BIRDS OF NEW YORK I05 



Family ALCIDA.E 



Auks, Guillemots etc. 

 Order Alciformes in Sharpe's Hand-List 



Feet palmate, hind toe wanting; tarsi mostly reticulate, heel joint 

 naked; bill variable, in some species curiously enlarged, and ornamented 

 in the breeding season ; tail short, of 1 2-i6(rarely 1 8)feathers ; lores feathered ; 

 oil gland tufted; no apophysis of tibia; altricial, i.e. their young are fed 

 in the nest by their parents; ptilopaedic, or mostly covered with down; 

 nidicolous, i.e. remaining in the nest for some time; eggs one, or few, very 

 large. 



This is a family of holarctic distribution, consisting of about 30 members, 



almost exclusively maritime in habitat. They are highly gregarious in 



the breeding season and return with great punctuality to their nesting 



sites on the precipitous cliffs and ledges of northern shores. Famous 



breeding grounds are the Hebrides and other islands of Scotland, Norway, 



Iceland, Greenland, Labrador, Alaska, and Bird Rock in the St Lawrence 



gvilf. The southernmost breeding stations in eastern America are on the 



coast of Maine. The eggs are of commercial value and are gathered in 



immense numbers on the rocky islands of Great Britain and Norway. 



Fratercula arctica (Linnaeus) 



Puffin 



Plate 3 



Alca arctica Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. 10. 1758. i: 130 

 Mormon arcticus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 282, fig. 301 

 Fratercula arctica A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 13 



frater'cula, from Lat. fraterculare, to swell up, probably from the pouting 



appearance of standing puffins, somewhat resembling the attitude 



of pouter pigeons; arc'tica, arctic 



Description. Bill extremely deep. Adult: Head, neck and upper parts 

 blackish, the head and front of the neck browner ; sides of the head, throat 

 and a narrow collar on the nape white or grayish; breast and belly white. 

 Breeding plumage; Bill much enlarged and brilliantly colored; feet and 

 eyelids orange-red; a bluish conical projection on the upper eyelids; less 

 white on the neck. Length 13 inches; wing 6; tarsus i; bill 1.85; depth of 

 bill in winter 1.5. 



