2208 The Zoologist— July, 1870. 



A very few filamentous feathers on the sides of the head, the slender 

 series beginning at the posterior canthus, and thence extending 

 downwards and backwards. A small white spot just below the eye. 

 Everywhere dull blackish or dusky, deepest on the back, becoming 

 more of a smoky or brownish gray on the under parts ; under wing- 

 coverts like the rest of the under parts ; crest coloured like the back. 

 Bill an undefinable dusky* in the dried specimen ; legs and feet livid 

 gray (probably greenish or bluish in hfe) ; membranes black ; claws 

 black. 



Dimensions. — (Spec, in Mus. Acad., Philada.) : Length about 8'50; 

 wing 550; tail 160; chord of culmen '35; gape "60; gonys '25; 

 greatest height of bill -33, greatest width '25; tarsus I'OO; middle toe 

 and claw 150, outer 1-40, inner 1-25. Another specimen (No. 22,258, 

 Mus. Smiths. Inst.): Wing 560; tail 175; chord of culmen '40; 

 gape '80 ; gonys "40 ; height at base of bill -40 ; width at same point 

 •30 ; legs and toes as in the preceding specimen. 



Three specimens of this species examined: one in the Philadelphia 

 Academy from Kamtschatka, which served as the subject of Mr.Cassin's 

 description in the 'Birds of North America;' another in the Smith- 

 sonian Institution (No. 22,258), received from the Bremen Museum, 

 labelled " Phaleris cristatella (Pall.); Winterkleid ; Kamtschatka;" 

 another also in the Smithsonian (No. 15,805), labelled "Phaleris cris- 

 tatella; Bay of Yedo, Japan; Apr. 1854; eye gray; iris black; 

 Rodgers' North Pacific Exploring Expedition." The last-mentioned 

 specimen is in a very poor state of preservation, and is a young bird, 

 as evidenced by the short straight crest, directed backwards; though 

 the bill is nearly perfect in size and shape, and the general aspect of 

 the bird is precisely that of the adult. The other two specimens are 

 in fine condition, and represent the perfectly mature state. These 

 three include all that are known to exist in any American Museum. 

 It is not a common bird in collections, and is frequently mistaken for 

 the young cristatellus, to which species, however, it bears only a 

 distant and superficial resemblance. 



The bird here described is indubitably the " dusky auk" of Pennant, 

 a species more perfectly and satisfactorily described and figured by 

 Dr. Pallas as Alca tetracula. It is a strongly marked species, not 

 distantly allied to and somewhat resembling cristatellus in everything 



* Pallas gives its colour as " fusco-rubrum ;" Gmelin as "ex fusco-lulesceus;" 

 Latham as " luteo-fuscum." 



