210 ALASKA. 



general aspect is much like that of a pigeon's egg, excepttng 

 the roughness of the shell. 



" The chick is covered with a thick, uniform, dark- grayish- 

 black down, which is speedily succeeded by feathers, all darker 

 than those of the parent, when it takes flight from the islands 

 for the year six weeks after. The parents feed their young by 

 disgorging, and when the young birds leave, they are as large 

 and heavy as the old ones. I am strongly inclined to think 

 that the male bird feeds the female while incubating, but have 

 not been able to verify this supposition by observation, as the 

 birds are always hidden from sight at the time." 



634. LiomvJa troite var. californica, (Bry.) Coues.— J/'»?Te Guille- 

 mot. 

 CeppTius lomvia, Pall. Zoog. E. A., ii, 345, (1811.) 

 Uria troile, Nevvb. Pac. K. E. Eep., vi, pt. iv, 110, (1857.) 

 Cataractes californicus, Bkyant. Proc. Bost. Soc. 11, fig. 3, 5, (1861.) 

 Lomvia californica, CouES. Proc. Phila. Acad., fig. 16, (1868.) 

 Lomvia troile var. californica, CouES. Key N. A. Birds, 346, (18«72.) 



All the Murres of the troile type we have seen from the North 

 Pacific agree in possessing a jjarticular shape of the bill, readily 

 distinguishable from that presented by the Atlantic birds. 

 While we would by no means insist upon, or even admit, that 

 this is a specific character, especially since we have no doubt 

 that some of the circumpolar colonies of these birds will show 

 an intermediate style, we think it as well to recognize the char- 

 acter by a varietal name. The shape is difflcult to describe in 

 words : the gonydeal angle is stronger, pointed, and more pro- 

 tuberant, the gonys straighter and more decidedly ascending, 

 the culmen less deflected at the tip, and the commissure conse- 

 quently straighter than are these several points in true troile. 

 It is, in short, some approach to the configuration of the bill in 

 L. svarbag, {brunnickii of authors.) 



" Limited numbers of the Californian guillemot are found 

 occasionally perched on the cliffs with the 'arrief tJiey can 

 only be distinguished at a slight distance by a practiced eye, 

 for they resemble their allies so closely and conform so strictly 

 to their habits, that it will be but repeating the description of 

 the L. arra, given here, should I attempt it. The largest gath- 

 ering of these birds I have ever seen at any one place on the 

 islands was a squad of about fifty, at the high bluffs on Saint 

 George's, last summer; but they are generally scattered by 

 ones, twos, and threes, among thousands and ten^ of thousands 

 of the arra.^' 



