NATATORES — ALCID^E — URIA. 279 



Description. Bill compressed, straight, 1 '5 long measured from the corner of the mouth. 

 Nostrils placed near the edge. Tarsus 1 ' 2, slightly shorter than the middle toe. Tail short, 

 rounded, of twelve feathers. 



Color. Summer: General hue deep black, varied more or less with the season, with minute 

 bars of whitish. Inside of the mouth and feet red. Secondary wing-coverts and the lower 

 wing-coverts white. Winter : Wings and tail brownish black ; the wings marked with the 

 large white patch so conspicuous in summer. Back blackish, minutely barred with white. 

 All the remaining parts of the head and body white, more or less barred with brown. 



Length, 13-5-14-5. 



The Black Guillemot, as it appears occasionally on our coast during severe winters, is 

 subject to great variations in the quantity of white or black in its plumage. It is an arctic 

 species, common to Europe and America. On this continent, it breeds from the Bay of 

 Fundy northwardly. Eggs white, thickly spotted with dark brown especially around the 

 larger end. Food, fishes, Crustacea and other marine animals. It ranges from 75° to 40° 

 north latitude. 



THE FOOLISH GUILLEMOT. 

 Uria troile. 



Colymbvs troile, Lin. p. 220. Foolish Guillemot, Pennant, Arct. Zool. Vol. 2, p. 51, and Suppl. p. 69; 



U. id. Bonaparte, Ann. Lye. N. Y. Vol. 2, p. 424. Richardson, F. B. A. Vol. 2, p. 477. Ndttall, Man. 



Orn. Vol. 2, p. 526. Audubon, B. of Am. Vol. 7, p. 267, pi. 473. Peabody, B. of Mass. p. 399. 



Giraud, Birds of Long island, p. 376. 



Characteristics. Blackish ; beneath white ; secondaries white at tip ; feet dusky. Bill 

 nearly two inches long, compressed throughout. Adult, a while stripe 

 behind the eye. Young, without this white stripe. Length, 17' 0. 



Description. Bill longer than the head ; the upper mandible gently curved, and acutely 

 notched at the tip. Tarsus 1 • 2. Tail of twelve feathers. 



Color. Head and neck blackish brown ; the remaining upper parts greyish black. Tips 

 of the secondaries, circle round the eye and a narrow line behind it, and all beneath white, 

 the white beneath rising into a rounded projection on the base of the neck above. Young, in 

 which state it occurs most frequently on the coast of this State : Bill cinereous and yellowish 

 at the base ; the black above shaded with ash-brown. The narrow white streak behind the 

 eye scarcely distinct, and blending in ashy spots with the white of the sides of the occiput. 

 Tarsus and toes livid yellowish : webs brown. 



Length, 16-0- 18-0. 



The Foolish Guillemot, or Murre, is a northern species, only occasionally visiting the 

 coast of this State : it is more common on that of Massachusetts. They breed from the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence northwardly. Eggs 1-3, very large, varying in color from white to 



