124 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS 



Mr. Nelson (1887) says that "they continually uttered a chirping 

 note." Mr. Turner (1886) refers to its note as "a peculiar grunt 

 of two or three syllables"; and Mr. Elliott (1880) says "the note 

 of the 'canooskie,' while mating, is a loud, clanging, honk-like 

 sound; at all other seasons they are as silent as the grave." 



For the Aleut natives this and other auklets furnish an abundant 

 and a welcome food supply; they are usually fat and their flesh is 

 very palatable, as they are not fish eaters. The natives make a regu- 

 lar business of catching them in large numbers, as they fly over their 

 breeding grounds. Armed with a large dip net the native hunter 

 conceals himself behind some rock where the birds are accustomed 

 to fly low; the net lies flat on the ground until the birds are close 

 at hand, when it is quickly and skillfully swung up at just the right 

 moment and, before they have time to dodge it, several birds are 

 caught. 



Winter. The crested auklets move off of their breeding grounds 

 when the young are able to fly in September, but they spend the 

 winter in the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands and on the North 

 Pacific Ocean. They probably winter as far north as they can find 

 open water among the ice and do not wander as far south as the 

 paroquet auklets. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. Coast and islands of Bering Sea and North 

 Pacific. From Kodiak Island westward throughout the Aleutian 

 Islands and the Commander Islands to the Kurile Islands. North- 

 ward throughout Bering Sea to the Diomede Islands. 



Winter range. Bering Sea and the North Pacific in the vicinity 

 of the Aleutian and Shumagin Islands and from the Commander 

 Islands to the Kuriles and Japan (two records). Occasionally north 

 to the Pribilof Islands. 



Spring migration. Has been taken at Nushagak April 22. Ar- 

 rives in the Pribilof Islands early in May, sometimes as early as 

 March 12, and has been seen in numbers off St. Matthew Island, 

 May 25. 



Fall migration. Birds have been recorded from the Diomedes as 

 late as September 10; near St. Michael, October 13 ; and Cape Iksurin, 

 Siberia, September 26 to 28. 



Casual records. It is supposed that a specimen was taken at 

 Chatham, Massachusetts, in the winter of 1884-85, but the evidence 

 is not conclusive. The occurrence of this bird or the paroquet auklet 

 in Sweden has already been mentioned under Phaleris psittacula. 

 Records from Sitka are questionable. Occasionally in Arctic Ocean 

 (Kotzebue Sound, Point Barrow, Herald and Wrangel Islands.) 



Egg dates. Northern Bering Sea: 2 records, July 20 and August 

 26. Pribilof Islands, 2 records, June 18 and July 7. Aleutian Is- 

 lands: 1 record, July 1. 



