14 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



is the bird in hiding away its eggs that they are sometimes found hid- 

 den away in subterranean caves.* Two, and rarely three eggs are 

 laid, and they are indistinguishable from those of the following 

 species, but average larger. 



28. Cepphus mandtii (LIGHT.) [760, part.} 



Mandt's Guillemot. 



Hab. Arctic regions of both continents; south on the Atlantic coast of North America in winter to 

 New Jersey, breeding to Hudson's Bay and Labrador; Alaskan coast, south in winter to Norton Sound. 



The Sea Pigeon, as it is called, breeds abundantly on the coast 

 and islands of the North Atlantic. It is very abundant from Labrador 

 and Hudson's Bay northward, nesting in the holes and crevices of 

 rocks, often in the most inaccessible places. The eggs are laid in June 

 and July. The usual complement is two, often three. These vary 

 from white to a pale greenish-white, light drab yellow or buff, marked 

 irregularly with spots and blotches of different shades of brown and 

 black, thickest at the great end, where they are usually almost a con- 

 fluent ring; they are oval or elliptical in form; size about 2.30x1.55, 

 but, like nearly all eggs in a large series, there is a great variation in 

 the size, shape, and also in the style of markings, etc. 



29. Cepphus columba Pall. [761.] 



Pigeon Guillemot. 



Hab. Coasts and islands of the North Pacific, southward from Bering's Strait to Northern Japan 

 and Southern California. 



On the Pacific coast of North America this species is found breed- 

 ing from San Nicholas Island northward to the islands of Bering Sea. 

 Dr. Leonhard Stejneger says that it is a very common bird on Bering 

 and Copper Islands ; its eggs were collected at the latter place June 

 i6th.f It is quite common on the Farallones. Mr. Bmerson says egg- 

 laying begins about the first of May, or shortly after, and continues 

 into July. Two eggs is the number laid, and they are deposited in the 

 crevices of rocks or in dark nooks under boulders, often near the 

 water's edge. If the eggs are taken the foolish bird will lay again in 

 the same place. The favorite resting place of these birds is on the 

 rocks just above the foaming surf, where they sit in pairs and " con- 

 verse " with one another in low whistling notes. 



In a large series of eggs the ground color varies from light pearl 

 gray to greenish-blue ; their general shape is like that of the Gulls' 

 eggs, rounded oval at the large end and pointed at the smaller. The 



* See " Notes on Some of the Birds of Grand Manan," by C. H. Andros, Ornithologist and Oologist, 

 Vol. XII, pp. 179-180. 



t Bulletin of the United States National Museum. No. 29. Results of Ornithological Explorations in 

 the Commander Islands and Kamtschatka. By Leonhard Stejneger. Washington, Government Printing 

 Office, 1885. P. 21. 



