270 Bexdire, N'otcs on the Ancient Murrelct. \'^^Y 



The above theories relating to the causes of flights of hawks 

 and of other land birds also, seem to be absolutely substantiated 

 by all data which I have been able to procure, and although I 

 found that the evidences were always in favor of the foregoing 

 explanation of the flight of hawks in Connecticut, I wished to 

 make observations over a number of years, in consequence of 

 which I am able to present a complete list of the flights which have 

 occurred at intervals during the last decade, — 1SS5 to 1895. 



NOTES ON THE ANCIENT MURRELET {SYNTHLI- 



BORAMPHUS ANTIQUUS), BY CHASE 



LITTLEJOHN. WITH ANNOTATIONS. 



BY MAJOR CHARLES BENDIRE. 



A:mong our North American Waterbirds, there are few whose 

 general habits, etc., are less known to ornithologists than the 

 Murrelets representing the genera SyntJiUboramphiis and Brachy- 

 rajnphns Brandt ; and in fact we know scarcely anything about 

 the majority of the species belonging to them. 



The best known of these is the Ancient Murrelet, also some- 

 times called Black-throated Guillemot and Starik (Old Man) by 

 the Russians. Its geographical range extends along both the 

 coasts and islands of the North Pacific from Japan and the 

 Kurils, north to Kamchatka, Asia and across the Alaska Penin- 

 sula, south to Puget Sound, Washington, and perhaps still farther 

 in this direction in winter. 



Mr. Chase Littlejohn of Redwood City, California, who spent 

 the spring and summer of 1894 on different islands of the 

 Alaska Peninsula, engaged in making natural history collections, 

 has kindly furnished me with the following notes on this still 

 little known species, which I deem of sufficient interest and im- 

 portance to publish at once, particularly as it may draw the 

 attention of collectors to some of the other species fovmd along 

 the coasts of the Pacific Ocean, which are still less known and 

 whose general habits are probably very similar. 



All of our Murrelets spend the greater part of the year, as far 

 as known, on the ocean, and mostly out of sight of land, only 



