270 Bexdire, Notes on the Ancient Mur relet. fjulv 



digested that it was impossible for me to determine, and I did not 

 have an opportunity to kill a specimen while feedino^. But let it 

 be what it may, it certainly gives the flesh quite an agreeable 

 flavor, next, in my opinion, to that of a Cassin's Auklet, which is 

 the tablebird par excellence among the sea fowl of the North 

 Pacific. The egg, also, is excellent eating and is hardly surpassed 

 in flavor by that of the domestic hen. Two eggs are laid to a set, 

 the second is deposited after an interval of two or three days, and 

 frequently three or four days elapse before incubation begins. 

 Occasionally two birds will occupy the same nest ; at least I have 

 found three and four eggs in one, and I have also found one 

 in the nest of a Red-breasted Merganser {Merganser serratoi-). 

 During the day, while the breeding season is on, a very few 

 birds may be seen near land, but off shore they will be met with 

 in small flocks of from six to eight, and occasionally a flock of 

 one hundred or more can be seen. 



" I left the rookery on July 3, and was therefore unable to deter- 

 mine the period of incubation, or the time the young remain 

 in the nest, but in former years off the coast of some of the 

 Kuril Islands, I have seen numbers of old birds accompanied 

 by half grown young, still unable to fly, about the middle of 

 September, sometimes four or five hundred miles from land, 

 thus proving that they must leave their breeding grounds when 

 still very small At that age, the young, like the old, are 

 great divers, and no matter how long the parent remained below, 

 or how far she dived, the young would always break water at the 

 same time and in the same place, just at the old bird's tail. Dur- 

 ing the winter they scatter and can be found in small numbers 

 most anywhere about or between the islands, and at this time 

 they also associate with the Crested and Least Auklets {Siinor- 

 hyncJnis cristaiellus and S. piisiUiis), and the Marbled Murrelet 

 {B racJiyramphus mannorafus) . 



" Great numbers of these birds are taken by Peale's Falcon, 

 who seems to be one of their principal enemies next to man. As 

 I have already stated, the Murrelets are mainly found at some dis- 

 tance from land during the day, and here too, this Falcon pursues 

 them, watching for a chance to seize any Murrelet he succeeds in 

 driving from the water. After having secured its prey, the Falcon 



