AUK. (ii) 



9.—PERR0QUET AUK— Pl. clxx. f. 2. 



Alca Psittacula, Lid. Orn : . ii. 79-1. Gm. Lin. i. 553. Pail. Spic. v. p. 13. t. 2 & 5. 



Stariki, Hist. Kamtsch. 155. 



Perroquet Auk, Gen. Syn. v. 325. pl. 95. f. 2. Arct. Zool. ii. No. 433. 



THIS is somewhat like the Little Auk, but more bulky in the 

 body. The bill is of a deep red, greatly compressed on the sides, 

 and convex, both above and beneath ; above the nostrils a furrow, 

 from the base to the middle; irides pale yellow;* the visage, next 

 the bill, much prolonged ; whence the eyes, which are small, appear 

 placed far back in the head; in the middle of the upper eyelid a 

 white spot ; at the back part of the eye, on each side, a slender tuft 

 of white feathers, which hang loosely on the neck ; the head, neck, 

 and upper parts are black, inclining to hoary on the neck before, 

 and the under parts, from the breast, white; thighs dusky; wings 

 and tail even in length, the last short ; legs dirty yellow, webs brown. 



Inhabits Kamtschatka, with the last described ; also the Islands 

 towards Japan, and the west shores of America, most frequent in the 

 last; is sometimes seen in flocks, but seldom far from land, except 

 driven from thence by storms; harbours at night in the crevices of 

 rocks : (lie egg almost the size of that of a Hen, dirty yellowish white, 

 spotted with brown ; the female deposits this upon the bare rock, or 

 sand, about the middle of June, but makes no nest. They are stupid 

 birds, as may be seen by the mode of catching them ; one of the 

 natives places himself under a loose garment of fur, of a particular 

 make, with large open sleeves, among the rocks, in the evening; at 

 which time the birds, returning to the shore at dusk, run under the 

 skirts, and up the arm holes, for shelter during the night; the man, 

 concealed beneath, kills them as fast as they enter, and by such 

 means as many are taken in one evening as he can carry away. 



* So described in Billings's Voy. App. [56.] Met with at Oonalashka. 



