ALCID^ — PHALERIDIN^: AUKLETS, ETC. 



1073 



similar, the single egg being laid in recesses of rocks over the water; size 1.55 X 1.12; color 

 white or whitish, unmarked, as in other species of this genus. The bird occurs S. to Japan 

 and Sitka, and has been recorded from Puget Sound. 



PTYCHORHAM'PHUS. (Gr. irrvi, nrvxos, ptux, ptuchos, a fold ; pantos, hramphos, beak.) 

 Wrinkle-nosed Auklet. Size moderate ; form stout ; no crests nor any peculiar feathers 

 about head. Bill about § as long as head, stout, straight, little compressed, couic-acute; 



Fig. 731. — Least Auklet, adult, uat. size. 



Fig. 732. — Least Auklet, young, nat. size. 



culmen little convex, broad at base, where in the dried state transversely coiTugated; sides 

 of upper mandible turgid, with inflected tomia ; of under, upright, grooved lengthwise ; gonys 

 straight or nearly so, very long. Nasal fossae large, shallow, covered with soft skin which 

 flares over the rather long, narrowly oval, sub-basal nostrils. Outline of frontal feathers 

 nearly transverse across culmen, thence retreating obliquely to commissure. Tarsus reticulate, 



y^-.y 



Fio. 733. —Group of Least Auklets. (Designed by H. W. Elliott.) 



much shorter than middle toe witliout claw. Tail of 14 feathers. This genus has mucli the 

 aspect of Brachyrhamphus, with sui generis shape of bill. 



P. aleu'ticus. (Of the Aleutian Islands.) Aleutian Auklet. Cas.sin's Auklet. Bill 

 black, the skinny part pale or yellowish ; feet blackish behind and below, bluish in front of 

 tarsus and on tops of toes. Iris white. A touch of white on lower eyelid. Upper parts 

 blackish-plumbeous; head, wings, and tail nearly black, this dark color, diluted to grayish- 



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