The Cassin Auk let 



down for a snooze. The other baby "froze" promptly upon the surface of 

 the water, where it rode as lightly as a cork, and allowed the breeze to 

 blow it about as it listed. 



An interesting thing about the downy plumage is its light color, 

 harking back, as it does, to the ancestral type of a lighter bird. The 

 general color of the chick is a dull golden fulvous, variegated by black; 

 but the face, including a considerable circumocular area, is pure white. 

 The feet and tarsi are pale dusky and the nails are black, while the bill is 

 of a dull pinkish shade with a black tip. Needless to say the parent 

 birds are very much interested in these phylogenetic notations, and they 

 invite us'to desist in language whose vigor admonishes against translation. 



Taken near Santa Barbara 



Photo by the Author 



BLACK TERN IN AUTUMNAL PLUMAGE 



No. 291 



Cassin's Auklet 



A. O. U. No. 16. Ptychoramphus aleuticus (Pallas). 



Synonyms. — Aleutian Auklet. Cassin's Auk. 



Description. — Adult in breeding season: Above sooty plumbeous-black, chang- 

 ing to sooty plumbeous-gray on throat, breast, and sides, bluish tinge clearest on rump 

 and scapulars, wings and tail brownish dusky, paling on edges and exposed portions; 

 lining of wing partly white; a white spot over eye a little forward, and a touch on lower 



I467 



