1072 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. —PYGOPODES — ALC.E. 



Fig. T'29. — Whiskered Auklet, young, nat 

 size. (From Elliott.) 



in summer : A very long curly crest of slender plumes curving over forward in arc of a circle 

 to droop upon the bill, dark-colored and of same general character as that of cristatellus, but of 

 fewer and more thready feathers. A maxillary series of slender filaments from commissure 



of bill along side of jaw ; another series from base of 

 culmen to eye ; a very long postocular series adowu 

 side of neck ; all these white or yellowish-white. 

 General plumage as in the last, but belly whitish. 

 Bill (dry) orange-red, more salmon color or yellow- 

 ish at end, in life vermilion with horn-bluish tip. 

 Feet dark. Length about 8.00; wing 4.50; tail 

 1.25; tarsus 1.00; middle toe and claw 1.55; outer 

 1.60; inner 1.10; chord of culmen 0.45; depth of 

 bill at base 0.30 ; gape 0.90 ; crest outstretched 

 1.50; longest white filaments on head 1.00. Young 

 {S. cassini Couks) : Bill very small and weak, much 

 compressed. No crest nor white plumes on head. Above blackish-cinereous, quite black on 

 head, wings, and tail ; under parts lighter and more grayish-plumbeous, bleaching on belly and 

 crissum. Bill reddish-dusky; tarsi behind and soles black; eye black and white. Nest- 

 lings in down sooty, nearly uniform, but paler below. North Pacific coasts and islands, 

 from Kamtschatka through the Aleutians to Unalashka. Figured in breeding plumage in 

 Turner's Cont. Alaska, 1886, p. 120, pi. 1. 



{Subgenus Ciceronia.) 



S. (C.) pusil'lus. (Lat. pusillus, puerile. Figs. 731, 732, 733.) Least Auklet. Minute 

 Auklet. Kxob-nosed Auklet. Adult $ '^ ,\n summer : Bill small and simple, but stout 

 for its length, scarcely higher than wide at base, rather obtuse at tip. A small deciduous knob 

 or tubercle at base of culmen. No crest ; but front, top, and sides of head more or less thickly 

 lined with delicate white thready feathers; a simi- 

 lar series, exceedingly fine, from eye along side of 

 hind head and nape. Excepting these filaments 

 and more or less white on scapulars and tips of 

 some secondaries, entire upper parts glossy black ; 

 region about under mandible, and a few feathers 

 along sides of body and flanks, blackish ; throat 

 white ; under parts white, more or less extensively 

 mottled or clouded with blackish, often uninter- 

 rupted on fore breast. Lining of wings white, 

 with dark feathers along the edge. Iris white. 

 Bill red ; knob and base of upper mandible dark. 

 Legs (dry) dark; front of tarsus and tops of toes 

 lighter. Length 6.50; wing 3.75; tail 1.25; 

 tarsus 0.70; middle toe and claw 1.00; chord of 

 culmen, including the node, 0.40 ; gape 0.60; height of bill at base 0.30, width scarcely less. 

 In winter: No knob; bill brownish; little white bristles of head retained but less developed; 

 white of under parts extensive, reaching far around sides of neck. Young : Like winter 

 adults, but with smaller bill and lacking white bristles of head and with more white on scap- 

 ulars. (Figured in Nelson's Cruise Corwin, 1883, colored plate of breeding plumage.) Young 

 in down like that of -S". pygmcBUS. This curious little bird, the smallest of Auks, and one 

 of the least of all water birds, inhabits the coasts and islands of the North Pacific, resorting 

 to favorite breeding places by millions, with C. psittaculus and S. cristatellus. The nesting is 



Fig. 730. — Wiiiskered Auklet, adult, nat. size. 

 (From EUiott.) 



