818 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PYGOPODES. 



347 



877. 



Fig. 558. — Califomian Guillemot, nat. size. 



this bare turgid space flesh-colored in life, drying pale yellowisli. Length 18.00; extent 32.00; 

 whig 8.50; tarsus 1.25; bill along culmen 1.40, along gape 2.20; gonys 0.90; depth at angle 

 0.55, width at base of nostrils 0.30, at angle of mouth 0.80. N. Atlantic and Polar and 

 N. Pacific shores and islands, in myriads ; on the Atlantic S. in winter to the Middle States, 

 breeding from the Gulf of St. Lawrence northward. The N. Pacific form, unquestionably 

 of the " thick-billed" species, does not exhibit the extreme of shortness and stoutness as just 



described for the At- 

 lantic ; ^^^th a cui ■ 

 men of about 1.67, 

 the depth opposite 

 nostrils is hardly 0.67, 

 thus less than half 

 the length of culmen, 

 instead of about half; 

 gajie nearly 3.00. 

 The sides of the up- 

 per mandible are char- 

 acteristically dilated 

 and denuded, of a 



glaucous bluish color ; the tip of the bill is less deilexed, though more so than in the counnon 

 guillemot. This is the great "egg-bird" of the high N. Pacific; on St. George's, one of the 

 PrybHov group, for example, the birds "go flying around the island in great files and platoons, 

 always circling against or quartering, on the wing, at regular hours in the morning and the 

 evening, making a dark girdle of birds more than a quarter of a mile broad aud thirty miles 

 Icjng, whirling round aud round the island, and forcing upon the most casual observer a lasting 

 impression." The N. Pacific form is L. arra proper; that of the N. Atlantic is " Brilnnich's 

 guillemot," differing as said, and perhaps constituting a subspecies apart (L. a. svarhag). 

 UTAJIATVIA. (Cretan name of the bird.) Eazor-blll Auk. Size, form, and general 

 aspect of the last genus. Bill about as long as 

 head, densely feathered for half its length, the 

 feathers extending on upper mandible beyond mid- 

 dle of commissure, those on lower somewhat far- 

 ther. Bill greatly compressed, cultrate, sulcate, 

 hooked; culmen ridged, regularly convex; com- 

 missure straight to the hook ; gonys about siraight. 

 Nostrils linear, marginal, densely feathered. Tarsi 

 scuteUate in front. Tail short, pointed, of stiffish, 

 acute feathers. Wings nonnal, effective for flight. 

 Bicolor. Egg single, colored. One species. 



U. tor'da. (Name of the bird.) Kazor-billed Auk. Tinker. Adult in summer : Bii? 

 and feet black, the former with a white line occupying the length of the middle sulcus on botil 

 mandibles; mouth yellow; eye bluish. A strict, sunken line of white from eye to base o. 

 culmen. Head and neck all around and upper parts black, glossy and intense on the latter 

 lustreless opaque brownish-black on the sides and front of the former. Tips of secondaries 

 and entire under parts from the neck, including liuing of wings, white. lu winter : White 

 bill, and invading sides of head and neck ; the dark parts duller. Young : Like 



Fig. 659. — Tbick-billed Guillemot, nat. size 



reaching to , 



the adults in winter ; smaller ; duller ; bill unformed, and like the feet not black. Nestlings 

 clothed with sooty down, paler or whitish below. In the adults, the sharp white line from 

 bill to eye is very characteristic, appearing with the first feathering, but sometimes faUs in 

 winter birds. Length about 18.00; extent 27.00; wing 7.75; tail 3.50, graduated 1.25; 



