those of whip-poor-wills — filled the air till the whole island 

 appeared to be alive with birds. 



GENUS CYCLORRHYNCHUS. 



17. Cyclorrhynchus psittaculus {Pali). Paroquet Auklet. 

 Bill dark red. high, and thin, with sickle-shaped lower mandible curved 

 upward. Breeding plumage : throat and upper 

 parts sooty black ; under parts white ; a white line 

 from lower eyelid back over ear ending in a thin 

 white crest. Winter j)lumage and young : throat 

 as well as rest of under parts white. Length : 9.00- 

 10.40, wing 5.40-6.00, bill .60. 

 Pi 34 " Distribution. — Coasts and islands of the north 



Pacific from the Kurile Islands and San Francisco 

 Bay to Sitka, and northward. 



Egg. — 1, pure white, deposited in a deep chink or crevice. 



When sailing across Bering Sea, on the way to Norton Sound, Mr, 

 Nelson's vessel was stopped and held by the pack ice. When the 

 ice at last opened, he says, the water became covered by thousands of 

 the strange little auklets, and as long as the ship was in the ice the 

 only sounds beside the grinding of the cakes and the roar of the 

 waves were the low whistled notes of the parrot and crested auklets, 

 myriads of which surrounded the boat, " swimming buoyantly from 

 side to side or skurrying away from the bow of the vessel." On the 

 Fur Seal Islands the birds were again encountered, this time breed- 

 ing on the cliffs, feeding at sea and returning to their nests and 

 mates on the islands. 



GENUS SIMORHYNCHUS. 



20. Simorhynchus pusillus {Pall). Least Auklet. 

 Size very small ; bill with knob at base ; crests of slender white feathers 

 ^^r- in front and back of eye. Breeding plumage : upper parts 

 <^iX^C~ o blackish, mixed with white on scapxilars ; under parts white, 

 ^^i^^ I irregularly spotted or mottled with dusky, often forming 

 ^ 2 a dusky band across chest. Winter plumage: under parts 



Fig. 35. ^j^^ sides of neck pure white ; face crests usually less de- 

 veloped. Young : similar to winter adults but with more white on scapu- 

 lars and without the white face feathers. Length : 5.50-7.20, wing 3.50- 

 4.00, bill .35-.40. 



