1070 



S Y STEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — P YGOPODES — ALC.E. 



Fio. 725. — Paroquet Auklet, nat. size, 

 H. W. Elliott.) 



(Ad. nat. del. 



C. psittac'ulus. (Lat. imttaculus, a little parrot. Fig. 725.) PAROQUET AuKLET. 



Adult (^ 9 : lu samiiier witli a uasal saddle, moulted in one piece or several pieces in winter; 



shape of bill uot materially altered, however, 

 the piece or pieces being small and flattish. 

 Bill vermilion or coral, usually horn-yellow at 

 tip and along edges, nasal scale darker. Iris 

 white. Mouth and soft base of tomia whitish. 

 Feet mostly black, but in part pale bluish or 

 yellowish. No curly crest on forehead, but a 

 series of long white filamentous plumes from 

 eye downward and backward. Entire upper 

 parts, with chin, throat, and flanks, sooty 

 brownish -black, grayer below than above; 

 other under parts white ; lining of wings dark. 

 When out of season, the white invades the 

 throat and chin, the sides of the former being mottled with dusky and white. Length 9.00 

 or more; wing 5.40-5.75; tail 1.55; tarsus ].00; middle toe alone 1.10; chord of culmen 

 or gonys 0.60; gape 1.00; depth of bill 0.45; width 0.30. Young: No white filaments on 

 head ; a white spot on lower eyelid ; upper parts as before ; under parts white, marbled and 

 mottled with dusky ends of the feathers. North Pacific, ranging S. to Sitka and the Kurile 

 Islands ; S. in winter to San Francisco Bay : common along the Aleutian chain, where it resorts 

 to cliffs and crags to breed, laying its single egg usually deep in cavities of the most inaccessible 

 rocks overhanging the sea ; it resembles a small narrow hen's egg, being white, variously 

 soiled and discolored, minutely granular and rough to the touch, 2.25-2.35 X 1-45-1.50. 

 SIMORHYN'CHUS. (Gr. ort/itds, simos, snub-nosed; pvyxos, hrugchos, beak.) Snub- 

 nosed AuKLETS. Starikis. Of moderate and very small size, and stocky shape. Head 

 crested or with peculiar feathers. Bill of indeterminate shape, differing with each species, 

 furnished with a varying number of deciduous horny elements. Nostrils entirely unfeathered. 

 Wings and tail ordinary ; tail 14-feathered. Feet small ; tarsus shorter than middle toe, 

 entirely reticulate; toes long, middle and outer of about equal lengths, claw of former 

 longest ; inner claw reaching base of middle ; all curved and compressed. Three very distinct 

 species — the queerest little Auks in the world. Each has been made type of a genus; and 

 their respective peculiarities are now considered to represent three subgenera — Simorhynchus 

 proper, Phaleris, and Ciceronia. 



Analysis of Species. 



A long frontal crestj curling over forward. 



One series of white feathers on each side of head (Simorhynclius proper) cristaiellus 



More than one series of white feathers on each side of head (Phaleris) pygmcBUS 



Short white hair-like feathers over forehead ; no crest (Ciceronia) pusillus 



(Subgenus Simorhynchus.) 



S. cristatel'lus. (Lat. cristatelliis, dimin. of cristatus, crested. Figs. 726, 727, 728.) 

 Crested Auklet. Crested Stariki. Snub-nosed Auklet. Dusky Auklet. Bill 

 fundamentally small and simple, compressed-conic, with convex culmen and little sinuate 

 horizontal commissure ; but in breeding season developing several corneous appendages, 

 which make it singularly irregular, and modify even outline of feathers at base. These de- 

 ciduous accessory pieces are : a nasal plate, filling nasal fossa, separate from its fellow of 

 opposite side ; a subnasal strip prolonged on cutting edge of upper mandible backward from 

 nostrils ; a semicircular plate at base of upper mandible over angle of mouth ; a large shoe 



