732 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
Genus CEPPHUS Pallas. 
Cepphus Pauwas, Spic. Zool., v, 1769, 33 (Type, C. lacteolus Pallas=Alca grylle 
Linneus, albino.) 
Grylle Lwacu, in Ross’s Voy. Disc. Baffin’s Bay, App., 1819, p. li. (Type, G. scap- 
ularis Leacuh=Alca grylle Linneus.) 
Pseuduriat Sharpe MS. Coves, Osprey, iii, May (pub. June 10), 1899, 144. 
(Type, “Black guillemots with 14 rectrices=Cepphus columba Pallas, etc.).— 
Suarpe, Hand-list, i [July 12], 1899, xiv, 131." 
Medium-sized Alcide (wing 149-181 mm.) with bill narrow, culmen 
rather abruptly decurved terminally, gonys much less than half as 
long as unfeathered portion of mandibular rami, and nasal fosse 
unfeathered for nearly the anterior half (the feathered portion form- 
ing a distinct angle or loral antia), with the slit-like nostrils in lower 
edge. 
Bill (measured from rictus) about as long as head, narrow, decidedly 
deeper than wide at base of culmen; exposed culmen about as long 
as tarsus, faintly concave sub-basally (the mesorhinium slightly as- 
cending basally, more or less flattened on top), thence nearly straight 
‘to near tip, where rather abruptly decurved; gonys nearly straight, 
ascending terminally, much shorter than unfeathered portion of man- 
dibular rami, decidedly less than half as long as culmen; nostril lon- 
gitudinal, slit-like, in extreme lower edge of the nasal fossa, the latter 
well-defined and rounded anteriorly, the basal half (more or less) 
feathered, the latero-frontal or loral antia forming a distinct angle, 
the apex of which is slightly posterior to anterior end of nostril, its 
lower edge overhanging and concealing basal portion of nostril; malar 
antia forming a distinct angle, its apex slightly posterior to posterior 
end of nostril; mental antia on same vertical line with latero-frontal 
antia. Wing moderate, the longest primary (outermost) exceeding 
distal secondaries by less than half the length of wing. Tail less than 
one-third (slightly more than three-sevenths) as long as wing, rounded 
the 12-14 rectrices rounded at tip. Tarsus about as long as exposed 
culmen, much compressed, the outer side reticulate, the inner side 
(except on planta tarsi) with much larger, more or less quadrate and 
transverse, scales, arranged in two or more rows; middle toe, without 
claw, slightly longer than tarsus; outer toe (without claw) as long 
as, or very slightly shorter than, middle toe, the inner toe as long as 
first two phalanges of middle toe. 
Plumage and coloration.—Plumage of head dense, rather short (es- 
pecially anteriorly) but less velvety than in Uria and other Alcine. 
Adults in summer plain sooty black or dark sooty brown, with or 
without white on wing-coverts; feet red (in life); winter plumage and 
young mostly white. 
Range.—Circumpolar regions and southward to northeastern 
United States, California, and Japan. (Five, possibly six, species.) 
@ Wevdys, false; + Uria. (Richmond.) 
