TAB AREUNOCE ROS AUKEET: gil 
An Auklet hen, discovered upon her nest, has all the defiant virtue of her 
sex and calling. The one figured herewith was sitting on nothing at all, not 
even a clam-shell; but neither is that original with the Auklet. She is quite 
ready to peck too, and a glove is to be recommended for these psychological 
studies. When given her freedom, the Auklet invariably pitches headlong 
down the declivity, barely clearing the vegetation, until she reaches the level 
of the water, whereupon she flies away with swift even stroke, about a 
foot above the surface, until lost to sight. 
In June the chick hatches, a child of night; and he is appropriately clad in 
a suit of slaty black — down. He has no 
light, least of all 
desire to see the 
Taken on 
Destruction : — Photo by 
Island. the Author. 
THE NESTING CHAMBER. 
as prepared for him by pick and shovel. He feels quite ill at ease when 
exposed, and spends his entire time shifting about restlessly in the end of a 
burrow remaining to him, and searching in his soul why he may not find 
greater privacy. 
The children of the night-shift are all alike in this, that they love dark- 
ness rather than light. That this was not always true of the Rhinoceros 
Auklet we have curious evidence in the coloring of the egg. Viewed in the 
large, the purpose of pigmentation is protective. The egg of the gull, exposed 
to the full glare of day, is dark-colored and so splashed and blotched with 
brownish blacks that it blends in admirably with its surroundings of dead 
