THE CASSIN AUKLET. 



913 



WE were taking the oological horizon of Dhuoyuatzaclitahl, the tanKuis 

 Petrel island of the Ouillayute Needles grttup. and had just repaired to the 

 saw-grass area which crowns its crest when the professor held up a pale green 

 egg three times larger than (irdinary and modestly asked if that were a 

 Petrel's. "I should say not," the bird-man cried: whereupon the i)rofessor 

 returned to the burrow and drew forth the owner of the egg, a strange foreign- 

 looking bird with leaden plumage al)ove, white underparts and a gray-green 



Taken on Alexander Islet. 



Photo b\ the Author. 



CASSIN'S AUKLKT, ADL'l.T AND YOUNG. 



eye which blinked and stared like that of a Czech caught smuggling. It was a 

 Cassin Auklet, the "Kwoahlla" of which the Ouilla^utes had been telling us; 

 and it was only in this randiim fashion that the bird was added to the list of 

 the breeding sea fowl of the coast of \Vashington. 



The reason for previous oversight was not far to seek, for Cassin's is an 

 earlv bird, most of the burrows containing young on the iith of June, 1907, 

 while the Petrels were only beginning to lay.' They are, moreover, desultory 

 breeders, for fresh eggs may be found in burrows alongside of tliose contain- 



