PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 213 



The next time we find any allusion to this totally- black "Tyste" is by 

 Bonaparte, who, in his "Catalogo Metodico degli Uccelli Europei" (Bo 

 logna, 1842, p. 82), introduces as European No. 532, GryUe carho, Brandt, 

 the habitat of which is given as '■'-Bor. Eur. or. As." It seems hardly 

 doubtful that it is Faber's Icelandic bird which is meant. 



Two years later Herman Schlegel mentions our bird (Eevue Critique 

 des Oiseaux d'Europe, 1844, p. 106) in the following words: 



" Uria unicolor Faher [Isis, 1824, p. 981), from Iceland, seems to me 

 to be an accidental variety of Uria grylle. We have received a similai 

 siiecimen from Greenland." 



In the same year]^aumann (Naturgeschichte der Yogel Deutschlands, 

 XII, 1844, p. 485) mentions only in i)assing"CHa «»/co^or (Benicben)' 

 as an Arctic species, uniformly dark reddish brown all over the body, 

 but like Faber at first, and Brehm afterwards, he refers it to the re 

 stricted genus Uria., and not to Gepplms {= Grylle). 



Subsequent writers have mostly referred Faber's bird as an individua' 

 variety either to grylle, troile, or hrUnnicliii. As their conclusions are 

 based solely on what has been quoteel above, no further remarks upor 

 them is necessary. It may only be added that Bonaparte, in 1856 

 in his Catalogne Parzudaki, enumerates U. unicolor as doubtfully Eu 

 ropean. 



Nothing more became known about this puzzling birel until Prof. A 

 Newton, in his well-known "Notes on the Birds of Si>itzbergen" (Ibis 

 1865, p. 518), mentioned another specimen, saiel to have come from Ice 

 land. He says : 



"In Gepplms carho again, anel in iclmt is perliaps anoflier species, the 

 white spot [on the wing] entirely elisappears," and in afoot-note he adds 

 "I refer to a specimen in tJie British Mnseum, marked ^Uria carho,'' bui 

 which wants the white eye-patch of that species, and is entirely blacl 

 all over. This specimen was bought of Mr. Argent, anel said to come 

 from Iceland, which is just jjossible, since Faber speaks of an entirely 

 black variety of Uria grylle from that locality (Isis, 1827, p. 639). What 

 anel when elescribed, is Uria tmicolor, Benicken"? I cannot trace ii 

 back beyond a note of Brehm's (Isis, 1826, p. 988). Under the name 

 of Uria motzfeldi Benicken elescribeel a Guillemot entirely black, bui 

 differing from U. grylle by being much larger (Isis, 1824, pp. 888, 889) 

 The British Museum birel is much the same size as that species." 



After this we have to recorel Schlegel's account of a specimen in Lei 

 den, mentioneel in his "Museum el'Histoire Naturelle des Pays-Bas' 

 No. 33, Livr. 9, Urinatores, Avril 1867, p. 20, where, as No. 27, undei 

 Alca grylle, is enumerateel a specimen, of which he says: "Specimer 

 with the plumage of an absolntely uniform smoky black, from Green 

 land, obtaineel in 1859 ; one of the types of Faber's Uria unicolor.'''' 



Schlegel's last account is very puzzling, as Faber hael only one type 

 that being Benicken's specimen from Greenland, the very same one 

 upon which the latter hael already baseel his U. motzfeldi. On the othei 



