BIRDS. 105 



tlncc are luiiiid. Always nest in crevices and fissures of clifi's, avIictc it 

 is often extremely difflcult to get at tliein. Tliey are very tame ; but it 

 is next to an impossibility to shoot one on the water if the bird is watch- 

 ing yon, for they dive quite as quickly as a loon. I have seen three 

 entirely black specimens, which 1 considered to be U. carho. One was 

 lirocuredin Cumberland, but was lost, witli many otliors, after we arrived 

 in the United States. I have examined specimens of carho since in the 

 Smithsonian collection, and my bird was nothing but a melanistic speci- 

 men of U. grylle. I also have seen an albino si)ecimeu. 



Tlierc were a fcAv birds in an air-hole in the ice near (nir harbor in the 

 latter days of June that to all appearance resembled the autumn plum- 

 age of the young; but the ice was too treacherous for me to venture out, 

 so I sent an Eskimo. lie returned and reported them "Kanitucalo 

 pechulak" (very near a Guillemot). But if he meant that they were 

 in imi)erfect plumage or another species closely resembling grylle, I could 

 not make oat. He could not get close enough to the air-hole to procure 

 the si)ecimen he killed, and I never saw or heard anything more of them. 



84. Lomvia arra, Brandt. 



'"Akpa," Cumberliiiul Eskimo and GreeuUuiders. 



I had hoped to be able to throw some light on the subject of the re- 

 lationship of the Murres, but I find my material corresponds with my 

 opportunities for observation — very poor and unsatisfactory. 1 first met 

 these birds in numbers off the coast of Eesolution Island, but many were 

 seen farthci- south. About Grinnell Bay and Frobisher Straits they are 

 common even as far as the mouth of Cumberland, but ajiparently quite 

 rare in the waters of that sound The Eskimo say they formerly bred 

 in great numbers on the Kikkerton Islands ; but they have now appa- 

 rently abandoned them. There are large breeding-places about Cape 

 Mercy and Walsingham, the largest "rookery" being on the Padlie 

 Islands in I^xeter Sound. On the Greenland coast they are very abund- 

 ant, breeding bj' thousands in many localities. Observed plentifully in 

 the pack-ice in July. All the specimens collected by me were typical 

 arra. I procured but one single troilc. The var. ruigvla, Ibiinn., Gov- 

 ernor Fencker has not met during eleven years' collecting t)n the Green- 

 land coast; and var. froile appears to be far from common. There is a 

 remarkable variation in the distribution of the dark color, some l^eing 

 white on the throat (piite to the bill, an<l again I have seen specimens 

 entirely black. The dark markings on the eggs of L. arra and troilc, as 

 well as A. iorda, can readily be obliterated with luke-warm water. 



