Capt. Sabine's Memoir on the Birds of Greenland, cj-c. 541 



speculum wliite. In this state it has been described by Briinnich 

 as tlie Uria Balthica, No. 115. In mature winter plumage the 

 whole bird is more or less speckled, and the upper feathers of the 

 wing spot become tipt with black, giving it a mottled appearance. 

 It is then the Uria Balthica, No. 116, of Briinnich. A male speci- 

 men, killed in November at Shetland, having the wing spot mot- 

 tled, shows that this circumstance is not peculiar to the females, 

 as has been supposed. In the spring the plumage gradually re- 

 assumes the black. A male killed in Davis's Straits early in 

 June, had the whole head and neck mottled with black and white, 

 equally distributed ; the plumage beneath and the back being 

 black with a few white feathers dispersed ; the lower part of the 

 abdomen gray as in the neck ; the speculum still mottled, but 

 with the white predominating. This bird vvas killed on our first 

 arrival in the Greenland seas ; and it is presumed that the change 

 to full summer plumage was proceeding very rapidly, as we did 

 not afterwards see a mottled bird. The legs of the November 

 and June specimens were red, though not so bright as in sum- 

 mer. The breeding plumage is too well known to need descrip- 

 tion. 



We did not see a variety, unless a specimen killed in September 

 having the primaries rusty brown instead of black may be con- 

 sidered such : the varieties which are noticed by Gmelin, and also 

 by Latham in the Index Ornithologicus and in the Synopsis, and 

 which are supposed to be found in different places, are referable 

 to the changes of plumage which this bird undergoes during the 

 winter. 



4 A 2 16, Co. 



