318 CHARADRIIFORMES CHAP. 
head. In winter the horny processes disappear, but not the 
plumes.  Ptychorhamphus aleuticus, Cassin’s Auklet, of the 
Pacific coast of North America, is black above and white below, 
with a lead-coloured throat, a white iris, and a bill which is 
mainly black, and becomes wrinkled in summer. Cyclorhynchus 
psittaculus, the Parrot Auk of the North Pacific, has an extra- 
ordinary compressed orange-red beak, to which the blunt decurved 
maxilla and narrow up-curved mandible give a rounded appear- 
ance; the upper parts and the throat are dusky; the lower 
surface, the iris, and a row of filaments behind each eye are white, 
as is the throat in winter. Three species of Simorhynchus, 
from the North Pacific, have a stout orange-red or purplish 
bill, a white iris, and black upper parts. S. cristatellus, the 
Crested Auklet, has several deciduous plates at the base of 
the beak, including a round piece at each side of the gape; the 
lower parts are grey; a tuft of dusky plumes curls over the 
forehead, and a line of narrow white feathers stretches across the 
ear-coverts—both being permanent: in winter the bill is horn- 
coloured. SS. pygmaeus, the Whiskered Auklet, is without 
conspicuously deciduous plates, but has an additional patch of 
white plumes, reaching from the beak above and below the eye 
at all seasons. SS. pusillus, the Least Auklet, has on the short 
maxilla a small compressed basal tubercle, which is shed in 
winter, but exhibits no crest. The scapular region shews a good 
deal of white; filamentous white feathers grace the forehead, lores, 
and ear-coverts ; and dusky spots mark the lower parts, in summer 
only. § Synthliborhamphus antiquus, of the Pacific north of 
Vancouver Island and Japan, but accidental elsewhere, has a 
short, compressed, yellow and black beak, with plumbeous upper 
and white lower parts; the head and throat are black with a 
white line on each side of the occiput, the upper back is streaked 
with white. In winter all the stripes vanish, and the throat is 
white. S. wumizusume, of the Eastern Asiatic seas southward 
to Japan, has a nuptial crest of long narrow plumes, but no 
streaks on the back. In the cold season the whole malar region 
and throat are white.  Brachyrhamphus marmoratus of the 
North Pacific, reaching California in winter, has a small slender 
black bill, dusky upper parts barred with rufous, and white under 
parts varied with brown; &. kittlitzi, of the Aleutian Islands 
east to Unalashka, Kamtschatka, and North Japan, is thickly 
