The Zoologist— November, 1870. 2375 



older authors seems to have been based upon the albino condition, the 

 bird being described as " niveus, rostro pedibusque ex carneo fusces- 

 centibiis": it is possible that Pallas, who introduced the word, may 

 have really based it upon a specimen of Cohimba, but this is a point 

 of no special consequence. Bonnaterre has another name, " nivea," 

 for the same condition, quoting Pallas, Sp. Z., v. p. 33. Brisson and 

 Brehm both have a large number of nominal species, not necessary 

 here to particularize. In 1817 Vieillot (1. supra cit.) described an adult 

 under the name of Uria leucoptera, erroneously assigning it dimensions 

 nearly equal to those of Lomvia troile : at least the presumption is 

 that this leucoptera is nothing but a large U. grylle, though he must 

 have been perfectly familiar with the latter. Even so late as 1824 

 grylle is redescribed as Uria scapularis. The "Uria Mandtii" of 

 Lichtenstein requires attention, having been extensively quoted as a 

 synonym of, or employed to designate, U. Columba : it is not possible 

 to determine, from the description, whether Mandtii is really based 

 upon Columba or upon grylle; but Dr. Schlegel describes a specimen 

 from Spitzbergen, in the Mus. Pays-Bas., " un des individus types de 

 rUria Mandtii de Lichtenstein, obtenu du Musee de Berlin," as having 

 the white feathers of the mirror tipped with clear brown, and the wing 

 and the tail feathers faded grayish : this is a common condition of 

 autumnal specimens of gi-ylle, and the description does not point more 

 particularly to Columba than to this species : upon the whole it may 

 be best to regard Mandtii, Licht., as a synonym of grylle, though the 

 name as used by Brandt, Bonaparte and some others refers un- 

 mistakably to Columba. A certain Uria unicolor is described by 

 Faber and Benecken, and admitted as distinct in the ' Comptes 

 Rendus' by Bonaparte, who moreover places it in a different sub- 

 genus from grylle. Bonaparte does not use the term to designate 

 Carbo, Pall., which latter he gives as distinct. The name seems to 

 have been based upon the melanotic state of plumage of grylle. 

 Dr. Schlegel describes, in the ninth livraison of the Mus. Pays-Bas 

 Catalogues, one of Faber's type specimens from Greenland, as being 

 " Au plumage d'un noir enfume absolument uniforme." 



Uria Co/wmZ-a (Pallas), Cassin.— Habitat: Asiatic and American 

 coasts of the North Pacific, Kamtschatka (Mus. Acad. Philada.), 

 Russian America, Washington Territory, California (Mus. Smiths. 

 Inst.). Breeds on the islands off the coast of California. 



Bill stouter than that of U. grylle, more obtuse at the tip ; upper 

 mandible with the culmen straight, or even just appreciably convex, 



