34 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



from Spirit Ledge, June 23, 1896, measure 2.36 x 1.62 and 

 2.38 X 1.60. The only call I have heard uttered is a piping 

 or whistling sound, which is uttered by the birds feeding in 

 surf and by the young under the rocks as well as by breeding 

 birds when removed from the nest when they also sometimes 

 emit a slight hiss and open their bills to show a very red mouth 

 and throat. 



Subfamily ALCINi^. Auks and Murres. 

 Genus URIA Brisson. 



30. Uria troile (Linn.). Murre. 



Plumage in summer adults : top of head and hind-neck sooty brown ; gen- 

 eral color sooty brown or black ; sides, breast, belly and tips of secondaries 

 white, the sides being somewhat streaked with black ; occasional individuals 

 (which are not well understood) have a white ring around and a white stripe 

 behind the eye. Adult winter plumage : differs from the summer plumage 

 only in that the chin, throat, fore-neck, sides of head and neck are white.' 

 Immature plumage: similar to adult winter plumage but with fore-neck 

 dusky washed and mottled and with white on side of head lacking. Wing 

 7.70 to 8.15 ; culmen 1.80 ; tarsus 1.45 ; depth of bill at angle 0.55. 



Geog. Dist. — Coasts and islands of the north Atlantic, breeding on the 

 American side from the Magdalen Islands northward ; in winter southward 

 as far as Massachusetts. Formerly said to have nested on Grand Menan. 



County Records. — Cumberland; rare winter visitant, an adult in high 

 plumage which was shot off Scarboro some years ago being the only one 

 seen and now in the Portland Natural History Society Museum, (Brown, 

 C. B. P. p. 36). Knox; rare winter visitant, (Rackliff). Washington; 

 (Boardman). 



The Murre is most certainly a bird which is seldom observed 

 along our coast, and it seems very likely that not more than 

 three or four specimens have ever been actually taken. Almost 

 every specimen so reported will on investigation turn out to 

 be Brunnich's Murre. It should be sought for from November 

 through March. They nest in colonies on rocky cliffs along 

 the north Atlantic shores of both America and Europe, laying 

 only one egg. No nest is made, the egg being laid on the 

 bare rock on a shelf of the cliif, but the peculiar pyriform 



