BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 757 
SYNTHLIBORAMPHUS ANTIQUUS (Gmelin). 
ANCIENT MURRELET. 
Adult in breeding season (sexes alike).—Pileum, hindneck, and 
loral region uniform dull black, the malar, suborbital and auricular 
regions, chin,’ throat, and upper foreneck uniform deep fuscous or 
clove brown, with a rounded or convex outline on foreneck; supra- 
auricular region and sides of occiput narrowly streaked with white, 
forming a more or less broken broad stripe, the lower hindneck 
similarly but more sparsely streaked; back, scapulars, and rump 
uniform gray (between slate-gray and neutral gray); wing-coverts 
duller or more brownish gray (between neutral gray and deep mouse 
gray), the primaries, etc., darker; upper tail-coverts and tail dull 
blackish or dusky; sides of neck, lower foreheck, and rest of under 
parts except sides and flanks immaculate white; sides and flanks 
uniform sooty black or fuscous-black; under wing-coverts white; 
bill grayish lilaceous-white or bluish white (in life), darker basally, 
with a stripe of black along culmen; interior of mouth bluish white; 
iris dark brown; legs and feet grayish white faintly tinged with 
violet-blue, the outer side of tarsus more bluish, the joints and webs 
dark bluish gray.¢ 
Winter plumage.—Throat immaculate white, the chin (sometimes 
upper throat also), slate-grayish; white streaks on supra-auricular 
region, sides of occiput, and lower hindneck wanting; sides and 
flanks white, the outermost portion striped with slaty or grayish 
dusky; otherwise as in summer. 
Adult male.—Wing, 130.5-140.5 (134.7); tail, 33-39 (85); exposed 
culmen, 13-14 (13.3); tarsus, 25.5-28 (27); middle toe, 25-28 (26.7).°. 
Adult female—Wing, 132-138 (135.5); tail, 33-39 (36); exposed 
culmen, 12.5-14 (13.2); tarsus, 26-27 (26.5); middle toe, 24-26.5 
(25.4).° 
Coasts and islands of northern Pacific Ocean and adjacent portion 
of Bering Sea; breeding from Unga Island,? Alaska Peninsula, through 
Aleutian chain (including Nearer Islands) to Commander Islands, 
Kamchatka, and Kuril Islands, also (formerly) on Pribilof Islands 
Winter plumage.—Similar to the breeding plumage but whole throat white, chin light 
gray, crest and white stripe on lateral and posterior portion of pileum absent, and sides 
and flanks white striped with gray. 
Downy young.—Upper parts brownish gray, the back and rump indistinctly 
streaked with grayish white; under parts, including chin, entirely immaculate white. 
Adult male-—Wing, 122.5-125.5 (124.3); tail, 34-38 (86); exposed culmen, 13.5-15 
(14.5); tarsus, 24-25 (24.3); middle toe, 22.5-23 (22.7). (Three specimens; no adult 
female examined.) : 
@ Stejneger, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., no. 29, 1885, 24. 
b Three specimens, from Alaska. 
¢ Six specimens, five from Alaska, one from California (winter). 
4 Probably breeding on Kodiak Island (St. Paul, Kodiak, June 26, 1882). 
