THE RHINOCEROS AUKLET. 



911 



An Aukk't lien, discDN'ered upon her ne>t, lias all the defiant \irtue of her 

 sex and calling. The (me figured herewith was sitting 011 nothing at all, not 

 even a clam-shell; hut neither is that original with the Auklet. She is quite 

 ready to peck too, and a glove is to lie recommended for these psychological 

 studies. When gi\en her freedom, the Auklet imariahlv pitches headlong 

 down the declivit}-, liarely clearing the vegetation, until she reaches the level 

 of the water, whereupon she flies away with swift even stroke, ahout a 

 foot above the surface, until lost to sight. 



In June the chick liatches, a child of night : and he is appropriately clad in 

 a suit of slaty black down. He has no 



desire to see the ^^^•■fl!!?'*^^^ light, least of all 



THE .\'i:STL\(, CIIA.MBER. 



as prepared for him b\- pick and shoxel. He feels quite ill at ease when 

 exposed, and spends his entire time shifting about restlessly in the end of a 

 burrow remaining to liim, and searching in his soul wliy he ma\' not find 

 greater privacy. 



The children of the night-shift are all alike in this, that thev love dark- 

 ness rather than light. That this was not alwa_\s true of the Rhinoceros 

 Auklet we have curious e\idence in the coloring of the egg. \'iewed in the 

 large, the purpose of pigmentaticin is jirotective. The egg of the gull, exposed 



to the full fflare of dav. is dark-colored am 



splashed and blotched with 



brownish blacks that it blends in adniiraliK- with its surroundings of dead 



