No. 4.] COUES'S OKNITH. BIBLIOGRAPHY ALCID^. 1055 



1876. Harvey, M. The Great Auk [Alca impenuis]. < Forest and Stream, vi, July 



20, 1876, p. 386; 1 fig. 

 1876. [Ingersoll, E.] [Occurrence of Mergulus alle in New England.] <^-Forest 



and Stream, vi, Feb. 10, 1876, p. 4. 

 1876. SCLATER, J. Scarcity of the Razorbill [Alca torda]. -^Zoolog'ist, 2([ sew, -ai, July, 



lS76,p.5007. 



1876. Tuck, J. G. The Puffin [Fratercula arctica]. <^Zoologist, 2d ser., xi, June, 



1876, p. 495?*. 



1877. Barrows, W. B. Catalogue of the Alcidai contained in the Museum of the 



Boston Society of Natural History, with a Review and proposed Classification 

 of the Family. <; Proc. Bost. Sog. N'at. Hist., xis, for Apr. 4, 1877; pub. Oct.- 

 Nov.,1877, pp. 150-165. 



The paper treats of 21 spp., being those that the author recognizes as valid, -whether 

 specimens of them be in the Museum or not. These are ranged under the genera Frater- 

 cula, Phaleris, Mergulus, Brachyrhamphus, TJria, Lomvia, and Alca; dispensing with sub- 

 femilies altogether. 



1877. Bureau, L. De la Mue Axx Bee et des Ornements Palp^braux du Macareux 

 arctique, Fratercula arctica (Lin. ) Steph. Si^xhs la saison des amours. <^ Bull, 

 Sog. Zool. de Franee, 1877, -p-p. 1-22, table, pll. iv, v. (Aussi s^par^ment, in-80, 

 Paris, 1877, pp. 1-22, table, pll. iv, v.) 



I have only seen the separate, which however is identical with the Bulletin in which the 

 paper originally appeared. In 1879 it was combined with a later paper on same subject, the 

 two together being reissued apait from the Bulletin under the title of the later paper alone. 

 See 1879, same author. 



This is a contribution of great originality, interest, and importance. It establishes a be. 

 fore unsuspectevl fact, that Fratercula arctica regularly moults portions of the horny sheath 

 of the biU, and also the exoresceiices upon the eyelids. The whole process and its results 

 are presented in detail, according to the author's extended and novel researches. Two horse* 

 shoe-shaped pieces, which are saddled on the bases of the upper mandible, and two other pairs 

 of pieces: together with a similar shor shaped piece, and a similar pair of slender pieces, 

 from the under mandible, making in aU nine separate portions of the homy covering of the 

 bill, are moulted ; as is the excrescence upon each eyelid. All these deciduous pieces, as well 

 as the permanent x3ortions of the biU, are elaborately described, and the appearance of the 

 bird at different seasons, conformably with, these extraordinary circumstances, is also fully 

 presented. The history of the author's experiences — how he came to make the discovery, 

 and how he established the facts— is au interesting part of the paper. The conditions of 

 the bill before, during, and after the in ocess are figured in colors in an ingenious manner. 

 The author was, of course, greeted with acclamation ; the article was immediately translated, 

 with editorial comment, by E. Coues, ff^r the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Glub, iii, 

 Apr., 1878, pp. 87-91; and J. E. Harting gave a sjTiopsis, with one of the plates, in the Zoolo- 

 gist of that year. The latter I have not seen. 



M. Bureau's discovery naturally direc ted attention to the various and curious North Pacific 

 allies of F. arctica, raising the expectfvtion, afterward justified, that a similar condition of 

 things would be established among thene forms. The author discreetly forbore to prophecy, 

 but entered upon the now obvious course of inquirj^ which resulted in 1879 in a second ad- 

 mirable paper on the same subject. 



1877. [Grinnell, G. B.] The Little Auk [Mergulus alle, in Connecticut]. <^ Forest 



and Stream, vii, Jan. 25, 1877, p. 388. 

 1877. Newton, A. [Remarks on Exhibition of a Variety of the Guillemot, TJria 



troile. ] <iP.Z.S., Jan. 2, 1877, p. 2. 



"With yellow bill and feet, and white claws. Attention called to similar conditions of Pica 

 rustiea and of Colymbus torquatus. 



1877. [ScoTT, W. E. D. ] Little Auk (Mergulus alle [inland])^ < The Country, i, Dec. 



15, 1877, p. 91. 



1878. A[llen], J. A. Barrow's "Catalogue of the Alcidse." <^Bull. Nutt. Ornitl. 



Clui, iii, No. 2, Apr., 1878, p. 86. 

 Review of his paper in Pr. Bost. Soc, xix, 1877, pp. 150-165. 



