THE BIRDS OF THK PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 387 



foxes were quarreling over some prey, but was rather taken aback when soon after 

 several of these birds emerged and flew off. White flloplumaceous feathers occur on 

 the head of this species directly over each eye, but a few are to be found also else- 

 where about the head on some specimens. There are two extremes of the shape and 

 extent of the swollen parts of the bill. In one, usual in male birds and rare in the 

 females, the upper mandible is strongly hooked and the bare mouth parts are very 

 much enlarged and highly colored. In other specimens, apparently immature birds, 

 male and female, there is little or no hooking of the bill, the mandibles are much 

 smaller, and the mouth parts much less in size as compared with the other specimens. 

 As a rule, it would seem that the small-billed birds have the swollen parts smaller and 

 softer, so that they shrivel much ; in fact, almost dry up. A male collected August 1 

 had the bill of a clear pale orange, with the tip horny white. A female, the same day, 

 had a similar colored bill, but the base around the feathering was whitish flesh color. 

 I saw no specimens showing the shedding of the mouth parts. The downy young 

 have been described by Dr. Stejneger from specimens taken on Otter Island by Lieut, 

 J. E. Lutz, July 22, 1884, No. 100374, TJ.S.N.M. They are uniform dark, smoky, and 

 somewhat brownish gray, scarcely lighter on the underparts. Cruise, Gorwin, 1884, 

 page 126. The egg is white, with few very obscure spots. Two, taken by Elliott on 

 St. George, June 19, 1873, measure, respectively, 2.25 by 1.45, 2.20 by 1.30. Another, 

 taken the next day, is 2,10 by 1.45. 



24. Simorhynchus pusillus (Pall.). Least Auklet. "Choochkie.'' 



Phalens puaillua, Coinde, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1860, 403. 



Phalerls pusilla. Dale and Bannistek, Trans. Chic. Ac. Sci. 1869, 309. 



Simorhynchus pusillus, CouES, in Elliott's Rpt. Aff. Alaska, 1873; Reprint, 1875, 208; Key, 

 1890, 808.— Elliott, Mon. Seal Ids. 1882, 134.— Turner, Con. Nat. Hist. Alaska, 1886, 120.— 

 Nelson, Bds. Alaska, 1887, 42.— Townsend, Cruise Corwin, 1887, 98.— A. O. U. Ch. List, 

 1895, 8.— RiDGWAY, Man. 1896, 13.— Grant, Cat. B. Br. Miis.j 1898, 605. 



About as abundant as all the other species together; certainly no one can be 

 blamed for thinking so after seeing their abundance about the village of St. George. 

 I can only compare their numbers to an apiary where the hives are placed, for acres, 

 about 50 feet apart. Now, imagining that all these hives swarm at once, that each 

 bee is larger than a swallow and flying in an almost straight line, each about its own 

 business, we may then have some idea of what can be seen every summer Evening 

 about 7 on the west side of the village of St, George. As Elliott has well said, "it 

 comes here every summer by millions to breed." They are usually quite indifterent 

 to man, but on St, Paul, where their numbers are much less, they will hardly allow 

 one to get nearer than 30 yards before taking flight, " Usually, about the 1st or 4th 

 of May every year, the Choochkie makes its appearance around the islands for the 

 season, in small flocks of a few hundred or thousand, hovering over and now and then 

 alighting upon the water, sporting one with the other in apparent high glee, making 

 an incessant, low, chattering sound. But they are only the van to flocks that by the 

 1st or 6th of June have swarmed in upon the islands, like those flights of locusts 

 which staggered my credulity on the great plains of the West, They frequent the 

 loose, stony reefs and bowlder-bars on St, Paul, together with the cliffs on both 

 islands ; and, what is most remarkable, they search out an area over 5 miles square 

 of basaltic shingle on St. George Island, which lies back and over inland from the 

 north shore line. To the last position they come in greatest numbers. They make no 

 nest but lay a single egg far down -below among the loose rocks, or they deposit it 



