An Exact Comparison 



Numbering from the upper left-hand corner, Nos. 1, 2 and 4 are eggs of the Rhinoceros "Auklet," 



Cerorhinca monocerata, while Nos. 3, 5 and 6 are eggs of the Tufted Puffin, Lunda cirrhata. 



case of C. monocerata a scintilla of structural evidence in favor either of its union 

 with the iEthiidae, or its removal from the Fraterculidae. Some one started the trouhle 

 hy calling this poor creature an "Auklet," and the rest followed by rule of thumb and 

 in spite of evidence which fairly shrieks for attention. 



It is conceivable, of course, that there should have been in the case of a 

 hypothetical Auklet, through the development of the burrowing habit, a degeneration of 

 color roughly parallel to that occurring in the ground-haunting Puffins; but only in 

 the case of this "Auklet'' has an established connection with other open-nesting birds 

 having heavily marked eggs, or else other hole-nesting birds whose eggs exhibit 

 degenerate or reminiscent pigmentation been made. But the TLthiine Auklets exhibit 

 neither of these characteristics, and the claims of relationship between Cerorhinca and 

 iEthia are grotesque. Moreover, the parallelism between the retrogression of Lunda 

 and Cerorhinca is too close to be anything but genetic, or rather, phylogenetic. It is 

 not merely that their eggs agree in shape and texture, or in the fact of exhibiting 

 reminiscent markings. The very patterns of the older color, when clearly revealed, 

 exactly agree. There is the same fine scrawling of lavender and faded brown of an 

 otherwise unique type, with the same tendency to confluence in a sharply defined ring- 

 about the larger end. That this coincidence should not indicate a phylogenetic rela- 

 tionship, and that a most intimate one, is contrary to all the traditions of oology 

 and all the sanctions of science. Yet so far as I have seen, there is no recognition of 

 the fact in literature, beyond the quiet assumption of Dresser's "Manual." 



Family Synthliboramphidae, Murrelets. 



Egg: Shape: elliptical ovate. Color: ground color various, chiefly neutral tints, 

 cartridge buff, pinkish buff, ivory yellow, pale greenish (B. marmoratus), more rarely 

 dull whitish or even snuff brown, finely and rather uniformly spotted and marked, or 

 heavily sprinkled and blotched with browns, brownish blacks, and purplish blacks. 

 Texture: close, finely granular, or matte; luster not high, but more pronounced than 

 in any other family of the Alciformes. Number: plural; normally two, but occasionally 

 only one. 



Synthliboramphus antiouus (Gmelin) Ancient Murrelet. 



wumizusume (Temm.), Japanese Murrelet. 



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