508 THE IM\ IN'. BIRDS PYGOPODES. 



similar acicnlar feathers crosses the auricular region, &om behind the lower eyelid. Lower parts 

 chiefly white, the breasl and sidi - more or less spotted with 'lark slate, tin-, frequently forming a 

 distinct and uninterrupted collar across Lhejugulum, usually in abrupt and marked contrast to the 

 white "i the throat : chin and malar region plumbeous, this usually fading gradually into the 

 white below it. Bill 'lark reddish : iris white; legs and feet dusky in the dried -kin. Adult in 

 winter (= Un • . s) Bill Bmaller, more compressed, and destitute of the tuben le at 



of the culmen ; lower parts, including the sides of the neck, continuously white, the chin 

 plumbeous, as in the Bummer plumage ; white ornamental leathers of the I . usually 



eloped, or, in younger specimens, altogether wanting. milar to 



the winter adult, hut bill still Bmaller, no 

 trace of the ornamental plumes about the 

 . and white scapular patches larger and 

 more distinct. J> 



, paler and more grayish on the lower 

 parts. 



Wing, 3.50-4.00 inches : culmen, .'■','>- 

 .jo ; depth of bill (in summer adult), about 

 .:;*'. in winter adult and young, al«. 



nly seventy specimens ob- 

 tained on the breeding-grounds in June and 

 July on St. Paul's and St. George's Idand-, 

 Alaska, by Mr. 11. W. Elliott, affords ample 

 material for studying the individual varia- 

 tions of tl hich, as shown by 

 this immi rable. The principal variation consists in the degree to which 

 tin- white of the lower parts i- broken by dark .-potting. In none- is the white perfectly continu- 

 ous, as in the winter plumage, although in a few it is very nearly so ; 



lc-s dark spotting across thejugulum and along the sides. The most highly plumaged Bpei imens 



have a broad and uninterrupted collar of dark si jugulum, abruptly denned against 



the immaculate white of the throat, but below broken up into coarse spots, which continue along 



the entire Bides, and often over the breast and abdomen also ; in n i- there more 



than an approach to a segregation of the .-pots on the breast, and the lower parts are probably 



uiformly dark, except the jugular collar. There i- also much variation in the distinctness 



■it of the white scapular areas, thi i as having these well denned, while 



in Bome they ai In one example (No. <;^'i;^4), in which the upper parts 



particularly deep and glossy black, there i them ; this specimen being also wholly 



mental filaments of the head, and having the knob on the bill very -lightly 



devel 



Mr. II. W. Elliott met with this species — the Least, or Knob-billed, Auk — on the 

 Prybilof Islands. H of it as the most characteristic of the waterfowl fre- 



quenting to which it repairs every summer by ruilli d with 



its allies, Simorhynchus ■ • oskie) and the Cyclorrhynchui psittaculits. 



[■ i mieally indifferent to the proximity of man. and can be approached 



within arm's length before taking flight, .sitting upright, and eying one with 

 an air id' great wisdom combined with profound astonishment. Usually about the 1st 

 or -1th of M I chkie — as this bird is called — makes its first 



appearance around the island-, for I in small hV-ks of a few hum';: 



thousands, ho . and now and then alighting, upon the water, sporting, one 



with another, in apparent high glee, ami making an i:. low chattering 



By the l-t to tin- 6th of June they have arrived in great numbers, and then begin to 



i hey frequei I ami bowlder-bars Si I' 



withthi .tare mile- . hingle 



