Q22 THE PIGEON GUILLEMOT, 
but that they colonize upon some of the higher slopes of the Olympic Moun- 
tains where they lay their eggs in burrows; and one of the Indians claims to 
have come upon such a colony several years ago while hunting in company 
with a white man. The Indians at Howkan, on Long Island, Alaska, told Mr. 
George G, Cantwell that they supposed the birds nested high up in the moun- 
tains in hollow trees. 
It sounds fishy, I know; but I have one slight confirmation for such an 
hypothesis. At Glacier, on the North Fork of the Nooksack River, and near 
the foot of Mount Baker, having risen before daybreak for an early bird- 
walk, on the morning of May 11, 1905, I heard voices from an invisible party 
of Marbled Murrelets high in air as they proceeded down the valley, as tho to 
repair to the sea for the day’s fishing. It was too late in the season for 
migratory flight, and the Murrelets are not known to visit interior waters 
(altho I have seen them on Lake Washington in winter). Shearwaters of 
two species are known to nest in the high mountains of New Zealand, miles 
from the ocean; but such behavior on the part of any American sea-bird would 
be unique in our annals. 
No. 371. 
PIGEON GUILLEMOT, 
A. O. U. No. 29. Cepphus columba (Pall.). 
Synonym.—SEA PIGEON. 
Description.— Adult in swnmer: General plumage sooty black, glossed with 
green, pure black on wings and tail; a large white patch on wing, oval in general 
outline, but interrupted by strong re-entrant wedge of black on distal margin; bill 
and claws black, lining of mouth and feet carmine; irides brown. Plumage fading 
in late summer, color of wings and tail changing to gray, and white wing-patch 
becoming soiled with brown, Adult in winter: Most of head and neck, rump and 
underparts white; back and hind-neck black, varied by white; tail and wings black 
with patch on latter clean white. /mmature: Above chiefly sooty slate; below 
white varied by dusky; traces of wing-patch in outcropping white; bill black; feet 
reddish black. Dozny young: Sooty black bill, and feet brownish black, Length 
of adult: 12.00-14.00 (304.8-355.6); wing 6.00-6.50 (152.4-165,1); tail 2.00 
(50.8) ; bill 1.30 (33), depth at base .43 (10.9); tarsus 1.20 (30.5). 
Recognition Marks.—Teal size; dusky appearance; solid black with white 
wing-patch of ordinary plumage unmistakable; a strange pied gray bird in winter. 
Nesting.—Eggs: 2, sub-elliptical, pale green or buffy of various shades, 
boldly and handsomely spotted or blotched with purplish black or deep brown, with 
shell markings of purplish gray ; deposited on bare rock at bottom of crevice or at 
end of tunnel in earth-bank, or even, rarely, on ground in thick grass. Avy. size, 
2.40 x 1.60 (61 x 40.6). Season: June-July; one brood, 
