ledges, but elsewhere close to the water at the base of a cliff. Even 

 so the eggs of most species (especially of those, such as the paro- 

 quet auklet, that scatter in lonely pairs, not associating in colonies) 

 are difficult to obtain, because secreted far under the tumbled rocks, 

 out of reach of foxes, crows, and other enemies. 



RED-FACED CORMORANTS ON WALRUS ISLAND IN BERING SEA 

 From a Photograph by A. C. Bent 



Among gulls, the pomarines, and the parasitic jaegers are numer- 

 ous in summer ; and both of the kittiwakes, the burgomaster, and the 

 short-billed gull, are present all along the chain, breeding in thou- 

 sands on certain islands. Turner notes that the short-billed gull is 

 very fond of sea-urchins, for which it hunts at low tide; having 

 found one it carries it some distance into the air, then drops it on 

 the rocks to break it, so that it can get at the soft interior parts. 

 Both the arctic and the Aleutian terns occur in the western part of 

 the islands, but neither is plentiful. 



Those oceanic wanderers the albatrosses, fulmars, and fork-tailed 

 petrels are rarely seen, but various cormorants breed on all the 

 principal islands. "The nest," says Turner, "is usually placed on a 

 ledge of some bold-faced rock, and in most instances about forty feet 

 above the sea." The eggs are laid early in June, and are pale blue 

 in color. Some of the crags are fairly covered with these birds, and 

 they look like black bottles standing in rows. They are caught or 

 otherwise killed in vast numbers by the Aleuts, for the sake of both 



46 



