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ALCID.E - Tin-: AUKS — UUIA. 



487 



I; tlcpth 

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a local 



ig good 



ree the 



liabits. 



It is allogcil l)y TliioiuMnann and otlicis that tlu-r*^ are always distiiit'tive differciici'S 

 to 1m; t'oiuid bctwoi'ii its t'ggs and tliosc of cither trol/c or riinji-lu, Hut of tliis I am 

 not ablo to find any satisfactory evidenct'. This is, if anytliing, the more Arctic 

 spcftics ; and wlicrc found in nuiro nortiicrn latitudes appears to be mucli inoro 

 abundant than tlx; troUe. 



Near Horn Sound, Spitzljcrgen, Messrs. Evans and Sturgo met with it in immense 

 numbers. The birds were in company with the Little Auk, and flew about in large 

 flocks, settling close around tiic vessel, playing and diving in all directions, and 

 seeming to be quite regardless of the presence of intruders, keeping u^) all the while 

 a siirill chattering. 



It is also much more abundant in the North l'aciH(! and IJehring Sea, where tlu> 

 ruii/riit has not been observed, and where tlu" troUe lias been rarely met with. Mr. 

 Dall mentions it as not nncommon at Kadiak, and abundant at St. (Jcorge's, where 

 it breeds in immense nund)ers on the perjjendicular clitfs. It is not given as occurring 

 in the Aleutian Islands. 



Mr. Henry W. Elliott states that this species — the great Egg-bird of the North 

 racifie — frcipients the l'ryl)ilof Islands by millions. This ?'Vttt and one other, the 

 f^. vdllforiilro, are the only birds of this geiuis fovuid there. They a])pear very early 

 in the season, but do not begin to lay until the ISth or 25th of June ; and in open, 

 mild winters these birds are said to be seen in straggling flocks all around the islands. 

 He considers it certain that the birds of this species do not all migrate from that sea 

 and the vicinity of the Aleutian Islands. They lay their eggs upon the j)oints and 

 narrow shelves on the faces of the cliff-fronts to the islands, making no nests, but 

 standing over the eggs, side by side, as thickly as they can be crowded together. They 

 (piarrel desperately, and so earnestly that all along the high bluffs on the north shore 

 of St. George's hundreds of dead birds are lying, liaving been killed by falling on to 

 the rocks while clinched in combat with rivals in mid-air. The birds lay but a single 

 egg on the bare rock. The egg is large and very fancifully colored, having a bluish 

 green ground witli dark-brown mottlings and patches ; but it is exct ediugly variable 

 in size and coloring. The outline of tlie egg is jjyriform, and sometimes more acute. 

 This is the most palatable of all the varieties found on tiie islands, having no disagree- 

 able flavor, and when perfectly fresli being fully as good as a Hen's egg. Incubation 

 lasts nearly twenty-eight days, and tlie young come out with a dark thick coat of 

 down, which Avithin six weeks from hatching is supplanted by the plumage and color 

 of the old birds. They are fed by the disgorging of the parents, apparently witlu)ut 

 intermission, and utter all the while a harsh, rough, and decidedly lugubrious croak. 



On St. George's Island, while the females begin to sit, toward the end of June and 

 first of July, the males go flying around, at regular hours in the morning and evening, 

 in great tiles and platoons, always circling against or quartering on the wind, forming 

 a dark girdle of birds more than a quarter of a mile broad and thirty miles long, 

 whirling round and round the island. The flight of the " Arrie" is straiglit, steady, 

 and rapid, the wings beating quickly and powerfully. It makes no noise, and 

 utters no cry, save a low, hoarse, grunting croak, and that only when quarrelling 

 or mating. 



Captain W. H. Feilden (" Ibis," October, 1877) observed two individuals of this 

 species in August as far north as Buchanan's Strait (lat. 79° N.), but it was not seen 

 again until the return of the Expedition southward in September, 1876, after regain- 

 ing navigable waters south of Cape Sabine. The north waters of Uattin's Bay appeared 

 to be the northern limits of the species in this direction, nor were there any breediug- 

 l)laces north of Cape Alexander. 



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