PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 225 



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Vol. Til, ]Vo. 1.1. l¥a§hiii^tor«, D. €. Aii^. 5, 1884. 



Uria cohimba 



is coufinecl to the Pacific Ocean. Its geographical distribution is very 

 interesting, as it breeds as far south as Southern California, conse- 

 quently much farther south than the two Atlantic species wander even 

 in winter. 



From the coast of California this species extends northward all along 

 the western coast of North America way up into Alaska, and all over 

 the Aleutian Islands. There are no reliable instances known, however, 

 of its having been obtained north of Berings Strait, although the Na- 

 tional Museum possesses specimens from Plover Baj- and from Seni- 

 avine Strait at the Tschutski Peninsula, where it is said to be common 

 (Cassin, Pr. Ac. Phil., 1862, p. 323), but these localities are within 

 Berings Sea.* On the Asiatic side it is well known from the shores of 

 Berings Sea, and I found it myself quite common on the eastern coast 

 of Kamtschatka and on the Commander Islands, from where I have 

 brought home numerous specimens. It is not known from the Okhotsk 

 Sea, although specimens have been taken at the Kurile Islands, but 

 whether breeding there I cannot say, as it is possible that those ob- 

 tained there were only immature birds. It winters about these isl- 

 ands and about Yezo, the northern island of Japan proper. It will 

 be seen that the species is much more northerly on the Asiatic than on 

 the American side of the Pacific. It seems to be replaced further south 

 on the Asiatic coast by C. carbo. 



III. — Has Cepphus carbo ever been obtained within the 



FAUNAE LIMITS OF NORTH AMERICA? 



The original describer of the species, Pallas, in his Zoographia Eosso- 

 Asiatica (II, p. 350), gives the habitat of Cepphus carbo in the following 

 words: "Inhabits only the Eastern Ocean, about the Aleutian Islands, 



*This is the case, notwithstauding Mr. E. W. Nelson's statement to the contrary 

 in his " Birds of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean," p. 117. Of Vria cohimba he 

 says: "This is the most abundant of the small Guillemots througliout the North, from 

 the Aleutian Islands to those of Wrangel and Herald, where we found it breeding 

 abundantly during our -visit there in the Corwin. We found it near Cape Serdze 

 Kameu, where it was nesting, and also in great abundance upon Herald Island, where 

 it was perhaps the most abundant bird present, far oiitnumbering the Murre. . . . .None 

 were observed on the western portion of the New Siberian Islands by Nordenskjold 

 [true, Nordeuskjold does not mention any Black Guillemot, but he saw the islands 

 only from a long distance off], but the Chukchees reported it to him as wintering at 

 Tapkau, whenever open water was found during that season." Any one taking the 

 troublo of comparing these notes with those under the heading of his Uria grylle ( = 

 mandtii) will soon see that they refer to the same species, which is made the more certain 

 by the reference to Nordenskjold, who expressly calls his birds grylle. Here is another 

 case, where the same species has been placed under two different headings, while the 

 remarks on the true columba seem to have been dropped altogether. It may be re- 

 marked that Mr. Nelson brought no specimens home from those Arctic localities. 

 Proc. Nat. Mus. 84 15 



