A L CID2E — PHALEllIDINJE : A UKS. 



809 



tail 1.25 ; tarsus 0.70; midJle toe and claw 1.00; cIiorI of cuIuk'Ii, iueliuling the node, O.i-0; 

 gape 0.60; height of bill at base 0.30, width scarcely less. In winter: The knob gone; 

 the little white bristles of head retained ; white of under parts extensive, reaching far around 

 sides of neck; humeral and scapular featliers and many ot the secondaries marked witli white, 

 producing patches of this color on the upper parts, unlinown in other l-'haleridiiue ; such 

 seasonal cliange of j)?»)»«^f indicating an approach to il/crt/ff/ffs uvUruchijrhamphus. Young: 

 Like the adults, but the white of tlie under parts nebulated with dusky ends of tlie feathers; 

 this clouding does not clear up until the knob of bill and bristles of head have been acipiirod. 



Fig. 545. —Least Auk, .idult. iiat size. Fig. 546. — Least Auk, young, iiat. size. 



This curious little bird, the smallest of all the auks, and one of the least of all water birds, 

 inhabits the coasts and islands of the X. Pacific, resorting to favorite breeding places by 

 millions, with S. psittacidus and 8. ciisfatelhis. The nesting is similar, tlie single egg being 

 laid in the recesses of rocky shingle over the water; size 1.55 X 1.12. The bird is not known 

 to come S. so far as the IT. S. 







Fig .547. —Group of Least Auks. (Designed tiy H. W. Elliott.) 



341. PTYCHORHAM'PHUS. (Gr. jirii, jrrvxof, piux, 2}tuchos, afoli ; piiKpos, hramphos, beak.) 

 Weiskle-xosed Auk.s. Size moderate; form stout; no crests iior any peculiar feathers 

 about head. Bill about t as long as head, stout, straight, little compiressed, conic-acute; 

 culmen little convex, broad at base, where in the dried state transversely corrugated; in place 

 of which wrinkles there may be some formation now unknown; sides of upper mandible 



