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. 1 6 . 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 
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