AXCID^E- THE A-UKS — PHALERIS. 509 



on St. George's. On the last island they hover in the greatest number. There are 

 millions of them. They make no nests, but la\ a single egg each, Ear down below 

 among loose rocks, or they deposit it deep within the crevices or chinks in the faces 

 of the cliffs. Although, owing to their immense numbers, they seem to be in a stale 

 of great confusion, yet they pair off, under the rocks, upon the spot, selected for 

 incubation, making during this interesting period a singular grunting or croaking 

 sound, more like a "devil's fiddle" than anything he ever heard outside id' city limits. 

 A walk over their breeding-grounds at this season is exceedingly interesting anil 

 amusing, as the noise of hundreds of these little birds directly under foot gives rise 

 to an endless variation of sound as if conies up from the stony holes and caverns 

 below, while the birds come and go, in and out, with bewildering rapidity, comically 

 blinking and fluttering. The male birds, and many of the females, regularlj leave 

 the breeding-grounds in the morning, and go off to sea. where they feed on small 

 water-shrimps and sea-fleas (Amphipoda I, ceturning to their nests and sitting partners 

 in the evening. 



The Ch ihkie lays a. single pure white egg, exceedingly variable in size and shape. 



usually oblong oval, -with the smaller end somewhat pointed. Several specimens 

 almost spherical were obtained, and others drawn oul into an elongated ellipse ; hut 

 the oblong-oval with the pointed smaller end is the prevailing type. The egg is very 

 large, compared with the size ami weight ni the parent; average length, 1.55 inches; 

 width, 1.12. The general aspect is much like that of a Pigeon's egg, excepting the 

 roughness of the shell. 



The chick is covered with a thick uniform dark grayish Mack down, which is 

 speedily succeeded h N feathers, all darker than those of tic parent are six months 

 later, at the time it takes its flight from the island for the year. The parents feed 

 their young by disgorging, and when the young lards leave thej are as large and 

 heavj as the old ones. .Mr. Elliott is strongly inclined to the opinion that tic male 

 I. iid feeds the female when ineuhat ing. 1ml was nut able to verify this supposition by 

 observation, as the birds are always hidden from sighl at that time. 



.Mr. Dall states that he obtained specimens of this bird from the peninsula of 

 Aliaska, where it was abundant ; from Plover Bay, in Eastern Siberia, where he col- 

 lected it in person, and where the specimens were found to have the bill wider and 

 deeper than usual; and also from St. George, one of the Prybilof Islands. 



Eggs of this species from St. Paul's Island. I'.ehring Sea — procured by Mr. II. \Y. 

 Elliott — are of a pure chalky while color, one end more tapering than the other. 

 They measure about 1.63 inches in length by 1.1.'! in breadth. 



Genus PHALERIS, Temminck. 



PhcUeris, Ti mm. Man. Om. 1820, p. cxii (type, Alcapygmasa, Gmel.). 



Char. Similar to Simorhynchvs, but fill simple, without, accessory deciduous pi* s at any 



season. Head ornamented bj several -cue of lengthened ornamental filamentous feathers. 



The single species belonging to this genus re emble both Simorhynehus and dceronia, being, 

 iii fact, somewhat intermediate. It must be considered generically distinct, however, unless all 

 three are merged into one genus — a proposition which we cannot indoi i ■ 



