The Zoologist— May, 1870. 2125 



sides erect, smooth, the cultiien very convex, the rictus gently curved, 

 the gonys neailj' straight, except at symphysis, where it is bulging. 

 Nostrils short, linear, subbasal, marginal, impervious. Eye small ; 

 no palpebral appendages. No crest ; no furrow behind the eyes ; 

 slender elongated feathers on each side of the head. Inner lateral 

 claw of usual size, shape and position. Other details of form almost 

 exactly as in Fratercula. Size large ; general form robust. 



This curious genus may readily be distinguished from all others of 

 the family by the characters indicated in the two first sentences of the 

 above diagnosis. The intercalation of an accessory corneous element 

 at the mandibular symphysis is an entirely unique feature in this 

 family. It seems very much like the " interramicorn," as the writer 

 has elsewhere called it, which is found in the albatrosses, as one of 

 the characters which distinguish those birds from other Procellariidae. 

 In the present instance, it is a feature of especial importance and 

 value, as it helps greatly to distinguish this genus from Sagmatorrhina, 

 or, to be more explicit, to separate S. Suckleyi from C. monoccrata in 

 every stage of growth. 



The affinities of this genus are decidedly with Fratercula, after 

 Sagmatorrhina, of course. Apart from the peculiarilies of the bill, it 

 agrees with the former in most points of structure, except the eyes and 

 inner lateral claw. It does not require comparison with any other 

 genus. It is represented by only a single species,|according to the 

 writer's way of thinking,— Suckleyi falling most naturally, as well as 

 can be judged at present, in Sagmatorrhina. 



CeratorhyncUa vionoceraia (Pall.), Cass. — Habitat : American and 

 Asiatic coasts and islands of the North Pacific. Japan (Perry's U. S. 

 Expl. Exped.), Kamtschatka (Mus. Acad., Philada.), Pacific coast of 

 N. A., from Russian America to Farralone Islands, Cal. (Mus. Smiths. 

 Inst.). Breeds as far south as Japan and California. 



Adult, breeding plumage (No. 46,-517, Mus. Smiths., female, Sitka, 

 May, 1866).— Bill orange-yellow, culmen and base of upper mandible 

 dusky; horn dull yellowish. Feet apparently dusky yellow; below, 

 with the tarsi posteriorly, blackish ; claws black. Crown of head, 

 back of neck, and entire upper parts glossy blue-black. Sides of head 

 and neck, and of body along under the wings to the flanks, with chin, 

 throat and upper part of breast, and under surfaces of wings, clear 

 grayish ash, pretty trenchantly defined along its line of junction with 

 the black. Under parts from the breast pure white; this colour 

 shading insensibly into the ashy on the breast and sides. A line of 



