224 ALASKA INDUSTRIES. 



38. Simorhynchus pusillus. Least, or Knob-billed Auk; "Choochkie." 



I take pleasure in writing the biography of this little bird, which is 

 the most characteristic and the most interesting one of all the water 

 fowl frequenting the Pribilof Islands, for it comes here every summer 

 by millions to breed. It is comically indifPerent to the proximity of 

 man, and can be approached almost within an arm's length before 

 taking flight, sitting squatted upright and eyeing you with its peculiar 

 "watch-ring" optics, that wear an air of great wisdom combined with 

 profound astonishment. 



Usually, about the 1st or 4th of May every year, the "choochkie" 

 makes its first appearance around the islands for the season in small 

 flocks of a few hundred or thousand, hovering over and now and then 

 alighting u^jon the water, sporting one with the other in apparent high 

 glee, making an incessant, low, chattering sound ; but they are only 

 the van to flocks that by the 1st or 6th of June have swarmed in upon 

 the islands, like those flights of locusts which staggered my credulity 

 on the Great Plains of the West. They frequent the loose stony reefs 

 and bowlder bars on St. Paul, together with the cliffs on both islands, 

 and what is most remarkable, they search out an area over 5 miles 

 square of basaltic shingle on St. George Island, which lies back and 

 over, inland from the north shore line. To the last position thej'come 

 in greatest numbers. They nmke no nest, but lay a single egg far 

 down below among the loose rocks, or they deposit it deep within the 

 crevices or chinks in the faces of the bluffs. 



Although, owing to their immense numbers, they seem to be in a 

 state of great confusion, yet they pair off and conduct all of their bill- 

 ing and cooing down under the rocks on the spot chosen for incuba- 

 tion, making during this interesting period a singular croaking sound, 

 more like a ' ' devil's fiddle " than anything I have ever heard outside 

 of a city's limits. 



To walk over their breeding grounds at this season is highly interest- 

 ing and most amusing, as the noise of hundreds and thousands of these 

 little birds, which are directly under your feet, gives rise to an endless 

 variation of volume of sound, as it comes up from the stony holes and 

 caverns below; while the birds come and go, in and out, whistling 

 around your head, comically blinking and fluttering. 



The male birds, and many of the females, regularly leave the breed- 

 ing grounds in the morning and go off to sea, where they feed on small 

 water shrimps and sea fleas, returning to their nests and sitting part- 

 ners in the evening. It is one of the sights on St. George, this early 

 morning departure and the early evening return of the myriads of 

 choochkies to their nests. The SimorhyncJms lays a single pure 

 white egg, exceedingly variable in size and shape, usually oblong- 

 oval, with the smaller end pointed. I have several specimens almost 

 spherical, and others drawn out into an elongated ellipse; but the 

 oblong oval, with the pointed smaller end, is the prevailing type. 

 Compared with the size and weight of the little bird, the egg is exces- 

 sively large. Average length, 1.55; width, 1.12. The length of the 

 bird, 3 inches; width, 2 inches. The general aspect of the egg is very 

 much like that of the pigeon's, excej)ting the roughness of the shell. 

 The chick is covered with a thick, uniform, dark, grayish-black down, 

 which is speedily succeeded by feathers, all much darker than those 

 of the parent, when it takes its flight from the island for the year, six 

 weeks after hatching. Old birds feed their young by disgorging, 

 never carrying anything up in their bills, and when the young leave 



