686 brunkich's guillemot. 



Fgeroes, and even in Iceland it is almost confined to the northern 

 districts. In Greenland it breeds above lat. 64°, and Col. Feilden 

 has described (Zool. 1878, p. 380) his visit to a vast colony or 

 " loomery '■'" in the cliffs of Sanderson's Hope — over a thousand feet 

 in height — a little to the south of Upernavik ; he also observed two 

 individuals in August as far north as lat. 79°. after which this bird 

 was not seen again until the return cf the ' Alert ' to navigable water 

 south of Cape Sabine. It abounds on Jan Mayen, Spitsbergen and 

 Franz-Josef Land, and on the open water round the last Air. B. 

 Leigh Smith met with it as early as the beginning of March ; it is 

 also plentiful on Novaya Zemlya and throughout the Arctic Ocean 

 as far as the waters to the north of Bering Strait. In Bering Sea 

 and the North Pacific, American naturalists distinguish a sub- 

 species, wiiich they call Uria iomvia arra ; but on the Atlantic sea- 

 board the typical form is far more abundant tlian the Common 

 Guillemot as a breeding-species down to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 while its winter range extends to New Jersey. 



I'he eggs are, as a rule, somewhat thicker and blunter than those 

 of the Common (Juillemot, while in the green varieties that colour is 

 perhaps a trifle more pronounced. In food and habits, so far as is 

 known, this species does not differ materially from its congener. 



The adult in summer has the beak black, 7vith a whitish line along 

 the edge of the jippcr via)idible from the nostrils to the gape ; crown 

 of the head and nape black, with a greenish gloss ; remaining upper 

 parts duller black; secondaries tipped with white; throat and fore- 

 neck deep-bro-iun, as in the Razor-bill; under parts white — that 

 colour running more to a point in front of the neck than in the 

 Common Guillemot, in which the white usually terminates in a 

 rounded arch. Length of a male 18 in. ; wing 8-25 in. ; the female 

 being rather smaller. The dark throat is lost in winter, as it is in 

 U. troile; in the young bird the bill is much smaller than in the 

 adult. 



It has recently been asserted that the type of the genus Uria is 

 the next species, U. grylle ; but it appears to me that Brisson has 

 undoubtedly indicated U. troile {Cf Ornithologie, vi., p. 70); con- 

 sequently those who desire to separate the Black Guillemots must 

 adopt Cepphiis for them. 



