THE OOLOGIST. 75 



Davie's New Egg Check-List,. 3rd Edition 



is now pioiuiseJ about May 1st. Over 300 pages are now printed. 

 The Avork bids fair to contain fully 500 pages; and the price un- 

 (juestionably will exceed that of $1.00, and possibly may run up to 

 12.00, but we will take advance subscriptions at the low price of $1.00. 



This offer holds good until May 1st, only. 



Every purchaser will be entitled to the Oolocust for '89 free. 



Below and on the next page Ave copy the articles on the Murre 

 and Western Grebe from advance pages of this invaluable Avork: 



Address all subscriptions to FEANK H. LATTIN, Albion, 

 Orleans Co., N. Y. 



""\,/" An edition bound in cloth Avill be issued. The additional cost 

 will be given in next OoLoaisT, so that all desiring a copy in that 

 form can remit the additional cost and have the cloth-bound edition 

 if they prefer. 



30. Uria troile (Linn.) [763.] 



Murre. 



nab. coasts and Islands of the Nortli Atlantic, southward on the coast of North America in winter 

 to southern New England; breeding from Nova Scotia northward. 



Like all of the Auks, Murres and Puffiins, this species is eminently 

 gregarious, particularly in the breeding season. It is found in grea^^ 

 numbers throughout the Arctic Ocean and on nearly all the islands north 

 of Asia, Europe and America. On this side of the Atlantic it breeds 

 from Nova Scotia northward. 



Tens of thousands of these birds congregate to breed on the rocky 

 islands, depositing and incubating their single egg close to one another on 

 the shelves of the cliffs. The birds sit side by side, and although crowded 

 together, never make the least attempt to quarrel. Clouds of birds may 

 be seen circling in the air over some huge, rugged bastion, forming a 

 picture Avliich would seem to belong to the imagination rather than the 

 realistic. They utter a syllable Avhich sounds exactly like murre. The 

 eggs are so numerous as to have a commercial value, and are noted for 

 their great variation in ground color and markings. They vary from white 

 to bluish or dark emerald-green in ground color; occasionally unmarked 

 specimens are found, but they are usually handsomely spotted, blotched, 

 lined in various patterns of lilac, brown and black over the sui-face. In 

 some the markings are confused zigzag lines that look like hieroglyphics. 

 The eggs are large for the size of the bird, measuring from 3. to 3.50 long 

 by 1.95 to 2.10 broad; pyriform in shape. 



