130 BULLETIN 107, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
were large numbers of paroquet and crested auklets and a few tufted 
puffins. Here the nests were easily found, as the rocks were not large 
and we could readily move them; nearly every suitable crevice seemed 
to be occupied. Doubtless hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of 
auklets must have been nesting here, for as we walked among the 
loose bowlders we could hear a constant sound of many voices be- 
neath us, twittering, cackling, squealing notes, and a variety of weird 
calls, as the frightened birds sought shelter in the darkest crevices 
or scurried out under our feet and flew away. The eggs were laid 
on the bare rocks or on beds of small stones, with no attempt at nest 
building. 
The eggs of the least auklet are not always laid in such accessible 
locations. The birds often breed on rocky shores where the rocks 
or bowlders are too large to move and where the eggs are far beyond 
reach; such was the case at Kiska Island, where droppings or 
feathers indicated an entrance to a nesting cavity, safe against in- 
trusion. On St. Paul Island and on St. Matthew Island we found 
them nesting in the deep crevices in the solid rocky cliffs, where their 
eggs were entirely inaccessible. In such places one might work for 
hours within a few feet of countless nesting birds and be unable to 
secure a single egg, hence the scarcity of auklets’ eggs in collections. 
Eggs.—tThe breeding season of the least auklet usually begins in 
June, though fresh eggs have been taken as early as May 28, 1890, 
but it does not reach its height until the latter part of the month and 
many of the eggs are not laid until July; although most of the young 
are hatched during July, there are plenty of fresh eggs up to at 
least the middle of the month. The eggs are always a pure white, 
with a smooth but lusterless surface; they are “ovate” in shape, 
sometimes rounded at both ends, but more often more or less pointed 
at the small end. The measurements of 57 eggs, in the United States 
National Museum collection, average 39.5 by 28.5 millimeters; the 
eggs showing the four extremes measure 43 by 28.5, 40 by 33.5, 33.5 
by 29, and 40 by 27 millimeters. 
Plumages.—The young, when first hatched, are covered with a 
thick coat of down, “fuscous” to “clove brown” above and “hair 
brown” to “light drab” below; these colors become paler as the 
bird grows older. The wings begin to sprout when the young bird 
is about half grown, in August; and the white feathers begin to ap- 
pear on the under parts at about this time. By the end of August the 
young bird is fully grown and fully fledged, the last of the down 
disappearing on the neck, rump, and crissum. This, the first winter 
plumage, is slaty black above, including the wings, chin, lores, and 
cheek, the scapulars pale gray and pure white below. The young 
