120 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS 



the Pribilof Islands from August 20 to September 1. None are 

 recorded from California before December 17. 



Casual records. Recorded as occurring once in Sweden, but ap- 

 parently this specimen has been recorded as the crested auklet also, 

 and I have had no way of verifying either identification. 



Egg dates. Northern Bering Sea: 3 records, July 20, August 22 

 and 26. Pribilof Islands: 3 records, June 8, July 7 and 16. 



christ at ella (Pallas) 

 CRESTED AUKLET 



HABITS 



Among the thousands of tufted puffins that dotted the surface of 

 the ocean, as we approached Unimak Pass on our way to Bering Sea, 

 and among the great rafts of least auklets that we encountered 

 among the Aleutian Islands, we frequently saw small or large flocks 

 of crested auklets, sometimes containing as many as 40 or 50 birds, 

 which we recognized by their larger size and wholly gray appearance. 

 Its manner of flight, size, color, and crest have suggested the local 

 name of "sea quail," from a fancied resemblance to the California 

 quail. Mr. H. W. Elliott (1880) refers to this "fantastic bird" as 

 "the plumed knight of the Pribylov Islands." The native Aleut 

 name, "cannooskie," means little captain. 



Nesting. The crested auklet arrives in the Pribilof Islands early 

 in May, where Mr. William Palmer (1899) says that it 



breeds in colonies of some 10 to 20 pairs on the roughest and usually most 

 prominent points on the bluffs, and I think also among the bowlders above 

 high tide, and where the egg is placed in the deepest and most inaccessible 

 recesses. 



Mr. Elliott (1880) writes: 



So well do these birds succeed in secreting their charge, that although I 

 was constantly upon the ground where several thousand pairs were laying, I 

 was unable successfully to overturn the rocks under which they hide, and get 

 more than four perfect eggs, the sum total of many hundred attempts. 



This species is intimately associated on its breeding grounds with 

 the paroquet auklet; it is found everywhere that the latter species is 

 found and its nesting habits are exactly the same. The entrance to 

 Kiska Harbor, in the Aleutian Islands, is protected by a high prom- 

 ontory; at the base of its steep sloping sides great masses of large, 

 loose rocks and bowlders line the shores, forming a rough beach and 

 offering attractive nesting sites for crested and least auklets, pigeon 

 guillemots, Pacific eiders, and perhaps harlequin ducks, all of which 

 we found abundant and apparently breeding here. We saw crested 

 auklets flying out from these rocks and found their feathers and drop- 

 pings in remote crevices under the rocks, but their eggs were too well 



