y LIFE HISTORIES OP NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRI>S. 117 



them until we could dimly see the outline of the cliffs, we crept along 

 the shore into Village Cove. 



/Spmifir.— The paroquet auklet, or " baillie brushkie," as it is called 

 by the natives, arrives in the Commander Islands about the last of 

 April and in the Pribilofs early in May. It is not nearly as abun- 

 dant as the least auklet and is much less gregarious. It does not fly 

 about in such enormous flocks or swarms, but is comparatively soli- 

 tary in its habits, quiet, and unobtrusive. A few were always to be 

 seen sitting in little groups on the low rocky cliffs of St. Paul Island 

 or flying out to circle around us in quiet curiosity. Probably many 

 of them were away at sea on their feeding grounds, and some were 

 calmly dozing on the rocks. Their nests or eggs were safely hidden 

 away in the remote crevices in the cliffs or under large rocks beyond, 

 our reach. 



Nesting. — On July 7, 1911, 1 spent one of the most eventful after- 

 noons of my life studying the nesting habits of this and the hosts of 

 other sea birds that make their summer home on the wonderful, 

 little, rocky islet of the Pribilof group, Walrus Island. Here we 

 found the paroquet, crested, and least auklets, together with the 

 tufted puffin, nesting under the loose piles of water-worn bowlders 

 which were piled up in a great ridge in the beachlike center of 

 the island, connecting the higher extremities. By rolling away such 

 of the bowlders as we could move, we succeeded in uncovering some 

 two dozen nests. Compared with the other auklets, which were very 

 lively and noisy, the paroquet auklets were very gentle and tame; 

 they did not seem to be greatly disturbed or alarmed by our rock 

 moving operations; we usually found the female, and occasionally 

 the male, sitting quietly on its single egg, serenely looking at us with 

 its big white eyes. The curious up-turned red bill and the white 

 under parts were easily recognized even in the dark recesses of its 

 nesting caverns. There was only a single egg in each case, which 

 was lying on the bare rock or soil or*fcn a bed of loose pebbles; no 

 nesting material had been brought in. 



The paroquet auklet breeds abundantly on the high rocky 

 islands of northern Bering Sea and into Bering Strait. On the 

 precipitous cliffs of St. Matthew Island, 200 feet or more above the 

 sea, we saw a few pairs apparently breeding among the fulmars and 

 puffins, but their eggs were beyond our reach in the inaccessible 

 crevices in the rocks. They were so tame and unsuspicious that I 

 took a snapshot at one as it sat on a lofty pinnacle of rock within 

 a few feet of me, watching the cloud of fulmars sailing below. 



Eggs. — The single egg is practically "ovate" in shape, with a 

 slight tendency toward " elliptic|il ovate " in some specimens. The 

 shell is finely granulated, almost rough and without any luster. The 

 color is usually dull white or bluish white, but some eggs are de- 



