BIEDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 763 



Mergulus cassinii Gambel, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., Aug., 1845, 266 (coast of 

 California); Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., ii, 1850, 55, pi. 6.— Baird, in Stans- 

 bury's Rep. Great Salt Lake, 18.52, 335 (coast of California). 



A^rctical cassinii Gray, Gen. Birds, iii, 1848, 645. 



Genus PHALERIS Temminck. 



Phaleris Temminck, Man. d'Orn., ed. 2, i, 1820, p. cxii. (Type, Alca psittacula 

 Pallas. See Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. N. H., xxiv, 1908, 37.) 



Cyclorrhynchus Katjp, Entw. Eur. Thierw., 1829, 15. (Type, Alca psittacula 

 Pallas.) 



Ombria Eschscholtz, Zool. Atlas, pt. iv, 1831, 3. (Type, Alca psittacula Pallas.) 



Medium-sized Phalerinse (wing 140-152 mm.) with very deep and 

 much compressed bill with strongly convex upper and lower outlines, 

 the mandible only about half as deep as maxiUa, strongly recurved 

 to the acute tip, and maxillary tomium strongly convex. 



Bill relatively short, deep, and compressed, its greatest depth 

 nearly equal to length of exposed culmen, and equal to more than 

 twice its width at latero-frontal antiae; culmen and maxiUary tomium 

 both strongly convex, the latter distinctly notched subterminally, 

 the tip of maxilla obliquely truncated (in lateral profile); mandible 

 only about half as deep at gonydeal angle as maxiUa, both gonys 

 and tomium strongly recurved to the acute tip, the gonydeal angle 

 prominent; mandibular rami feathered for about posterior two- 

 thirds (measured from base of gonys to rictus), the malar feathering 

 forming a distinct median malar antia or angle; nostril longitudinally 

 narrowly ovate, overhung by a broad corneous operculum with 

 flaring lower edge, a considerable corneous space separating the 

 nostril from nearest loral feathering; latero-frontal antia about on 

 same vertical line with posterior end of nostril, where forming a 

 distinct obtuse angle. Wing moderate, the longest primary (outer- 

 most) exceeding distal secondaries by less than half the length of 

 wing. Tail about three-sevenths as long as wing, shghtly but dis- 

 tinctly rounded, the rectrices (14 in number) broadly rounded at 

 tips. Tarsus shorter than middle toe without claw, the acrotarsium 

 reticulate; outer toe (without claw) as long as middle toe (without 

 claw), the inner toe as long as first two phalanges of middle toe. 



NujHial ornaments. — The following deciduous accessory pieces at 

 base of the maxilla are present during the breeding season, after 

 which they are shed and do not reappear until the following nesting 

 season: (1) "The soft white swelUng at the base of the maxillary 

 tomia, the tomial tumor." (2) "The nasal cuirass, an irregular 

 piece above and behind the nostrils, not continuous with the cor- 

 responding piece on the opposite side." (3) "A small unpaired 

 saddle-piece riding at the base of the culmen, rising knoblike above 

 the latter, and with the ends of its legs just touching the upper 



