564 KEPORT or STATE GEOLOGIST. 



Eare winter resident and occasional migrant, breeding far to the 

 northward of the United States. One shot from a flock of five near 

 Brookville, February 23, 1885. That morning the thermometer regis- 

 tered 10 degrees below zero. For several mornings previous the 

 weather had been equally severe. The canal, most of the smaller 

 streams, ponds and the rivers, except where there were rapids, were 

 frozen over. In one of these open places the Loons were found. I am 

 informed by Mr. Charles Durj, of Cincinnati, of a specimen that was 

 killed near Chalmers several years ago. Mr. C. A. Stockbridge reports 

 it as a rare visitor at Ft. Wayne. Mr. Euthven Deane found one at 

 English Lake, May 4, and another May 11, 1890. Dr. Langdon noted 

 two or three in the vicinity of Cincinnati, and Dr. Wheaton says it is 

 not rare on Lake Erie. Mr. Nelson says it is a very common winter 

 resident upon Lake Michigan. Prof. Cook reports it from Michigan. 

 The Loons subsist chiefly upon fish, and their flesh has a fishy flavor, 

 rendering them unfit for food, although it is said they are eaten by the 

 Indians. They also, while engaged in fishing, are reported to become 

 entangled in the fishermen's nets. 



III. FAMILY ALCIDJE. AUKS, MURRES AND PUFFINS. 

 SUBFAMILY ALCIN^E. AUKS AND MURRES. 



a 1 . Bill not very short ; nostril concealed or enclosed in dense velvety feathering; 



secondaries tipped with white. 



6 1 . Bill narrow: culmen slightly curved, both mandibles destitute of grooves; 

 tail rounded, its feathers not pointed. URIA. 4 



4. GENUS URIA BRISSON. 

 a 1 . Bill under 1.60. TJ. lomvia (Linn.). 7 



7. (31.) Uria lomvia (LINN). 



Brunnich's Murre. 

 Synonym, THICK-BILLED MURRE. 



Adult. Above and throat and neck, sooty black; secondaries, tipped 

 with white; other lower parts, white; the cutting edge, towards the 

 base of the upper mandible, thickened and extending outward beyond 

 the edge of the lower mandible. 



Length, 14.50-18.50; wing, 7.45-8.80; bill, 1.45-1.50; depth of bill 

 at nostril, .47. 



