128 * General Notes. 



Puffin moults parts of its bill and eyelids, it was expected that lie would 

 follow up the matter with an investigation of other birds of the same 

 family. This he has done in a highly satisfactory manner, with exactly 

 the results that were anticipated. His original paper, published in the 

 Bull. Soc. Zool. de France, 1877, we translated for the Nuttall Bulletin. 

 It is now republished, in connection with the paper below cited, the two 

 together forming under one cover a brochure which has just reached us 

 through the courtesy of the author. As we are just closing this number 

 of our Bulletin, we can only do this valuable paper the scanty justice of 

 stating its principal results. 



1. M. Bureau establishes for Fratercula and its allies a family Mormoni- 

 dce, distinct from Alcidce. He finds F. arctica divisible into three forms, 

 armoricana, islandica, and glacicdis, the geographical distribution of which 

 corresponds to certain isothermals. 



2. F. curnlculata moults the bill almost exactly as F. arctica does, the 

 only difference being that one pair of small pieces falls in the latter, but 

 not in the former. . 



3. Lunda cirrhata moults the bill in substantially the same pieces, lacking 

 only the horse-shoe shaped piece encii'cling the base of the upper mandible. 

 It has no moult of the eyelids. " Sagmatorrhina " is the yoimg of this bird. 



4. Chimerhm cornula (i. e. Ceratorhinu monocerata) moults the horn and 

 another small piece. C. " sucHeyi" is the young, and the adult in winter. 



5. Ombria psittacuta moults the nasal shield. 



6. Simorhynchusi cristaleltus is the most like Fratercula arctica, as it 

 moults four pairs of pieces (all the red parts of both mandibles). S. "dubius" 

 is the adult in winter, after the moult. S. " tetraculus " is the young before 

 the red horny pieces are developed. 



7. Simorhynckus camtschaticus remains undetermined as to the moult. 

 (It would appear to be most like that of Ombria psittacula.) S. cassim^ 

 Couesjis the young of the species. 



8. Simorhynckus microceros moults the tubercle. S. puttilius (Pall.) is 

 the same bird. 



M. Bureau's determinations are thus without exception the same as 

 those made by the writer in the " Key to North American Birds," in 1872. 



This highly important paper is illustrated with six colored plates, show- 

 ing the points very clearly, and a map of the distribution of th,e races of 

 Fratercula arctica. 



M. Bureau may be said to have entirely reformed our ideas of this in- 

 teresting family. 



A preliminary title-page of his brochure indicates that he may extend 

 his fruitful studies to the moult or other changes of the bill of birds in 

 general. We take the liberty of suggesting, as an inviting problem, the 

 remarkable seasonal changes of size and shape alleged to occur in the 

 bills of certain Fringillidce, notably the genus ^F^yiothus. — Elliott 

 CouES, Washington, D. C. 



