The Paroquet Auklet 



No. 292 



Paroquet Auklet 



A. O. U. No. 17. Phaleris psittacula (Pallas). 



Synonyms. — Pug-nosed Auklet. Parrot Auk. 



Description. — Adult in breeding plumage: Upperparts uniform slaty black, 

 changing to sooty black on chin, throat, fore-neck, and sides, thence to white on remain- 

 ing underparts; lining of wings fuscous; a line of narrow pointed white feathers starting 

 from eye and continued obliquely backward and downward; a touch of white on upper 

 eyelid. Bill with strongly convex culmen and more strongly recurved gonys (tomia 

 correspondingly upcurved), vermilion-red, changing to horn-yellow at tip and along 

 tomia. Size of bill slightly increased by a series of flattened pieces which are deciduous 

 in winter. Winter adults are white on chin and throat as well, with the sides of the 

 latter dusky-spotted. "Young: No white filaments on head; a white spot on lower 

 eyelid; upper parts as before [in adult]; under parts white, marbled and mottled with 

 dusky ends of feathers" (Coues). Length of adult 228.6 (9.00) or more; wing 137.2- 

 146.1 (5.40-5.75); tail 39.4 (1.55); bill (chord of culmen) 15.2 (.60) ; depth of bill at 

 base 13.6 (.54); tarsus 25.4 (1.00). 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size; "pug-nosed" bill; white line of plumes from 

 behind eye in adult. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Single white egg, roughened and soiled, 

 placed deep in fissure or cranny of volcanic rock. Av. size 54.4x37.3 (2.14.x 1.47). 

 Season: June— August. 



General Range. — "Coasts and islands of Bering Sea and contiguous portions of 

 northern Pacific Ocean; breeding from northeastern coast of Siberia and northwestern 

 Alaska (including Diomede, St. Lawrence, Hall, St. Matthew, Pribilof, Walrus and 

 Otter islands, Bering Sea) southward to Kuril, Commander, Aleutian, and Shumagin 

 islands; southward in winter as far as Monterey Bay, California, northern Japan and 

 Okotsh Sea; accidental in Sweden." 



Occurrence in California. — Rare winter visitor along the coast, at least as far 

 south as Point Pinos (near Monterey). 



Authorities. — Loomis (Cyclorrhynchus psittacuhts). Auk, vol. xviii., 1901, p. 

 104 (San Francisco B&y);Beck, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 4, iii., 1910, p. 59 (near Mon- 

 terey, Jan.); Clay, Condor, vol. xiv.. 1912, p. 196 (Eureka) ; Bent, U. S. Nat. Mus., Bull, 

 no. 109, 1919, p. 1 16 (life hist. ; desc. and photos of nest and eggs, etc.). 



THE INVESTIGATIONS of Messrs. Leverett M. Loomis and 

 Rollo H. Beck on Monterey Bay and the adjacent ocean have convinced 

 us that there is an abundant off-shore bird life of which most land lubbers 

 are utterly ignorant. In the month of January, 1905, and again in 1908, 

 Mr. Beck captured seventeen specimens of the Paroquet Auklet, and 

 picked up another, a dead one, on the beach. Evidently these are fishers 

 of the open sea, who visit the land only by accident in time of dense fog 

 or storm. 



As nearly as can be determined, the peculiar retrousse effect of this 



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