NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 37 



in a slightly reentrant angle, thence descending about perpendicularly to the 

 very edge of the upper mandible. Feathers on side of lower mandible not 

 extending quite so far as those on side of upper. Interramal space fully 

 feathered, but in consequence of the peculiar shape of the rami, there is a 

 small pit or fossa between them, just at their junction, which is unfeathered. 

 Wings and tail of the usual length and shape; the length of the latter con- 

 tained about three and two-thirds times in the length of the former from the 

 carpal joint to the end of the longest feather. Tarsus shorter than the middle 

 toe without its claw. 



Adult — Without a crest. A series of elongated very slender filamentous 

 white feathers from the eye backwards aud downwards, white. Entire upper 

 parts, with chin, throat, breast, and flanks, fuliginous or brownish-black, 

 lighter or grayer below than above ; other under parts pure white, pretty 

 trenchantly defined against the darker color of the breast. Bill orange or 

 coral red, becoming enamel yellow at the tip, and along the cutting edges. 

 Legs and feet dull greenish, darker posteriorly, (in the dried state.) 



The above is the state of plumage of apparently most mature birds; 

 but is much more rarely met with than the succeeding: Upper parts as 

 just described, but no whitish feathers below and behind eye. Entire under 

 parts white, marbled on the throat, breast and sides with dusky or blackish ; 

 this color usually occupying chiefly or wholly the tips of the feathers, whose 

 bases are white. The mottling is thickest on the breast, most sparse on the 

 abdomen ; but it varies in degree with almost every specimen. A state of 

 plumage is described as that of the young, in which the white occupies nearly 

 the whole under parts, and is scarcely mixed with dusky, even on the throat 

 and breast. This stage is not represented in American Museums. The ten- 

 dency of the mottling, as the bird grows older, seems to be to increase on 

 the throat, breast, perhaps on the sides and flanks, aud to disappear from the 

 other under parts, leaving the latter pure whitp, in marked contrast. The 

 under wing coverts are always dark ashy brown ; the short tibial feathers 

 the same. 



Length about 9-00 ; wing 5-40 to 5-75; tail l-.'iO to 1 60 ; tarsus (average) 

 1-00 ; middle toe 1-10. Bill : chord of culmen -60, chord of gonys just about 

 the same ; depth opposite posterior end of nostrils -45 ; width at same point 

 •30 ; rictus nearly or about 1-00. 



This very curious species may be instantly recognized, in whatever state of 

 plumage, by the remarkable configuration of the bill; the rictus beinn^ 

 strongly curved upwards, the upper mandible oval, obtuse, the lower falci- 

 form, acute. It is one of the longest and best known of the North Pacific 

 representatives of the family, and is apparently a veiy common bird, though 

 specimens do not occur in collections so often as might be expected. It 

 seems to be decidedly boreal in habitat, and is not recorded, on the Ameri- 

 can coast, so far south as the United States, though occurring at Sitka, R. A., 

 and probably off the coast of British Colombia. It has no specific synomyms, 

 though it has been referred to several different genera. It is one of Dr. 

 Pallas' species. It is the type of M. Temminck's genus Phaleris. 



SiMORHYNCHUS CRiSTATELLUS, {Pall.) Merrem. 



Alca crisfatella, Pallas, Spic. Zool. v, 1769, p. 20, pi. 3, and pi. 5, figs. 7, 8, 9. 



Gmelin, S. N. i, pt. ii, 1788, p. 552. No. 7. Latham, lad. Orn. ii," 1790, p. 



794, No. 6. DonndorfF, Beytr. Zool. ii, pt. i, 1794, p. 821. Vieillot, GaL 



Ois. ii, 1825, p. 242, pi. 297. 

 Uria cristatella, Pallas, Zoog. R.-.\. ii, 1811, p. 370, pi. 86. Erroneously 



cites as synonymous Alca canitschatica, Lepechin. 

 Simorhynchus cristatellus, Merrem., Bonaparte, Tab. Comp. Pelag. Comptes 



Rendus, xlii, 1856, p. 774. Schlegel, Urinatores Mus. Pays-Bas, livr. ix, 



1867, p. 25. (Considers U. dubia and tetrq,cula Pall., young of this si)ecies.) 

 rhaleris cristatellus, Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool. xiii, 1825, p. 47, pi. 5. Not 



1868.] 



