Auks, Murres, Puffins 



the birds dives after a fish, pursues, overtakes, and swallows it, 

 then rejoins its mate with little loss of time; for these sea pigeons 

 use their wings under water as well as above it, and so are able to 

 reappear above the surface at surprising distances from the point 

 where they went down. They are truly marine birds ; never 

 met with inland, and rarely on the shore itself, except at the 

 nesting season. Large companies nest in the crevices and fis- 

 sures of cliffs and rocky promontories, heaping up little piles of 

 pebbles that act as drains for rainwater or melting snow under 

 the eggs. Incubation takes place in June or July, according to 

 the latitude. Two or three sea-green or whitish eggs, irregu- 

 larly spotted and blotched with blackish brown, and with pur- 

 plish shell-markings, make up a clutch. 



In the diary kept on the Jeannette, De Long recorded meeting 

 with black guillemots in latitude 75 , swimming about in the open 

 spaces between the ice-floes early in May; and Greely ate their 

 eggs off the shores of Northern Greenland in July. Both explor- 

 ers mentioned the presence of fox tracks in the neighborhood of 

 the guillemots, proving that this arch enemy pursues them even 

 into the desolation of the Arctic Circle. One of the first lessons 

 taught the young birds is to hurl themselves from the jutting 

 rocks to escape the fox that is forever threatening their lives in 

 the eyries, and to dive into the sea that protects and feeds them. 



Brunnich's Murre 



(Uria lomvia) 



Called also: BRUNNICH'S GUILLEMOT; ARRIE; EGG BIRD; 

 PENGUIN; FOOLISH GUILLEMOT 



Length — 16.50 inches. 



Male and Female — Sooty black above, brownest on front of neck. 

 Breast and underneath, white. White tips to secondaries 

 form an obscure band. Greenish base to the upper half of 

 bill, which is rounded outward over the lower half. Bill 

 short, stout, wide, and deep. 



Range — Coasts and islands of the North Atlantic and eastern Arc- 

 tic Oceans. South to the lakes of Northern New York and 

 the coast of New Jersey. Nests from the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence northward. 



Season — Winter visitor in United States. 



