274 GAVI.E. 



denuded of feathers almost to the gape. Three of the examples agree 

 ■with the description of Cepphus arra (Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso- Asiat. ii. 

 p. 347) ; they are small (wing 8 inches) and of a much paler grey in 

 colourj they have small thin bills with a long gonys, and the base of 

 the upper mandible is feathered to the nostrils. It is possible that 

 the slender-billed examples may be birds of the year of the thick- 

 biUed species, but, be that as it may, it is scarcely possible that either 

 form is specifically distinct from the Common Guillemot. 



Eggs in the Pryer collection resemble well-known varieties of the 

 common form. 



The Guillemot is a circumpolar species, breeding in great numbers 

 on the rocky coasts of the British Islands, and varying much in 

 different parts of its range, the thick-billed birds being commoner 

 in the high north. 



269. ALCA CARBO. 

 (SOOTY GUILLEMOT.) 



Cepphus carbo, Pallas, Zoogr. Eosso-Asiat. ii. p. 350 (1826). 



The Sooty Guillemot may be distinguished from all its Japanese 

 congeners by its combination of the two characters — bill from frontal 

 feathers longer than 1^ inch, and secondaries never tipped with 

 white. 



Figures : Gould, Birds of Asia, vii. pi. 71 ; Baird, Cassin, and 

 Lawrence, Birds of North America, pi. 97. 



The Sooty Guillemot has long been known to visit the Kurile 

 Islands (Pallas, Zoogr. Eosso-Asiat. ii. p. 350), but it was not re- 

 corded from Japan until Captain Rodgers procured it in June in the 

 Bay of Sendai, on the east coast of Hondo, about halfway between 

 Yokohama and Hakodadi (Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. So. Philad. 1862, 

 p. 323). There is an example in the Swinhoe collection obtained by 

 Captain Blakiston at Hakodadi on the 31st of May (Swinhoe, Ibis, 

 1875, p. 458), and I have two examples collected by Mr. Henson in 

 the same locality, one on the 27th of March and the other on the 

 2nd of April. I have also an example collected by Mr. Owston at 

 Uraga near Yokohama on the 27th of February. 



The Sooty Guillemot breeds in great numbers on the rocky islands 

 in the Gulf of Tartary (Schrenck, Reisen und Forsch. im Amur- 

 Lande, i. p. 498) and on the south shores of the Sea of Okhotsk 



