1084 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. —PYGOPODES — ALCM. 



breeding from the Gulf of St. Lawrence northward, S. in winter to the Middle States regularly, 

 and casually farther. Egg indistinguishable from that of troile. The numbers of Murres, 

 either of this or other species, observed anywhere in winter, bear no estimable proportion to 

 the millions that congregate in the breeding resorts, and their winter whereabouts is some- 

 thing of a mystery. Individuals of any species are liable to be blown inland or otherwise 

 beyond their range. Thus, a storm of Dec. 16, 1896, scattered a flight of Briinnich's Murres 

 over the U. S. from Michigan and Indiana to South Carolina; a few of these were captured 

 and recorded. (Auk, Apr^ 1897, pp. 197-199, 202, 203, 226, 228.) Lomvia arm svarbag of 

 2d-4th editions of the Key. 



U. 1. ar'ra. (Russian name.) Pallas' Murre. Pacific Thick-billed Guillemot. 

 Tlie Ni)rtli Pacific farm, unrinestional)ly <if tlie "thick-billed" species, does not exhibit the ex- 

 treme of shortness and 

 stoutness of bill described 

 for Briinnich's Murre of 

 the Atlantic; culm en 

 about 1.67, depth oppo- 

 site nostrils hardly 0.67, 

 thus less than half length 

 (if culm en, instead of 

 about half; gape nearly 

 ;iOO. Tomia of upper 

 mandible dilated and de- 

 nuded, of a glaucous 

 bluish color ; tip of bill 

 less deflexed, though 

 more so than in the Com- 

 mon Guillemot. This is 

 the great "egg-bird" of 

 the North Pacific ; on 

 St. George's, one of the 

 Prybilov grouji, for ex- 

 ample, the birds " go fly- 

 ing art)und the island in 

 great files and platoons, 

 always circling against or 

 quartering, on the wing, 

 at regular hours in the 

 morning and the even- 

 ing, making a dark gir- 

 dle of birds more than a 

 quarter of a mile broad 

 and thirty miles long, 

 whirling round and round the island, and forcing upon the most casual observer a lasting im- 

 pression." Lomvia arra of former editions of the Key. 



AL'CA. (Lat. from Icelandic alka, Teutonic alk, an Auk.) Razor-billed Auk. Size, 

 form, and general aspect of the last genus. Bill shorter than head, densely feathered for 

 half its length, the feathers extending on upper mandible beyond middle of commissure, those 

 on lower somewhat farther. Bill greatly compressed, cultrate, sulcate, hooked ; culmen ridged, 

 regularly convex; commissure straight to the hook; gonys about straight. Nostrils linear, 

 marginal, densely feathered. Tarsi scutellate in front. Tail short, pointed, of 12 stiiBsh, acute 



Fig. 7-tlj. — Murres. 



