Jtird-Life in Labrador. 99 



these birds breed exclusively. They lay usually three eggs in 

 some exposed situation, or in the cleft of some rock, making 

 no nest, and seem to let the sun do the greater share of the 

 hatching ; they are oblong and ovoid in shape, tapering sud- 

 denly, the ground color being from greenish to pure white, 

 and the varied streaks and blotches or spots scattered more or 

 less thickly all over their surface, especially so in a concentric 

 ring around the tip of the egg, are of black or various shades 

 of brown. Nearly all the birds of this family have what are 

 apparently purplish spots upon their eggs, but these are black 

 primarily and appear purple only from a slight covering of 

 the white lime of the shell itself. If the lime be scraped away 

 the spots will show up black. 



COMMON or FOOLISH GUILLEMOT MURRE 



Lomria troilc. (L.) BRDT. 



BEFORE reading the present remarks upon this species one 

 should compare the notes as given upon its congener the razor- 

 billed auk. The egg is noted for its variable size and the 

 nature of its markings. I have taken them all the way from 

 pure white, though an endless series of blotches, and waved 

 lines of black, purple, and brown, to almost pure green and 

 even a delicate pink barely spotted or marked at the larger 

 end. The people on the coast cannot tell whether either the 

 turre or murre lays more than a single egg, or whether they 

 sit upon their eggs or allow the sun to hatch them. I have 

 been told, on apparently good authority, that they do sit 

 upon their eggs, and consequently are furnished with a large, 

 bare place upon the lower belly, where they have picked the 

 feathers from themselves in order to make the proper hollow 

 in their downy covering for the egg to rest in ; but I failed to 

 notice the spot upon any of the birds shot. I could not ascer- 

 tain, either, the period of incubation. While laying to, one 

 morning, off the Fox Islands, near the Mecattina Islands, sev- 

 eral of us landed and filled our pails with murres' eggs, while 



