ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 223 



the pairing season, its only note being a low, sonorous, vibrating 

 whistle. Like Simorhynchus cristafellus, it will breed in company 

 with the "clioochkie," but will not follow that lively relative back 

 upon the uplands, for the "baillie briishkie" is always found on the 

 shore line, and there only. The egg, which is laid upon the bare 

 earth or rock, is pure white, oblong-ovate, measuring 14 by 2-k inches. 

 To obtain it is exceedingly difficult, owing to the bird's great caution 

 in hiding and care in selecting some deep, winding crevice in the face 

 of a cliff. At the entrance to this nesting cavern the parents will 

 sometimes squat down and sit silently for hours at a time if undis- 

 turbed. It does not fly about the islands in flocks, and seems to lead 

 an unassuming, independent life by itself, caring nothing for the 

 society of its kind. The young when first hatched I have not seen, 

 but by the lOtli or 15th of August they may be coming out for the 

 first time from their secnre retreats and taking to wing as fully 

 fledged as their parents. They leave the islands from the 20th of 

 August to the 1st of September and go out upon the North Pacific for 

 the Avinter, where they find their food, which consists of ampTiipoda 

 and fish fry. I have never seen one among the thousands that were 

 around me on the islands opening bivalve shells, such as mussels, as 

 stated by a German author. It feeds at sea, flying out every morn- 

 ing and returning in the afternoon to its nest and mate. As" in the 

 case of the puffins nothing else than dynamite, or similar agencj^, 

 could open the basaltic crevices in which the bird hides, and of 

 course resort to this action would also destroy the Qgg. Therefore I 

 was not able to gather much more than a baker's dozen of their 

 eggs, though I could see at any time a thousand of the birds. 

 37. Simorhynchus cristatellus. Crested AuK; "Canooskie." 



This fantastic bird, the plumed knight of the Pribilof Islands, is 

 conspicuous by reason of its curling crest and bright crimson bill. It 

 makes its appearance in early May, and repairs to chinks and holes in 

 the rocky cliffs, or deep down below a huge bowlder and rough basaltic 

 shingle, to deposit its egg upon the bare earth or rock, marking no nest 

 whatever; and like the "briishkie," so well do these birds succeed in 

 secreting their charge, that although I was constantly upon the gi-ound 

 where several thousand pairs were laying I was unable successfully 

 to overturn the rocks under which they hide, and get more than four 

 perfect eggs, the sum total of many hundred attempts. The note of 

 the "canooskie" while mating is a loud, clanging, lionk-\\\e sound; 

 at all other seasons they are as silent as the grave" The crested auk 

 lays but one egg, and the parents take turns^Iam inclined to believe, 

 in the labor of hatching and in that of feeding their young. The egg 

 is rough, pure white, but witli frequent discolorations, and, compared 

 with the size and weight of the bird, is disproportionately large. It 

 is an elongated oblong-oval, the smaller end being quite pointed. 

 Length, 2.10; width, 1.40. I have not seen a chick, nor could I get 

 any notes upon its appearance from the natives, but I have shot the 

 young as they came out for the first time from their dark, secure hid- 

 ing places, full fledged with the exception of their distinctive crest, 

 being by this time, the 10th to 15th of August, as large as the old birds, 

 and of the same color and feathering. The "canooskie," like its 

 cousin, the "choochkie," has no sexual variation in size or plumage; 

 males and females, to all external view, are precisely alike. The 

 bright crimson bill varies, however, considerably in color and in its 

 strength and curve, the slenderer bill being confined, as far as I could 

 see, to the young birds; some old ones had very pointed beaks also. 



