41 



uniform excellence and accuracy, necessitates no small degree of caution in 

 a decision against the validity of one of his species. It will be evident upon 

 the least reflection that, for example, such a perfectly valid species as lelra- 

 culus, might be so described, in a few sentences, that no striking impression 

 of its difference from cristateUus should be conveyed. It is also to be borne 

 in mind that Prof. Brandt, probably unsurpassed by any one in the accuracy 

 and extent of his knowledge of the Alcidx, and particularly well fitted to 

 judge of Dr. Pallas' works, admits the species in question as distinct. And 

 in the present instance it seems preferable to coincide with the views of these 

 naturalists, and to allow the species to hereafter stand upon its own merits, 

 until the proof that it has none is forthcoming, notwithstanding Dr. H. 

 Schlegel's summary assignment of it (as well as of tetraadus) to cristateUus. 

 There is no specimen purporting to represent this species in any American 

 Museum ; and the only information regarding it which can be furnished-at pre- 

 sent writing is embodied in the above citation from the " Zoographia." It is 

 hardly, if at all, noticed by other writers than those here cited. Mr. Cassin, 

 however, queries it as a synonym of cristateUus. 



SiMORHYNCHOa CAMTSCHATICUS, (Lepech.) ScJll. 



Alca kamtschatica, Lepechin, Nova Acta Petrop. xii, 1801, p .369, pi. 8. 



Fhaleris camtschatica, Brandt, Bull. Acad. St. Petersb. ii, 1837, p. 347. Gray, 

 Gen. Birds, ill, 1849, p. 638. Cassin, Baird's B. N. A. 1858, p. 908. 



Tylorhamphus camtschalicus, Bonaparte, Tab. Comp. Pelag. Comptes Reudus, 

 1856, xlii, p. 774. 



Simorhynchus camtschaticus, Schlegel, Urin.Mus. Pays-Bas, 1867. livr. ix, p. 25. 



Uria mystacea, Pallas, Zoog. R.-A. ii, 1811, p. 372, pi. 89. Quotes Alca camt- 

 schatica Lepechin, having just previously cited it for cristnteU.a. 



Phaleris cristcitella, Temminck, PI. Color. No. 200. Not of authors. 



Mormon superciliosum, Lichtenstein, Verzeich. 1823, p. 89. 



Phaleris superciliosa, Bonaparte, Comp. and Geog. List, 1838, p. 66. 



North Pacific Coasts. Unalaschka, (Pallas.) Kamtschatka, (Mus. Bost. Nat. 

 Hist. Soc.) North-west coast of America, (Mus. Smiths. Inst.) 



Bill much smaller, simpler, and differently 

 shaped from that of .S'. cristateUus, though not 

 distantly resembling the juvenile undeveloped 

 condition of the latter. Width at nostril 

 very slightly less than depth at same point, 

 about two-thirds of the length of culmen ; bill 

 regularly > shaped in lateral outline; culmen 

 very convex, regularly arched from base to 

 tip ; gonys nearly straight, rapidly ascending ; 

 commissure slightly sinuate, a little curved 

 upward at tip ; apices of both mandibles acute, 

 fairly meeting each other on the level of the 

 commissure ; tomia of upper mandible slightly 

 nicked near the tip of the bill. Wings and 

 tail of usual shape for this genus ; the length 

 of the latter contained about three and a half 

 times in the length of the former from the car- 

 pal angle to end of first primary. Tarsus 

 Fig. S.-SinwrJ>ynchuscamfschattcus,m^c^ shorter than middle toe and claw; 

 (Lap.) Nat. size. middle toe a little shorter than outer toe ; 



middle toe and claw just as long as outer toe and claw ; inner toe and claw 



a little shorter than middle toe without its claw. 



The form of the bill alone is characteristic; the other details of structure 



are shared by the rest of the Simorhynchi. 



A very long recurved crest of exceedinglv slender, delicate, filoplumaceous 



