LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS. 12” 
disconnected and the edges ragged. All the birds taken on the nest, July 21, 
were in that deplorable condition, only that the wings were spotted with slaty 
black as the new coverts made their appearance now, the middle row being 
complete already. Also the four or five inner primaries were shed, and the 
new ones, in different stages of development—the three innermost full grown— 
contrasted favorably against the faded-out remnants of the old ones. The tail 
feathers are still unshed, but their condition plainly shows that they will 
be molted before long. The ornamental feathers are worn down, the crests 
are thin, and many of the lorg plumes have already disappeared. These 
specimens prove beyond a possibility of doubt that the remiges and rectrices 
are molted toward the end of the breeding season, and that the process com- 
mences with the inner primaries. But not only are the wing feathers shed 
now, but also the contour feathers; all over the body protrude now the bluish 
sheaths containing the new feathers, which in some places have already burst 
through the tips. The postnuptial molt, therefore, is a complete one. At this 
time the brightness of the bill has likewise faded away, the white tip gets 
bluish, and the basal parts darken. The upper layers of the horny covering 
scale off, but I feel satisfied that a regular shedding of the basal parts, such as 
in the Fraterculee, does not take place. 
The complete postnuptial molt in adults seems to take place in 
July and August, so that by September or earlier both old and 
young birds have assumed the adult winter plumage and become 
indistinguishable. Young birds in their first winter plumage, which 
is worn for only about six months, show signs of developing white 
plumes on the sides of the head, but they have no frontal crests. 
In the adult winter plumage, which is practically only a fall plumage, 
both the plumes and the crests are present, but are not so highly 
developed as in the spring. The prenuptial molt during the winter 
and spring is incomplete and the curious nuptial adornments which 
it produces soon wear away. 
Food—Judging from Doctor Stejneger’s (1885) records of the 
stomach contents of specimens examined, I should say that the princi- 
pal food of the whiskered auklet is gammarids, with which many 
of the stomachs or crops were filled; other amphipods were also 
found and a few decapods and gastropods. Some of these animalg 
are probably found swimming on or near the surface of the sea, and 
others must be sought for on or about sunken ledges. 
Winter—oOf the migrations and winter habits of the auklets we 
know very little; probably they move out to sea and roam over the 
open ocean. Doctor Stejneger (1885) writes: 
When the breeding season is over, they, like all the allied forms, retire to 
the open ocean, part of them at least, going to more southerly latitudes to winter. 
That many stay in the neighborhood of the islands is evident from the fact 
that I obtained numerous specimens at Bering Island in December and Jan- 
uary. A single female came near the coast on December 14, 1882, and was 
shot; but from the 29th of the same month until January 5, 1883, a few could 
be met with every day. They could then be seen in small societies of two to 
four, swimming along the rocky shores, alternately diving for food, which 
