THE RHINOCEROS AUKLET. 



909 



the sea-wall out of sight of the friendly lighthouse, and you could forget that 

 men ever lived. Nor would you suspect what is the real interest, the historical- 

 ly continuous interest of this spot — hy day. It is the home of ten thousand 

 Rhinoceros Auklets (Ccrorliiuca iiioiioccrata). They are the cave-dwellers 

 of Destruction. 



Late in April the Auklets, stirred by a common impulse, muster from the 

 wide seas and mo\-e upon Destruction by night. If there has been any scouting 

 or premature development work, it has been carried on by night only and has 

 escaped observation. In fact, it is a point of hoi 

 among the Auklets ne\-er to appear in the vi 

 of the great rookery — or aukery — by day. 



At the tribal home-coming, the 

 keepers tell us, there is a great hub- 

 bub. If the location be a brushy 

 hillside, the birds upon arrival 

 crash into the bushes like mete- 

 ors and take chances of a 

 braining. Upon the ground, 

 they first argue with nM 

 neighbors about boundaries. If 

 growls and barks and parml- 

 like shrieks mean anything, 

 there are some differences of 

 opinion discovered. Perhaps 

 also the details of matrimony 

 Iia\'e not all I^een arranged, 

 and there is much screaming 

 avowal. 



Graduall}', however, order 

 emerges from chaos, and the 

 birds set to work with a will 

 renovating the old home, or 

 (lri\'ing new 



Photo by the Author. 

 THE BURROWS MdUTII. 



tunnels in the 

 loam, sand, clay, or even hard- 

 pan. The burrows are usually five tn eiglit feet in length and about five 

 inclies in diameter, terminating in a dome-shaped chamljer a foot or more 

 across and seven or eight inches high. Each tunnel has a spur or blind 

 alley which, presumably, is occupied by the male during the honeymoon. 

 For lining, the nuptial cliaml)er boasts nothing more pretentious than a few 

 dead salal lea^■es and a handful of dried grasses. 



The amount of labor in\-ol\-ed in this hiime-delving is \-er\- considerable. 

 My guide once took an egg from a tunnel (h'i\en ten feet straight into a clay 



