14 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



a}. Never crested. Breeding plumage : Chin, throat, and fore-neck, with top and 

 sides of head, sooty black ; sides of neck and a broad stripe along each side of 

 occiput, pure white ; white stripes on side of occiput not extending forward 

 of the eye ; upper back streaked laterally with white. Winter plumage: Whole 

 throat white ; stripes on sides of occiput and streaks on upper part of back 

 wanting. Length 9.50-10.80, wing 5.25-5.50, culmen .60. Egg 2.42 X 1-55, 

 elongate-ovate, buffy (variable in shade from nearly white to almost an 

 Isabella-color), speckled or otherwise marked all over with deep brown and 

 lavender-gray. Hab. Coasts of the North Pacific, from Japan and southern 

 Alaska (Sitka) northward 21. S. antiquus (Gmel.). Ancient Murrelet. 



a}. Crested in the breeding season. Breeding jjlamage : Fore part of crown with a 

 loose crest of slender, lengthened feathers slightly curved or nearly straight ; 

 upper half of throat velvety plumbeous, with a truncated posterior outline; 

 ear-coverts deep plumbeous ; 'white stripes on sides of top of head extending 

 forward far beyond the eye ; upper back not streaked with white. Winter 

 plumage : Whole throat and malar region white, the chin, only, plumbeous ; 

 no white on top of head, and no crest. Downy young : Above brownish gray, 

 the back and rump indistinctly streaked with grayish white ; lower parts, 

 including chin, entirely pure white. Length about 9.50-11.00, wing 5.10- 

 5.50. Hab. Coasts of the North Pacific, from Japan (and Washington Ter- 

 ritory ?) northward. (Very doubtfully American.) 



22. S. wumizusume (Temm.). Temminck's Murrelet. 



Genus BRACHYRAMPHUS Brandt. (Page 9, pi. YI., fig. 2.) 



Species. 



Common Characters. — Size small (wing less than 5.50) ; bill small and slender, 

 much shoi'ter than head (not longer than the short tarsus), compressed, and 

 pointed ; culmen gently curved, gonys nearly straight ; plumage very plain, with- 

 out ornamental feathers about head at any season. 



a^. Tarsus shorter than middle toe, without claw. 



6'. Exposed culmen about equal to inner toe, without claw ; secondaries and 

 outer tail-feathers entirely dusky. 

 d. Culmen .70 or less. Summer adult : Above dusky, barred more or less 

 with deep rusty ; beneath mixed white and sooty brown, in varying 

 relative proportion. Winter plumage : Above, interrupted by a white 

 collar across nape ; scapulars mixed with white, and feathers of 

 back, etc., tipped with plumbeous ; entire lower parts pure white, 

 the orbital and superciliary regions dusky, like top of head, and 

 outermost feathers of flanks striped with dark grayish. Young : 

 Above uniform dusky, with indistinct white collar and scapular 

 patches ; lower parts white, transversely mottled with dark sooty ; 

 bill much smaller and weaker than in adult. Length 9.50-10.00, 

 wing about 5.00, culmen .60-.70, tarsus .70, middle toe .92-1.00. Egg 



