1056 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY. [VoIY! 



1878. CouES, E. On the Moult of the Bill and Palpebral Ornaments in Fratercula 

 arctica. < Bull. mitt. Ornith. Club, iii, No. 2, Apr. , 1878, pp. 87-91. 



An abridged translation, with notes, of L. Burean's extraordinary paper in Bull, de la Soc. 

 Zool. de France, 1877. 8vo, pp. 1-22, pU. 4, 5. Paris, 1877. 

 1878. [ScLATER, P. Jj.,and Salvin, O.] Bureau on the Moulting of portions of the 

 Puffin's [Fratercula arctica] beak. < Ibis, 4th ser., ii, Oct., 1878, p. 475. 

 Notice of the remarkable paper in Bull. Soc. Zool. de France, 1877, pp. 1-22, q. v. 



1878. [Scott, W. E. D.] [Utamania torda on the Coast of New Jersey, Feb. 7th.] 



< The Country, i, Mar. 2, 1878, p. 260. 



1879. Bureau, L. Eecherches sur la Mue du Bee des Oiseaux de la Famille des Mor- 



monides. <^BitlL Hoc. Zool. de France, 1879, pp. 1-68, table, carte, pll. i-vi. 

 (Aussi s6parement, in-8°, Paris, F. Savy, 1879 ; pp. 1-68, table, carte, pll. i-Ad.) 



This I have not seen as published in the Bulletin. It was immediately reproduced, com- 

 bined with the author's paper of 1877 on the same subject. See next title. 



This paper continues the author's important researches into the moult of the bill in cer- 

 tain Alcidce, and shows that, as was expected, the same conditions obtain among the various 

 Pacific forms related to Fratercula arctica. The happy discovery, so important in itself, was 

 further the means of sottluig the status of several vexed species. The following are the main 

 points of this admirable study : 



A family, Mormonidoe, is separated from Alcidce to accommodate the genera Fratercula, 

 Lunda, Ceratorliyncha. Omhria, and Simorhynchus, in which there is a moult of portions of 

 the bUl, and a double moult of the plumage. The whole matter of the seasonal changes, 

 both of the bill and of the plumage, is very elaborately presented. 



Fratercula arctica is ditforeutiated into three geographical races, shown by a colored map 

 to correspond with certain isothermal lines. F.armoricana (n. v.), of certain portions of 

 Europe alone, chiefly south of 60° IST. lat. ; F. islandica (n. v.), of general dispersion on the 

 north coast of Europe, in Iceland, Southern Greenland, Labrador, Newfoundland, and Ko- 

 diak Island in the Pacific ; F. glacialis, of Spitzbergen, Northern Greenland, and possibly 

 Northern Labrador. 



The moult of the bill in Fratercula corniculata is the same as in F. arctica, excepting that 

 one pair of the deciduous pieces is wanting. The moult of the eyelids is the same. 



The moult in Lunda cirrhata is the same as in F. corniculata, as far as the biU is concerned ; 

 but there are no excrescences to shed from the eyelids. The Sagmatorhina lathami of Bona- 

 parte is the young bird. 



Ohimerina cornuta (Ceratorhina monocerata) moults the horn and a small homy strip 

 below the nostrils. The Cerorhina suckleyi or Sagmatorhina suckleyi is the same bird, 

 young or old, without the horn. 



Ombria psittacula sheds a saddle-shaped piece from the base of the upper mandible. 



Simorhynchus cristatellus sheds aU the red parts of the bill, in four pairs of pieces, three 

 from the upper mandible. S. ' ' dubius " and S. ' ' tetraculus " are the same bird, without these 

 ornaments. 



Simorhynchus camtschaticus probably moults one pair of pieces from the upper mandible, 

 being nearest in respect to Ombria. S. cassini of Coues is the young bird. 



Simorhynchus microceros moults the tubercle on the upper mandible. S. pusillus is the 

 same bird. 



The author docs not appear to have seen Brandt's latest paper, iu which he makes a similar 

 reduction of the species of this group. It maybe added, without detracting in the least from 

 the merit of M. Bureau's brilliant discovery, that his determinations of species are, without 

 exception, the same as those given in E. Coues "Key to North American Birds," 1872. 

 Neither Brandt nor Coues had any idea of the actual state of the case, so far as the moult of 

 the bill is concerned, but made their determinations of species upon other considerations. 



1879. Bureau, L. Eecherches | sur la | Mue du Bee des Oiseaux | de la | Famille des 

 Mormonid(:^s | par | Lc Docteur Louis Bureau [etc., 6 lignes] | — | (Extrait 

 du Bulletin de la Societo Zoologique de France, [1877 et] 1879.) | — | Paris | 

 Librairie F. Savy | 77, Boulevard Saint-Germain, 77 | — | 1879 8vo. Cover- 

 . title, half-title, title, each 1 leaf; pp. 1-22, 1 folding table, pll. iv, v; pp. 1- 

 68, 1 folding table, 1 chart, pll. i-vi. 



This brochure consists of two entirely distinct articles, united under the same three titles. 

 The first article consists of the paper "De la Mue du Bee et des Ornements palp6braux du 

 Macareux arctique, Fratercula arctica (Lin.) Steph. apres la saison des amours," pp. 1-22, 

 table and 2 plates, reproduced from the Bull. Soc. Zool. de France, 1877. The second article 

 is "Eecherches sur la Mue du Bee des Oiseaux de la Famille des Mormonides," pp. 1-68, 



