CASSIN'S AUKLET 111 



hidey-hole from the water's edge to the summit of the light tower which is not 

 likely to harbor this ubiquitous bird. The interstices of the stone walls contain 

 them to the number of thousands. Every cavity not definitely occupied by puf- 

 fin, petrel, or rabbit is tenanted by an auklet, and in many cases quarters are 

 shared. If one's imagination is not sufficiently stimulated by regular occur- 

 rences, it will be jogged by appearances in unexpected places an old nest of 

 rock wren or pigeon guillemot, an inner recess of a murre cave, an abandoned 

 spur of puffin burrow, an overturned wheelbarrow or neglected board lying 

 on the ground, driftwood on the beach anything affording the slightest prospect 

 of protection or cover. A pile of coal, sacked up and awaiting transfer from 

 landing to siren, was found to be full of them. Since this was the rule from 

 center to circumference of this magic isle, we conclude that the Cassin auklet 

 is the commonest bird on the Farallones, and estimates of population anywhere 

 short of one or two hundred thousand do not take account of the facts. 



Mr. A. B. Howell has sent me the following notes on the Cassin's 

 auklet: 



There are but few of the islands along the California coast and halfway 

 down the peninsula of Lower California on which this auklet does not breed. 

 Coming in from the sea it selects a suitable spot, usually more than 50 feet 

 above the ocean, and tunnels out a burrow in the loam, which varies from one 

 to several feet in length. These are used year after year until their entrances 

 are big enough to fit a puffin. When available sites of this kind become 

 crowded they readily occupy niches among the rocks and the corners of caves. 

 The odor emanating from the burrows strongly reminds one of a badly kept 

 chicken house. Fresh eggs are found by the middle of March and may be 

 found in numbers until the middle of July, though the nesting season would 

 seem to vary greatly in different years. Of perhaps 50 nests examined by 

 me on Los Coronados Islands the first part of July, 1910, all held eggs in 

 various stages, except three which contained small young. On June 30, 1913, 

 this order was reversed, and out of many nests examined by Messrs Dickey, 

 van Rossem, and myself three eggs were obtained, and the remainder held 

 young in all stages. It is also worthy of note that at the latter time there 

 were not nearly as many birds breeding as at the former. The eggs are 

 deposited on the bare ground or occasionally a few bits of weed. 



Mr. Chase Littlejohn sent the following notes to Major Bendire: 



This auklet arrives at the island, on which it intends to nest, between 9.30 

 and 10 in the evening, according as the weather is clear or cloudy the darker 

 the sky the earlier they come and immediately drop into the grass and are 

 soon in their holes, where they both take a hand in digging and cleaning out 

 whatever has accumulated since it was last occupied. After this house clean- 

 ing is done, or a new hole is dug, the nest is made, the egg deposited, and 

 incubation begins at once, which is taken part in by both parents, and as near 

 as I could determine these duties are exchanged nightly; while one sets the 

 other is away, far at sea, on the feeding grounds. On his or her return to the 

 hole a greeting note is sounded, and immediately the one on the nest answers 

 and comes to within a few inches of the entrance to meet the mate which has 

 just returned. Here the peculiar rasping love note is repeated over and over 

 with hardly an intermission for at least half an hour (I have listened that 

 long), sometimes by one and oftener by both. While this salutation is going 

 on they are constantly bowing to each other, and so absorbed are they in their 

 greeting that the hand can often be placed on them for a short time without 



