V' BIEDS OP NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 757 



SYNTHLIBORAMPHUS ANTIQUUS (Gmelin). 



ANCIENT MTJRRELET. 



Adult in breeding season (sexes alike). — Pileum, hindneck, and 

 loral region uniform dull black, the malar, suborbital and auricular 

 regions, chin, throat, and upper foreneck uniform deep fuscous or 

 • clove brown, with a rounded or convex outline on foreneck; supra- 

 auricular region and sides of occiput narrowly streaked with white, 

 forming a more or less broken broad stripe, the lower hindneck 

 similarly but more sparsely streaked; back, scapulars, and rump 

 uniform gray (between slate-gray and neutral gray) ; wing-coverts 

 duller or more brownish gray (between neutral gray and deep mouse 

 gray), the primaries, etc., darker; upper tail-coverts and tail dull 

 blackish or dusky; sides of neck, lower foreneck, and rest of under 

 jiarts except sides and flanks immaculate white; sides and flanks 

 uniform sooty black or fuscous-black; under wnng-coverts white; 

 bill grayish lilaceo us- white or bluish white (in life), darker basally, 

 with a stripe of black along culmen; interior of mouth bluish white; 

 iris dark brown; legs and feet grayish white faintly tinged with 

 violet-blue, the outer side of tarsus more bluish, the joints and webs 

 dark bluish gray." 



Winter liluinage. — Throat immaculate white, the chin (sometimes 

 upper tliroat also), slate-grayish; w^hite streaks on supra-auricular 

 region, sides of occiput, and lower hindneck wanting; sides and 

 flanks white, the outermost portion striped with slaty or grayish 

 dusky; otherwise as in summer. 



Adult male.—Wmg, 130.5-140.5 (134.7) ; tail, 33-39 (35) ; exposed 

 culmen, 13-14 (13.3); tarsus, 25.5-28 (27); middle toe, 25-28 (26.7).^ 



Adult female.— ^ing, 132-138 (135.5); tail, 33-39 (36); exposed 

 culmen, 12.5-14 (13.2); tarsus, 26-27 (26.5); middle toe, 24-26.5 

 (25.4).^^ 



Coasts and islands of northern Pacific Ocean and adjacent portion 

 of Bering Sea; breeding from Unga Island,** Alaska Peninsula, through 

 Aleutian chain (including Nearer Islands) to Commander Islands, 

 Kamchatka, and Kuril Islands, also (formerly) on Pribilof Islands 



Winter plumage. — Similar to the breeding plumage but whole throat white, chin light 

 j gray, crest and white stripe on lateral and posterior portion of pileum absent, and sides 

 " and flanks white striped with gray. 



Downy young. — Upper parts brownish gray, the back and rump indistinctly 

 streaked with grayish white; under parts, including chin, entirely immaculate white. 



Adult maZe.— Wing, 122.5-125.5 (124.3); tail, 34-38 (36); exposed culmen, 13.5-15 

 , (14.5); tarsus, 24-25 (24.3); middle toe, 22.5-23 (22.7). (Three specimens; no adult 

 ' female examined.) 



n Stejneger, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., no. 29, 1885, 24. 



^ Three specimens, from Alaska. 



cSix specimens, five from Alaska, one from California (winter). 



<* Probably breeding on Kodiak Island (St. Paul, Kodiak, June 26, 1882). 



