THE OOLOGIST. 



Davie's New Egg Check-List, M Edition 



is now prouiised ubout May l.st. Over 800 pages are now piiutetl. 

 Tlie work bids fair to contain fully 500 pages; and the price un- 

 ([nestionably will exceed that of $1.00, and possibly may run up to 

 12.00, but we will take advance subscriptions at the low price of $1.00. 



This oiler holds good until May 1st, only. 



Every purchaser will be entitled to the Oologist for '89 free. 



Below and on the next page we copy the articles on the Murre 

 and Western Grebe from advance pages of this invaluable work: 



Address all subscriptions to FKANK H. LATTIN, Alljion, 

 Orleans Co., N. Y. 



■'^„*An edition bound in cloth will be issued. The additional cost 

 will be given in next Oologist, so that all desiring a copy in that 

 form can remit the additional cost and have the cloth-bound edition 

 if they prefer.^ 



30. Uria troile (Linn.) [703.J 



Miirre. 



Ilab. ( oasts and islands or the Xortli Atlantic, soutbward on the coast of North America in winter 

 to Southern New England; bi-eediug from No^ a Scotia northward. 



Like all of the Auks, Murres and Pufliins, this species is eminently 

 gregarious, particularly in the breeding season. It is found in grea^ 

 numbers throughout the Arctic Ocean and on nearly all the islands north 

 of Asia, Europe and America. On this side of the Atlantic it breeds 

 from Nova Scotia northward. 



Tens of thousands of these birds congregate to l)reed on the rocky 

 islands, depositing and incubating their single egg close to one another on 

 the shelves of the clift's. The birds sit side by side, and although crowded 

 together, never make the least attempt to quarrel. Clouds of birds may 

 be seen circling in the air over some huge, rugged bastion, forming a 

 picture which would seem to belong to the imagination rather than the 

 realistic. They utter a syllable which sounds exactly like murre. The 

 eggs are so numerous as to have a commercial value, and are noted for 

 their great variation in ground color and markings. They vary from white 

 to bluish or dark emerald-green in ground color; occasionall}' unmarked 

 specimens are found, but they are usually handsomely spotted, blotched, 

 lined in various patterns of lilac, brown and black over the sui-face. In 

 some the markings are confused zigzag lines that look like hieroglyphics. 

 The eggs are large for the size of the bird, measuring from 3. to 3.50 long 

 by 1.95 to 2.10 broad; pyriform in shape. 



