388 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



deep within the crevices or chinks in the faces of the bluffs. * * * To walk ovei 

 their breeding grounds at this season is highly interesting and most amusing, as the 

 noise of hundreds and thousands of these little birds, which are directly under your 

 feet, give rise to an endless variation of volume of sound, as it comes up from the 

 stony holes and caverns below, while the birds come and go, in and out, whistling 

 around your head, comically blinking and fluttering." — {Elliott.) On this vast breed- 

 ing range of this species, on the 2Sth of May, I accompanied a native for the purpose 

 of getting a few specimens for myself, while he desired a meal. With a large long- 

 handled dip net I crouched behind one of the numerous large moss- and grass-bedecked 

 rocks which so liberally covered the ground. As the birds fly low and in a nearly 

 straight line and have great difficulty, in fact they have little necessity, in making a 

 sudden curve to avoid an object, it was only necessary when a flock was seen approach- 

 ing to raise the net directly in their path. If the distance and their velocity had been 

 well calculated several birds would be unable to swerve off in time and in consequence 

 would be engulfed in the net. A quick bringing of the net to the ground would then 

 complete the capture. A half-hour's work resulted iu my securing some twenty 

 specimens, but the Aleut close by had ten times as many. Sometimes other species 

 are also secured. During the last days of May hundreds of thousands swarm about 

 the anchorage off the village of St. George. They are mating and copulation is going 

 on on all sides. The females remain on the surface of the water while the males 

 approach from behind by a short flight, both then taking flight. Many are diving, 

 the surface is covered with the swimming birds, but the majority are in the air flying 

 in all directions. Their chattering is incessant and rest is unknown. The morning 

 departure and the evening return of the hosts of these little auklets are really the most 

 interesting and attractive features of the bird life on St. George, and one never tires 

 of the fascinating and extremely novel sight. They are most abundant on land about 

 3 and 4 a. m. and from 7 to 10 p. m. When coming (o the surface after a dive they 

 come up with quite a bounce and after a few hasty turns take flight. Individual 

 variation in this species is considerable. Of the decorative white head feathers every 

 possible variation in size and number occurs, evidently having no relation to sex, or 

 age, or color condition (see flgs. 5-8, PL XLI, and explanation). Of 42 specimens 

 examined in the National Museum collection, the blackest-breasted bird is a female 

 (No. 151453, July 30, 1895, St. Paul, True and Prentiss), even the usual white throat 

 patch being half black, and white feathers being decidedly in a minority on the under 

 parts. The whitest-breasted bird is also a female (No. 62593, May 23, 1872, St. Paul, 

 H. W. Elliott). It has merely one dark feather in center of breast and a few at the 

 sides of the neck. A few others have dark feathers in the white throat patch, and 

 these are all females. In one male a dusky bar runs across the throat at the angles 

 of the mouth and divides the white into two parts. Nearly every specimen that I 

 have seen (over sixty) has a few or a greater number of dingy white feathers mixed 

 in the scapulars, really unmolted winter feathers. Sometimes they are well worn, 

 in contrast with the newer surrounding dark feathers; often, however, they appear as 

 fresh as those. The only two winter specimens that I have seen have the scapulars 

 nearly white. The darkest plumaged summer specimens have little or no white 

 among the scapulars. These dark-backed birds are uncommon in May and can readily 

 be counted among the thousands of the ordinary spotted breasted birds. Two fresh 

 eggs, taken on St. George on May 28, 1890, measure 1.60 by 1.10, 1.55 by 1.17. Of 



