276 



OAVLE. 



The fact that the Pigeon-Guillemot occurs on the Kurile Islands 

 was probably known to Pallas, inasmuch as he gives the local name 

 of the bird in various languages, amongst which is that bestowed 

 on it by the inhabitants of those islands. Of late years this bird 

 has been foimd by Mr. Snow breeding in some numbers on the 

 Kurile Islands (Blakiston and Pryer, Trans. As. Soc. Japan, 1882, 

 p. 91) ; and Captain Blakiston has obtained it at Ilakodadi 

 (Seebohm, Ibis, 1884, p. 174). There are three examples in the 

 Pryer collection obtained in June by Mr. Snow on Ketoi Island, one 

 of the central islands of the Kurile range. 



The breeding-range of the Pigeon-Guillemot extends from Bering 

 Straits, southwards as far west as the Kurile Islands, and as far east 

 as the Santa Barbara Islands, about 250 miles south of San 

 Francisco. 



It is a smaller bird than the Common Guillemot, and further 

 differs from that species in always having some brown on the under 

 wing-coverts, and in never having any white tips to the secondaries. 

 It is very closely allied to the Sooty Guillemot, Alca carbo, and the 

 only constant difference between them appears to be the shorter bill 

 of the Pigeon-Guillemot. Immature birds are easily distinguished 

 by the more or less obscure white bars across the wing ; these bars 

 appear entirely to disappear with age, leaving only the following 

 differences in colour between the two species, viz. : the darker and 

 more sooty hue of the brown, especially of the underparts, and the 

 absence of the pale region round the eye, on the frontal feathers, and 

 on the chin. It is said that the Pigeon-Guillemots from Kamtschatka 

 and California always have white on the wing-coverts, but that a 

 species occurs in Greenland {Alca mansfeldi) which is black all over. 

 An c'^y[, of this Guillemot in my collection, ol)tained by Mr. Snow 

 on the Kurile Islands, does not differ in size, colour, or markings 

 from eggs of the Black Guillemot. 



271. ALCA ANTIQUA. 



(BEIUNG'S GUILLEMOT.) 



Alca antiqua, Ginelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. C64 (1788). 



In summer plumage Bering's Guillemot is conspicuous by its 

 1)1 ack flanks, and by the white streaks on the sides of the crown and 



