60 ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS. 



Dr. Dybowski is only partly correct when he (Orn. Centralbl., 1882, 

 p. 40) describes the feet of this species as "orange yellow" [orangegelb). 

 The color varies considerably, being much paler before the breeding 

 season, so pale even that it often approaches dirty flesh-color. The 

 brightest color is assumed in May or June, during which mouths the 

 feet are of an intense red, in some cases tending to salmon color, in 

 others to orange ; but out of the many scores of these birds examined 

 by me at that time not a single one had the feet yellower than a rich 

 "reddish orange," this being the extreme and the exception. The soles^^ 

 are usually lighter or darker reddish brown. It is only after the breed- 

 ing season that the feet of the adult birds assume an orange yellow 

 color, a change which takes place in the latter part of July, at which 

 time the webs are even brownish orange, this color lasting until late in 

 the following winter. In an old bird obtained on February 24, 1883, 

 (L. S. No. 1915) I find the colors described as follows : " Feet orange 

 yellow, webs more reddish ; tarsus and toes below dark brown." In 

 the young bird during winter the feet are almost white, with bro«mish 

 gray webs. 



I must also add that I never saw an iris which could be termed 

 "whitish gray or brownish white" {weisslich grau, oder hraunlich weiss 

 Dybow., I. c.) It was invariably rather dark brownish gray; in fact so 

 dark as to almost do away with the color of the iris as a distinctive 

 character of this group of birds. 



From my plate and the description of the fresh specimens, as given 

 above, it is clear that the coloration of Bureau's figure of the head (Bull. 

 Soc. Zool. France, 1879, pi. ii) is entirely erroneous. His "Figure ideale 

 de I'adulte en hiver" {I. c. fig. 2) is better, although the outlines of the 



cation ?"). Fratercula is probably aTJOmic diminutive of f rater in the sense of a mem- 

 ber of a brotherhood of monks (friars), on account of its plumpness of figure and its 

 ridiculous grave air. This supposition is coufirnied by analagous vernacular names 

 in different languages. Faber tells us that Fratercula arctica in Iceland is often called 

 "Prestr" (priest), "seiner Gebiihrden auch seiner Farbe wegen" (Isis, 1827, p. 664). 

 Comi)are also the French name Macarcux moine (moine = monk), and the Italian Fra- 

 ticella. Naumanu quotes as German vernaculars ''Das Briidei-chen, der Monch," though 

 these may possibly have originated in translation, the former from the Latin, the 

 latter from the French. 



The German name for the Sea-Parrots, " Maakenlaucher" or " Larvcntaticher," does 

 not apply to the bill as the " mask," but to the whitish patch of the face, for which 

 Naumann expressly uses the word " Gesichtsmaske." The generic name Larva has 

 the same application, and Mormon is only the Greek equivalent for Larva; "larvata" 

 is a common designation for a bird having the face colored differently from the other 

 parts of the head. Of course, "Larventauscher" is a mere misprint (cf. Cones, Bull. 

 Nutt. Oru. CI., 1878, p. 88). 



