ledges, but elsewhere close to the water at the base of a cliff. E\'en 

 so the eggs of most species (especially of those, such as the paro- 

 quet auklet, that scatter m lonely pairs, not associating in colonies) 

 are difficult to obtain, because secreted far under the tumbled rocks, 

 out of reach of foxes, cn.iws. and other enemies. 



RED-FACED COllMORANTS OX W.VLKUS LSEAXD IX BEUIXG SEA 

 h'roTii .-i PlK)tojJTa}ih l>y A. C. Bent 



.\mcing gulls, the pomarines, and the parasitic jjegers are numer- 

 ous in summer: and b'jth of the kittiwakes, the burgomaster, and the 

 short-billed gull, are present all along the chain, breeding ni thou- 

 sands on certain islands. Turner n(_ites that the short-billed gull is 

 very fond of sea-urchins, for which it hunts at low tide ; having 

 found one it carries it Sdme distance into the air, then drops it on 

 the rcjcks ttj break it, su that it can get at the soft interior parts. 

 Both the arctic and the Aleutian terns occur in the western part of 

 the islands, l)Ut neither is plentiful. 



Those oceanic wanderers the alliatrosses, fulmars, and fork-tailed 

 petrels are rarely seen, but \'arious curmnrants breed on all the 

 principal islands. "The nest," says Turner, "is usnallv ])laced on a 

 ledge of some bold-faced ruck, and in mc"ist instances alx.iut forty feet 

 aliove the sea." The eggs are laid early in June, and are ])ale blue 

 in ciilnr. SdUK' uf the crags are fairly coxered with these birds, and 

 they lijok like black linttles standing in r(."iws. Thev are caught or 

 otherwise killed in wast numbers ])y tlie Aleuts, fnr the sake of both 



46 



