ALCIDZ, AUKS.—GEN. 316, 317. 339 
The family is confined to the Northern Hemisphere, where it represents the pen- 
guins of the Southern; several species occur in the North Atlantic, in almost 
incredible numbers, or are of circumpolar distribution; but the majority, including 
all the stranger kinds, inhabit the North Pacific ; some range as far south, in winter, 
at least as the Middle States and Lower California. They are all marine; feed on 
fish and other animal substances, exclusively ; lay 1-3 eggs on bare ledges, in rifts 
of rocks, or in burrows; and are altricial. The voice is hoarse; the flight swift 
and firm, performed with vigorous rapid wing-beats; one species is deprived of 
flight owing to the shortness of the wings, although these members are well formed 
with perfect remiges; all swim and dive with great facility. They are eminently 
gregarious, and mostly migratory. All the species are represented in this country. 
The number of species given by Brandt in 1837 (Bull. Acad. Sci. St. Petersburg), by 
Cassin in 1858 (Baird’s B. N. A.) and by myself in 1868 (Proc. Phila. Acad.), must 
be materially reduced, as Brandt himself has since shown (op. cif. 1869), and as 
I now admit. Only twenty-one are unquestionably valid. 
316. Genus ALCA Linnsus, 
Great Auk. Coloration as in the next species, but a large white area 
before the eye; length about 30; wing 6; tail 3; bill 3, along gape 4, its 
depth 1%. Nourr., ii, 553; Aup., vii, 245, pl. 465; Cass. in Bp., 900. 
Special interest attaches to this bird, which is now on the point of extinction, 
largely through human agency. It formerly inhabited this coast from Massa- 
chusetts northward, as attested by earlier observers, and by the plentiful 
occurrence of its bones in shell-heaps; also, Greenland, Iceland, and the 
N. W. shores of Europe, to the Arctic Circle. On our shores it was appar- 
ently last alive at the Funks, a small island off the S. Coast of Newfound- 
land; while in Iceland, its living history has been brought down to 1844. 
Of late years, it has been currently, but, as it appears, prematurely, reported 
extinct. Mr. R. Deane has recently recorded (Am. Nat. vi, 368) that a 
specimen was “found dead in the vicinity of St. Augustine, Labrador, in 
November, 1870;” this one, though in poor condition, sold for $200, and 
was sent to Europe. I know of only four specimens in this country—in 
the Smithsonian Institution, in the Philadelphia Academy, the Cambridge 
Museum, and in Vassar College, Poughkeepsie (the latter the original of 
Audubon’s figures). There is an egg in each of the first two mentioned 
collections. About 60 skins appear to be preserved in various museums. 
See Srerenstrur, Viddensk. Meddel., Copenhagen, 1856-7, 33-116; 
Newton, Ibis, 1862, p.—; Cours, Proc. Phila. Acad. 1868, 15; Orron, 
PME ate MOORE see. aoe N tee Aire om ivpois 2 he cle) Seta 3) UMPENNISS 
317. Genus UTAMANIA Leach. 
Razor-billed Auk. Tinker. Brownish-black, browner on the head and 
throat; under parts from the throat (in summer; from the bill in winter, 
and in young), tips of secondaries, and sharp line from bill to eye, white ; 
bill black with a white curved line; mouth yellow; 16-19; wing 7-8; tail 
3-34, graduated 1 or more; tarsus 1-14; bill 14, along gape 24, nearly 1 
deep. N. Atlantic, extremely abundant on rocky shores and islands with 
