182 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 6 1 , FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Family ALCIDAE 



Uria aalge: Common Murre 



Uria lomvia: Thick-billed Murre 



Una aalge inornata 

 Uria lomvia arra 



Attu : Oo-la-rhook-ta 

 Atka: O-loong-thrah 



Sakitax (Jochelson) 

 Russian (?), Commander Islands: Are (Stejneger) 



Undoubtedly, natives do not distinguish the two species. The 

 Commander Island name given by Stejneger (referring to the 

 sound made by the birds), which is assigned to Uria I. arra, may 

 be Russian. 



Necessarily, these .two species will have to be discussed to- 

 gether, because, in many cases, it was not known which species 

 of murre predominated in a rookery. Only a few birds could be 

 identified because the two species were intimately associated 

 on the nesting cliffs. 



In early spring, murres can be seen at frequent intervals from 

 the Kodiak-Afognak region to the end of Alaska Peninsula, and 

 in most places throughout the Aleutian chain. Many of these 

 probably are migrants. 



Beals and Longworth (field report for 1941), writing of Uni- 

 mak Island, said — 



Murres were far from plentiful through the month of March. . . One or two 

 birds a day at the most were all we saw until well into April. On March 

 16 we saw two birds in full summer plumage. . . Through May only scattered 

 pairs and small groups of 3-5 birds were encountered. From the last of 

 May until leaving the island June 17, larger bunches were being seen, 

 groups of 15 and 20 in full summer plumage. They nest on Bird Island 

 near Ikatan Peninsula we are told. 



Cahn speaks of the murre at Unalaska Island as "a rare and 

 solitary fall, winter and spring visitor." 



There are numerous nesting colonies, often associated with 

 kittiwakes. Gabrielson (1940) has described the large colony 

 associated with kittiwakes at Resurrection Point. He also found 

 some birds nesting at Kodiak and saw large numbers in the 

 Semidi Islands. At the Semidis only inornata was identified. 



Among the outstanding murre colonies that we visited was the 

 one on Amak Island. In 1925, I spent 9 days on this island and 

 came to the conclusion that most of the thousands of birds on 

 the cliffs were Pallas thick-billed murres. 



