ALASKA. 203 



" The eye never fails to be arrested by this odd-looking bird, 

 with its great shovel-like, lemou-yellow aud red bill, as it sits 

 squatted in glnm silence on the rocky cliff-perches, regarding 

 approach with an air of stolid wonder. It seems to have been 

 fashioned with especial regard to the fantastic and comical. 



" This mormon, in common with one other species, M. cirrhata, 

 comes up from the sea, from the south, to the cliffs of the 

 islands about the 10th of May, always iu pairs, never coming 

 or going in flocks. It makes a nest of dried sea-feins, grass, 

 moss, &c., far back or down in some deep, rocky crevice, where 

 the egg when laid is generally inaccessible — nothing but bhist- 

 ing-powder would reach it. 



" It lays but a single egg, large, oblong-oval, pure white, 

 and, contrary to the custom of the gnlls, arries, choochkies, «S:c., 

 when the egg is removed the sea-parrot does not renew it, but 

 deserts the nest, perhaps locating elsewhere. The young chick I 

 have not been able to get — not until it comes out fledged and 

 ready for flight iu August, wheu it does not difter materially 

 from its parent. The species leaves the islands about the 10th 

 September. 



"This bird is very quiet aud unobtrusive; it does not come 

 in large numbers to the islands, for it breeds everywhere else 

 in Bering Sea. Its flight is performed with quick and rapid 

 wing-beats, iu a straight and steady course. There is no ditter- 

 ence between the sexes as to size, shape, or plumage.'' 



619. Fi-atercHla ciirliata, {Vaj.i..) STEPU—Tx/ted Puffin. " Tawpaw- 



kie." 

 Jlca chrhaia, Pall. Spic. Zool., 7, pi. 1, ii, fij?. 1, '->, 3, (1769.) 

 Landa cirrhata, Pall. Zoog. E. A., ii. 363, p. 82, (1811.)— 



SciiLEG. Mus. Pays-Bas, TriH. 27, (1867.)— Coues. Pr. Phila. 



Acad., (1868.) 

 Lunda {Gijmnohlqyliariim) cirrhata, Brandt. Bull. Sc. St. Petersb., 



vii., 244,(1867.) 

 Fratercula cirrhata, Stepii. Shaw's Gen. Zool., xiii, 40, (1825.) 

 Fratcrcula {Ginnnoblejjharum) cirrhata, Bi:andt. Bull. Sc. St. 



Peteisb.,ii, 349, (1837.) 

 Mormon cirrhata, y\VM. Isis, 7Si, pi. 7, f. 1, (1821.)— Cass. B. 



N. A., 902, (1858.)— Dall &. Banx. Traus. Chicago Acad., i, 



308, (1869.) 

 Fratercula carinata, Yigors. Zool. Journ., iv, 358. 

 Saomaiorhiua lathami, Bp. P. Z. S., 202, pi. 44, (1851.)— CouES. 



Pr. Phila. Acad., (1868.) 

 Sagmatnrhina labradoria, Cass. B. X. A., 904, (1658.)— Dall &, 



Baxn. Trans. Chic. Acad., i, 309, (18G9.) 



