LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS. 129 
chunky little bodies bounded along over the waves, their small wings 
vibrating at high speed. They would rise readily from the surface 
and would dive like lightning, so quickly that we could not see 
how it was done; but we could frequently see them swimming under 
water, using their wings. When one or more of their number were 
shot, others would come and alight near them, showing a sympathetic 
interest between what were perhaps mated pairs. 
Spring.—The “ choochkies,” as they are called by the natives, be- 
gin to arrive to their breeding grounds in hundreds about the 1st of 
May, increasing to thousands during that month and reaching the 
height of their abundance early in June, when they swarm in millions 
about the rocky beaches of the Pribilof Islands, outnumbering any 
other species in Bering Sea. It is difficult for one who has not seen 
them to appreciate their abundance and one is not likely to overesti- 
mate their numbers. One of the# greatest breeding grounds is on 
the Diomede Islands, in Bering Straits, which Mr. E. W. Nelson 
(1887) has thus aptly described : 
As we lay at anchor close under the Big Diomede the cliffs arose almost sheer 
for hundreds of feet. Gazing up toward one of these banks we could see the 
air filled with minute black specks, which seemed to be floating by in an end- 
less stream. The roar from the rush of waves against the base of the cliffs 
was deadened by the strange humming chorus of faint cries from myriads of 
small throats, and as we landed, a glance upward showed the island standing 
out in bold, jagged relief against the sky and surrounded by such inconceivable 
numbers of flying birds that it could only be likened to a vast beehive, with the 
swarm of bees hovering about it. The mazy flight of the birds had the effect 
several times of making me dizzy as I watched them. Breeding there were 
several species of auks and guillemots. Our first visit was made about the 
middle of July, and most of the birds, including the present species, had fresh 
eggs. 
We found them in the greatest abundance about the Pribilof 
Islands early in July. As we approached St. Paul Island in a dense 
fog we ran into great rafts of them sitting on the smooth water and 
they were constantly flying about us in immense flocks. Their con- 
stant twittering sounded like the distant peeping of myriads of 
hylas in early spring or like a great flock of peep in full ery. When 
we landed on one of the stony beaches where they were breeding the 
effect was marvelous, as they suddenly appeared from beneath the 
great piles of loose rocks in inconceivable numbers, like a swarm of 
mosquitoes rising from a marsh, whirling about us in a great be- 
wildering cloud and flying out to sea. 
Nesting.—On Walrus Island we found the least auklets breeding in 
smaller numbers on July 7, 1911, where they were nesting in remote 
crevices under the loose, rounded granite bowlders, which the action 
of the sea had piled up on the high beaches. Nesting with them 
