ALCID^ — ALCIN^ : G UILLEMOTS. 



815 



Fig. 553. —Pigeon Guillemot, nat. size. 



or flooty, little varied with white ; under parts white, marbled, rayed and waved with dusky ; 

 incipient mirror spotty. Nestlings are covered with sooty brownish -black down ; bill and feet 

 brownish-black. Perfectly white and entirely black birds are rarely seen. The mirror on the 

 upper surface of the wings is composed <>f the terminal half (more or less) of the greater coverts, 

 the rest dark ; of the several next rows excepting tlieir dark bases, the white of these covert.s 

 normally overlying and concealing the dark basal portions of the greater coverts, so that the 

 oval mirror is usually unbroken ; the anterior border of the mirror is the line through the unit)i) 

 of white tips witli dark bases of the row of lesser coverts about i an inch from the fore-arm 

 edge <tf the wing. When, as not seldom happens, the row of greatest coverts are dark beyond 



the extent of the next row, this dark being thus 

 uncovered, shows as a wedge partly splitting the 

 mirror, as normally occurs in U. columba. Or, 

 the greater row of coverts may be entirely dark, 

 when the mirror is unbroken, as before, but much 

 smaller ; or, again, the middle row of coverts may 

 be tipped with dark, making a break across the 

 miiTor, but in a different method from that first 

 described. Finally, the mirror may be only in- 

 dicated by isolated white feathers, or wholly want- 

 ing. Length, average, 13.00; extent, average, 

 22.50; wing 5.50-6.25 ; tail about 2.00; tarsus 1.25; middle toe and claw 1.75; bill 1.30; 

 gape 1.75 ; gonys 0.65 ; depth of bill at base 0.45, width 0.35. Eur. and N. Am. coasts and 

 islands of the N. Atlantic, very abundant; rare or casual in the N. Pacific, where replaced by 

 the succeeding species ; occuning in the Arctic Ocean, but apparently mostly replaced by U. 

 mandti ; in N. A. occurring in Hudson's Bay, and S. in winter to the Middle States. Gregari- 

 ous ; flying in close flocks low over the water ; nesting scattering in rifts of rock near the 

 water; eggs 2-3, sea-green, greenish -white or white, spotted and blotched most irregularly 

 with blackish-brown, and with purplish shell-markings ; size 2.25 to 2.50 X 1.50 to 1.60 ; 

 shape nearly elliptical, not pyriform like those of Guillemots ; laid in June, July. 

 U. colum'ba. (Lat. columba, a pigeon. Fig. 553.) PiftEON Guillemot. Bill stouter than 

 that of grylle, and more obtuse. No white on under surface of the wing. White mirror of 

 upper surface nearly split in two by an oblique dark line, caused by the extension of the dark 

 bases of the greater coverts, in increasing 

 amount from within outward, till the outer- 

 most are scarcely tipped with white ; con- 

 sequently there is a dark wedge between 

 the wliite ends of the greater and middle 

 rows of coverts. Plumage and its changes 

 otherwise as in the foregoing ; general 

 habits and nesting the same. Asiatic and 

 Am. coasts and islands of the N. Pacific ; 

 breeds as for south as California. 

 U. car'bo. (Lat. carbo, a coal; i.e. 

 black. Fig. 554.) Sooty Guillemot. 



especially the bill. No white on either surface of wings. A ])air of white spectacles on the 

 eyes, and whitish about base of bill. General plumage and its changes as in others of the 

 genus; bill and feet the same. Length 14.00-15.00; wing 7-75; tail 2.50; tarsus 7.35; 

 middle toe and claw 2.10; bill 1.55-1.70 along culmen, along gape 2.20, from feathers on 

 side of lower mandible 1.50 ; depth at base 0.50; width 0.38. N. Pacific, in higher latitudes; 

 British Columbia to Jajian. An interesting species, still rare in cfdlections. 



Fig. 5.54. — Soot}' Guillemot, nat. size. 



Spectacled Guillemot. Like the last ; larger. 

 A ])air 



