72 NATURAL HISTORY OF lilRDS. 



able for their enormous number on tlic noitlicrn liinl-rookerius, anil ior the variability 

 in color of the single large and pear-shaped egg, which may be found from nearly uni- 

 form white to deep sen-green, heavily spotted and singularly streaked with Mack and 

 brown. The aoconipanying out represents a puz/.ling variety, the so-called s](ectacled 

 guillemot {U. rinffvia), which is identical with the common species except in possess- 

 ing a white ring round the eyes, and a white streak hehind them running backwanl 

 above the ear-coverts. While rather scarce, ami not occurring in all jilaces where the 

 eomniDii guillemot breeds, it, on the other hand, is never found except where the latter 

 occurs. The status of the variety is therefore not settleil, though most ornithologists, 

 perhaps, at present regard it as a more individual variation. In regard to the cut, it 

 may lie remarked that the sliouMcr feathers ought to be more uniform black. 



Ne.\t in order come the true auks, both characterized by the transverse grooves on 

 the bill, and both confined to the Xorth Atlantic Ocean. The first is the razor-bill, 

 (Alca tordu), the other the great auk (Pkailiis iinpeiiiiis), with its many nanu-s, the 

 gejr or gare-fowl of the Ieelandcr.s, the northern penguin, the celebrated ' wing- 

 less bird,' which formerly inhabited both shores of the Atlantic, in its northern tcm- 

 ))erate ]>arts, but, contrary to the jiopular noiinn, not the Arctic Occni. This famous 

 bird, famous because of its tragic fate, bred numerously on Xcwfoinnlland and on the 

 Funk Islands during the last century; in 1844 the last survivora of the last colony in 

 Iceland were killed. Now its skin and bones ancl eg^s are regarded as the most 

 precious treasures of the museums; and long monographieal accounts are |>ulilislu'(l, 

 showing the exact number of these relics, the museums in which they are found, and 

 the history of each single S))ecinien as far as it can be traced. The last list (1S84) is 

 by Professor W. Biasius, who enumerates 7G authenticated skins or mounted birds, 08 

 eggs, 9 more or less conijilete skeletons, besides numerous skulls and detached bones. 

 Half the skins and most of the bones are jirobably of American origin, but not more 

 than five skins are in American museums; among these is the one which Mr. Robert 

 L. Stuart recently bought for ?i625, and presented to the museum in New York. The 

 gare-fowl is of s])ecial interest, since it is the only one of the order which is known to 

 have been dejirived of the jwwer of flight, and which therefore became extermi- 

 nated by till' agency of man. It was a kind of representative, in northern waters, of 

 the flightless Antarctic i)engnins, by which name it was jii-incipally known on the 

 American side of the Atlantic during the last century, jienguin being jirobably only a 

 corrujit derivative of piii-iriiu/, though usually derived from the Latin piiKjiii.'i, fat. 

 We need not here rejieat the differences of the true penguins, but will only call atten- 

 tion to the fact that the great auk was jirovided with normal remiges, .iinl that it 

 was only the smalliu'ss of the wings which made them imfit for flight. 



The black guillemots (Cepp/iiis) form a small group of Arctic liirds which in their 

 history exhibit too little to detain us further. Through a nmnber of rather obscurely 

 known forms (Ih-acJn/rampJius, etc..) ])ecidiar to the Pacific Ocean, we are led to the 

 curiously ornamented pigmy auks of the .same ocean, coiis|)icuous among other charac- 

 ters for their white-colored eyes; and to the nuich larger sea-|)arrots or iiuflins. Of the 

 former m.ay be mentioned the least auk {Siinorhijnchus pusUlus), a beautiful little 

 sea-bird, not so large as a robin, and with a jieculiar knob on top of the bill near its 

 ba.se, which is shed anmially when the breeding sea.son is over. Two other species 

 of the same genus {S. pi/ip/icriis and crislatel/iis) are somewhat larger, but look 

 very odd from the red or orange bill, the many white crests and moustaches, and 

 the peculiar tuft of feathers on the forehead, bent forward in exactly the same man- 



