ALCin^ — PHALEBIDINM: AUKS. 



809 



tail 1.25 ; tarsus 0.70; middle toe and claw 1.00; chord of culmeii, including the node, 0.40; 

 gape 0.60; height of hUl 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 feathers and many of the secondaries marked with white, 

 producing patches of this color on the upper parts, unknown in other Phaleridmce j such 

 seasonal change of phimage indicating an approach to Merguhcs or Brachyrhanvphus. Young : 

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

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



Fig. 545. —Least Auk, adult, nat. size. Fig. 646. — Least Aufc, young, nat. size. 



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

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

 millions, with S. psittamlMS and S. cristatellus. The nesting is similar, the single egg being 

 laid in the recesses of rocky shingle over the water; size 1.55 X 1.13. The bird is not known 

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



--J-J^J 



Fig. 547. — Group of least Auks. (Designed by H. W. Elliott.) 



341. PTYCHORHAM'PHUS. (Grr. tttv^, jttvxos, ptux, ptuchos, a fold ; pdincfyos, hramphos, beak.) 

 Weinkle -NOSED Auks. Size moderate; form stout; no crests nor any peculiar feathers 

 about head. Bill about f as long as head, stout, straight, little compressed, 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 



