6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 56 



URIA TROILE CALIFORNICA 



California Murre 



Numerous Murres were seen in Unimak Pass and at various 

 places among the Aleutian Islands, but probably most of them were 

 of the following species, though some of them were undoubtedly of 

 this species. Among the vast hordes of Pallas's Murres breeding 

 on Bogoslof Island we recognized a few scattering pairs of this 

 species, which could be easily identified by the lighter brown color of 

 the heads and necks which were also more slender with longer bills. 

 On the flat top of the high, rounded clifif at the west end of Bogoslof, 

 the sides of which were covered with breeding colonies of Pallas's 

 Murres, we found several small compact colonies of California 

 Murres sitting on their eggs in close bunches of fifteen or twenty 

 pairs. 



No breeding colonies were found elsewhere among the Aleutian 

 Islands, although they undoubtedly existed there. 



URIA LOMVIA ARRA 



Pallas's Murre 



As the Brunnich's Murre dififers from the common Murre of the 

 Atlantic coast, so may the .Pallas's Murre be distinguished from the 

 California. 



Pallas's Murre in flight looks shorter, thicker and darker and at 

 close range the white on the cutting edges of the mandibles is con- 

 spicuous. It is the commonest Murre in Bering Sea and was seen 

 at various points among the Aleutian Islands where it breeds. It 

 was particularly abundant in the waters north of Unalaska Island, 

 where large or small flocks were almost constantly in sight flying up 

 to the ship and swerving off across the bow or around the stern 

 within easy gunshot. They were flying to or from their great breed- 

 ing grounds on Bogoslof Island, which can often be located in the 

 prevailing fogs by noting the direction in which the Murres or 

 " crow bills," as they are called, are flying. Our visit to Bogoslof 

 Island was made on July 4, and it proved to be a most glorious cele- 

 bration of the day, though not a gun was fired. 



It was certainly one of the most wonderful bird colonies I had 

 ever seen. Castle rock at the eastern end towered upward from two 

 hundred to three hundred feet with steep, sloping sides and sharp 

 pointed peaks of volcanic rock and loose debris, over which we could 

 readily climb. The peaks, the steep cliffs, and even the gravelly and 

 sandy slopes were literally covered with nesting Murres, countless 

 thousands of them, probably several hundred thousand, perhaps a 



