304 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



in rapid succession. Thus a bird would dive to reappear in a few 

 seconds flying, only to flop down and fly below the water again. The 

 red bill and red feet show conspicuously both in flight and in swimming. 

 The gray patches like spectacles about the eyes, the dark ring 

 about the neck, the stout chubby build, small black wings, and black 

 backs are all good field marks. 



Cepphus grylle (Linn.). 

 Black Guillemot; "Sea Pigeon"; "Pigeon"; "Pitsulak" (Eskimo). 



Abundant summer resident along the entire coast. 



The Black Guillemot breeds on rocky islands in deep clefts in the 

 rock where it lays one or two eggs, well protected by their position 

 from the hand of man or the jaws of Eskimo dogs. It apparently 

 prefers the clefts in the ancient metamorphic rocks of the eastern coast 

 to those in the softer sedimentary rocks of the southern coast, al- 

 though it is common there in localities. 



Macoun has eggs from Big Island collected on June 20th, and from 

 Ungava Bay on July 9th. Robert Bell found it everywhere on the 

 Hudson Bay coast. 



Cartwright (1792, vol. 1, p. 233) speaking of an Indian fishing 

 for salmon says: "He had the skin of the leg of a sea-pigeon, which 

 is scarlet, fastened on the shank of a cod-hook, tied to a cod-line. 

 This he threw by hand down the stream, and played it in the same 

 manner as we do a fly." 



The Eskimo women are said formerly to have cut off the red feet 

 of this bird, withdrawn the leg bones, and then filled the inflated 

 skins with reindeer tallow, to provide a confection. 



We found the Black Guillemot one of the commonest and most 

 universally distributed of the waterfowl along the eastern coast, but 

 with the exception of a few near Battle Harbor, we saw only one in the 

 Straits of Belle Isle. On our trip north from Battle Harbor to Nain 

 we counted 464 birds of this species and 563 on the return. 



Mr. Schmitt at Nain has found their eggs in the middle of July. 



Cepphus mandtii (Licht). 

 Mandt's Guillemot. 



Summer resident. 



The exact status of this species and its relation to the abundant 

 C. grylle are somewhat doubtful. It is generally supposed to be 



