1068 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. —PYGOPODES — ALC^. 



pale purplish-gray or brownish, or both; size 2.G5-2.85 X 1.92-2.00; broader and more 

 capacious than that of F. corniculata, though no longer. There is a loomery of this species as 

 far south as the Farallones, off San Francisco, Cal. Skins both of the Tufted and of the 

 Horned Puffin are much used by the Aleuts of Alaska for clothing, about 45 being sewn 

 together to make a garment called the parka. 



Fio. 723. —Horn-billed Auklet, adult in winter, nat. size. (From Elliott.) 



Subfamily PHALERIDIN>E : Auklets, Murreiets, and Black Guillemots. 



See p. 1062 for essential characters of this subfamily, and analysis of its several genera. 



The rather numerous species differ so much that the subfamily is best defined by exclusion of 



the marked characters which distinguish the FratercuUnce, AlUncB, and Aleince. It becomes 



susceptible of much better definition than it used to have, by disengaging the group from 



association with 

 FratercuUnce and 

 Allince, and by in- 

 cluding in it the 

 genus Cepphus, 

 which has usually 

 been placed with 

 Uria in the Al- 

 cinee. The Pha- 

 leridince all belong 

 to Pacific and Po- 

 lar waters, except- 

 ing some species 

 of Cepphus. The 



average size is small, only the Black Guillemots and the Rhinoceros Auklet being about as 



large as a Pufiin, and some being among the smallest of all sea birds. These birds are noted 



for the wide range of shapes of bill, and most of them have this organ variously appendaged 



with deciduous elements, which are shed like the crests or plumes with which the head of 



several species is adorned, and which, as in the case of the Puffins, are nuptial ornaments. 



All the genera of this subfamily are well marked, and there is no difficulty in determining the 



species, except in the genus Cepphus. 



The name of this subfamily is correctly formed as above. The etymology of the word is 



the Greek (paXapis, phalaris, in Ionic dialect (^aXjjpt'j, phaleris, which was a native name of the 



European Coot, Fulica 



atra, so called because 



the bare frontal shield 



suggested a bald head. 



The noun is of the 



third declension and 



feminine gender in 



grammar, and makes 



its genitive case in 



-i8os ; whence the stem 



of the word is seen to 



be vhalerid- (not ^^°' ^^^' ~ Hom-billed Auklet, young, nat. size. (From Elliott. ) 



phaler-), to which, adding -ince as the suffix denoting subfamily rank of the group^ we arrive 

 at the correct name Phaleridince. 





