136 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS 



gins. 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 senator). During the day, while the breeding 

 season is on, a very few birds may be seen near land, but offshore they will be 

 met with in small flocks of from 6 to 8, and occasionally a flock of 100 or more 

 can be seen. 



Eggs. The eggs of the ancient murrelet are quite unique and en- 

 tirely unlike the eggs of any of the other Alcidae. Major Bendire 

 (1895) has described them very well as follows: 



In shape they vary from elliptical ovate to elongate and cylindrical ovate, 

 the elongated ovates predominating. Their shell is fine grained, moderately 

 strong, although rather thin, and it shows little or no gloss. They are rather 

 difficult to describe accurately, their ground color being variable and of subtle 

 tints not readily expressed on paper, ranging from a bluish milky white 

 through the different shades of cream color, vinaceous, olive, and salmon buffs 

 to a rich vinaceous cinnamon and ecru-drab color. They are generally mod- 

 erately well flecked, blotched, or spotted with small irregular shaped markings 

 of different shades of brown, fawn, and Isabella color, mixed with more subdued 

 shades of ecru drab, lavender, and lilac gray. The markings are distributed 

 over the entire surface, and are usually heaviest about the larger end of the 

 egg but never so profuse as to hide the ground color. In an occasional speci- 

 men, they show a tendency to run into irregular and mostly longitudinal lines 

 or tracings; in others these markings are more bold, coarse, and fewer in 

 numbers, and a single specimen before me now shows comparatively few and 

 rather faint markings. 



The measurements of 51 eggs, in the United States National 

 Museum collection, average 61.1 by 38.6 millimeters; the eggs show- 

 ing the fourth extremes measure 64.3 by 40.3, 60.5 by 42, 57.5 by 

 36.5, and 57.8 by 35.7 millimeters. 



Young. About the period of incubation and development of the 

 young, Mr. Littlejohn says: 



I left the rookery on July 3, and was therefore unable to determine 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 400 or 500 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. During 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 

 (Simorhynchus cristatellus and 5. pusillus) and the marbled murrelet (Bra- 

 chyramphus marmoratus.) 



On Forrester Island this species evidently nests earlier than on 

 Sanak Island, for Prof. Harold Heath (1915) found newly hatched 

 chicks as early as May 29, 1913, and they "were very abundant dur- 

 ing the second week in June." He has given us the following in- 



