alcidjE—fraterculin^: sea parrots. 



1065 



bill, with a dark ashy patch on side of throat. Upper parts glossy blue-black, contiQuous with 

 a broad collar around neck in front, not extending to bill ; a narrow line of white along border 

 of fore-arm. Under parts from the neck pure white, the long feathers of flanks blackish. 

 Under surface of wings pearly-gray ; inner webs of primaries and secondaries grayish-brown, 

 the shafts brown, with black ends and whitish bases. Iris brown. Eyelids vermilion, the 

 excrescences grayish-blue. Basal collar of bill and first ridge dull yellowish ; nasal saddle and 

 corresponding shoe of lower mandible grayish-blue ; rest of bill vermilion, the tip of lower 

 mandible and two terminal grooves often yellowish; rosette of mouth orange; feet coral or 

 vermilion; claws black. Length 13.50; extent 24.00; wing 6.50; tail 2.25; tarsus 1.00; 

 middle toe alone 1.40, its claw 0.40; outer 1.40, its claw 0.30; inner 1.00, its claw 0.40; 

 chord of culmen 2.00, its arc 2.10, the ordinate 0.30 ; depth of bill 1.40; gape 1.25; gonys 

 1.45; greatest width of bill (at 

 base of nostrils) O.GO ; nostrils 

 0.35. 9 averaging less than ^. 

 Adults in winter : Face blackish. 

 No colored eye-ring nor appen- 

 dages of eyelids. Eosette of mouth 

 shrunken and pale. Feet orange, 

 not red. Basal 2)arts of bill mem- 

 branous and blackish, and whole 

 base contracted ; point of gonys 

 cut off". The following pieces have 

 been shed : 1, basal rim or collar ; 

 2, nasal case or saddle ; 3, mandi- 

 bular case or shoe ; 4, 5, strips at 

 base of mandible, one on each 

 side ; 0, 7, subnasal strips, one on 

 each side ; 8, 9, prenasal strips, 

 cue on each side (3 symmetrical 

 pieces, 3 paired pieces, 9 in all). 

 Young, first fall and winter : Re- 

 semble winter adults, plumage the 

 same, with blackish face, but bill 

 weaker and less developed. This 

 long kept us in ignorance of the 

 moult of the bill, adults in winter 

 being mistak<^n for young birds till 

 Bureau explained the case. Both 

 coasts and islands of the North 

 Atlantic; in North America breeding in southern Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, and S. 

 to Bay (if Fuiidy and Maine coast (Matiuicus Rock most soutliern point); not known in the 

 Niirtli I'acific, where r(']ilac('d by F. corniculata ; replaced in Polar seas by the larger, stouter- 

 billed F. glncialii^. In winter, ranging or driven S. along the coast of the U. S. ; not regular 

 beyond New England. The moult of the bill as well as of the plumage occurs in August and 

 September, when the birds are unable to fly for a period, and many perish if caught at sea in 

 storms at this time. Nest by thousands or millions on coasts and islands, burrowing in the 

 ground like rabbits, to arm's length or more. The single egg is laid late in June and in July, 

 on a slight grassy nest at the end of the burrow, or sometimes in a rocky crevice ; in shape 

 rounded ovate, with greatest diameter nearly at the middle; average size 2.50 X 1-75; shell 

 granular, white or brownish-white, colorless or marked with obsolete spots, dots, and 



Kio. Tirt. — Lpft, Horned Puffin: right, Tufted Puffin. (.Drawn by 

 H. W. Elliott. From Harper Brothers.) 



