496 



THE DIVING BIRDS — PYGOPODES. 



southern limit of this species during the breeding-season. Among these islands it 

 is quite numerous, breeding in the caves and hollows of the generally inaccessible 

 cliffs. Noticing, early one morning, many of these birds, frightened by the report 

 of his gun, issuing out of a ravine hemmed in by high rocky cliffs and terminating 

 in a low, narrow cave, Mr. Henshaw gained access to the latter, and succeeded in 

 finding their eggs. No nest at all had been prepared for these, but they had been 

 deposited on the sandy floor of the cavern, and at its farther end, where it was so 

 dark that he could not see them without the aid of a light. Other pairs had availed 

 themselves of the nooks and fissures in the face of the wall, laying their two eggs 

 on the bare rock. He was able to find but a few of the many eggs that must have 

 been there, as the shelves of the rocks were in most instances too high to be reached. 

 The birds submitted to this pillage without a murmur, though not without solicitude, 

 as was evinced by the anxious manner in which they swam back and forth at the 

 entrance to the ravine, keeping well out of gunshot. He describes their eggs, when 

 fresh, as having a faint greenish white ground, spotted, mostly at the larger end, 

 with irregular blotches. 



Eggs of this species are in the Smithsonian collection from Coal Harbor, Alaska, 

 Puget Sound, Kadiak, and the Farallones. The ground-color varies from a glaucous 

 white to a deep buff. The markings are a deep warm tint of claret-brown, deepening 

 into blackness, in bold, large blotches intermingled with smaller, subdued cloudings 

 of a faint lavender and purplish slate. Two eggs in my own collection, from the 

 Farallones, measure : 2.30 by 1.70 inches ; 2.45 by 1.65. 



Cepphus carbo. 



THE SOOTY GUILLEMOT. 



Cepphus carbo, Palu Zoogr, Eosso-As. II. 182G, 350. — Newt. Ibis, 1865, 519. 



Uria carbo, ]5randt, Ball. Sci. II. 1837, 346. — Cass. Pr. Philad. Acad. 1862, 323; in Bainl's 

 P>. N. Am. 1858, 913; cd. 1860, pi. xcvii. — lUiUD, Cat. N. Ain. P.. 1S59, no. 728. — CouEs, 

 Key, 1872, 345 ; Chuck List, 1873, no. 633 ; 2d od. 1882, no. 873. — RiDuw. Norn. N. Am. P.. 

 1881, no. 762. 



Hab, 



dental ? 



Shores 

 Stejneg 



of the 

 ER) ;? 



Okotsk 

 ? Unala: 



Sea, 

 shka 



Kurile Islands, and Northern Japan ; Behring's Island (acci- 

 ( Pallas). 



Sp. Char. A little larger and more ro- 

 bust than C. columha. Bill Wack, very robust, 

 ^ in thickness and length superior to that of 



^\ that species, rather obtuse, very straight, with 



\ the back rounded and convex. Nasal fossoe 



* as in C. columba ; linear nostrils longer. 



Small leathers at the frontal angle as far as 

 the nostril and around the base of the lower 

 mandible are white. Orbital region while, 

 broader below the eyes and posteriorly drawn 

 out into a thin point. Body entirely brown- 

 ish black, the shoulders more grayish, but 

 no white wing-spot. Feet intense red, also 

 the webs, more robust than in C. columba ; 

 claws black, stronger, shorter, less pointed. 



JSS 



l,p 



Comiiarativft jiroportions. 

 Length of the hill to the frontal angle, 

 Length of the bill to the rictus, 



