182 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. Coasts and islands of the North Atlantic. From 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Bird Rock and islands along north shore) 

 and Newfoundland, northward along the Labrador coast to southern 

 Greenland. Also from Portugal (Berlenger Islands) and western 

 France, northward through the British Isles to the Faroe Islands, 

 Iceland, and Norway ( Varanger Fiord) . 



Winter range. From Labrador (Hamilton Inlet), Nova Scotia, 

 and New Brunswick to coast of Maine, rarely to Massachusetts (one 

 specimen in -Boston Society of National History. All other recent 

 records refer to Briinnich's murre with little doubt). The Rhode 

 Island record is considered very doubtful and all from south of New 

 England can not be verified, but probably refer to lomvia. In Eu- 

 rope from the British Isles south to the west coast of Morocco; oc- 

 casional in the Mediterranean Sea (Malta) and recorded from the 

 Canary Islands. 



Casual records. Recorded from York Factory, Hudson Bay, by 

 Swainson and Richardson, and taken by Bell in Hudson Bay in 1885. 



Egg dates. Gulf of St. Lawrence: 35 records, May 20 to July 25; 

 18 records, June 18 to July 1. Great Britain: 20 records, May 10 to 

 June 19; 10 records, June 5 to 13. Newfoundland: 3 records, June 

 14 and 20 and July 3. 



Uria aalge calif arnica (H. Bryant) 

 CALIFORNIA MURRE 



HABITS 



The Pacific coast subspecies of the common murre differs but 

 slightly in appearance or in habits from its relative of the Atlantic 

 Ocean; it is somewhat larger and its bill is a little different in shape 

 and relative dimensions; its life history is so similar that I shall not 

 attempt to repeat what I have said about the foregoing bird, but 

 shall endeavor to give what additional information we have relating 

 to the California murre and describe a few of its most striking breed- 

 ing colonies. Whereas the Atlantic murre is now confined, in the 

 breeding season, to a few restricted localities on the American side 

 of the ocean, the California murre is very widely distributed all 

 along the Pacific coast, breeding in nearly all suitable localities, from 

 the Santa Barbara Islands, off southern California, to the Pribilof 

 and other islands in Bering Sea. Moreover, the common murre is 

 comparatively rare as an American bird, whereas the California 

 murre is excessively abundant throughout most of its range. 



The name, California murre, at once suggests the Farallone Islands, 



