l8 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



of the boat. If a white cap developed near them they 

 would always escape from it by diving. Although over 

 a hundred were taken in the narrow belt near the surf, 

 they were more numerous there toward the last than at 

 the outset, new birds apparently coming in to take the 

 places of those that had been shot. 



That this little Auk leaves its summer home in the land 

 of icebergs and comes south in considerable numbers in 

 winter to California has not been generally known to or- 

 nithologists, the single specimen taken by Dr. Dall off 

 Monterey in January, 1874, an( ^ reported by Dr. Stejneger 

 (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. ix, p. 524) apparently being 

 the only one recorded from this coast. 



Many of the one hundred and two specimens preserved 

 exhibit in a large degree the plumage ascribed by the 

 books to the nuptial season. About half the birds of the 

 series have the black throat patch. In the majority of 

 them the black is more or less mixed with white. In sev- 

 eral, however, it is uninterrupted and in a dozen others 

 there are only a few stray white feathers. All of these 

 specimens have to a greater or less extent the streaks on 

 the upper back and indications of the latero-occipital 

 stripes. In several examples the latter are well developed. 

 On the sides beneath the wings the black prevails in nu- 

 merous cases. With perhaps the exception of a few 

 having the throat patch white and gray, the birds of the 

 remaining half of the series are apparently young-of-the- 

 year. All have the chin, at least, mouse gray, the shade 

 varying in different individuals. In many the mouse 

 gray also invades the region of the throat. The black of 

 the head and neck is duller and the sides are slaty, 

 sometimes in stripes. There are traces of the white 

 lateral markings of the crown and back in some of these 

 apparent juveniles. 



