OF THE UNITED STATES 181 



anklets and murrelets, especially the first-named. This fact 

 will at once be appreciated by turning to the best known 

 form among the guillemots, namely the Black guillemot or 

 Sea Pigeon (C. grylle). When in full breeding plumage, the 

 adult of this species is a sooty black bird, the feathers being tint- 

 ed or tinged with green in certain lights. The wings, tail, bill, 

 and claws are all black, the wings being ornamented with a large 

 white area, upon each surface. Its feet and mouth are bright red. 

 This plumage only lasts a short time and the seasonal changes 

 for both young and adult are marked. Black guillemots occur 

 on the North Atlantic, European and American coasts. A great 

 deal has been written about the murres which are found in the 

 same localities with the last. This is the common murre (V. 

 troile), and myriads of these "congregate to breed on rocky is 

 lands, incubating their single eggs as closely together as they can 

 find standing room on the shelves of the cliffs; their ranks serried 

 on ledge after ledge, and clouds of birds whirling through the 

 aii-. The eggs, so numerous as to have commercial value, are 

 notorious for their variability in coloration." Brunnich's murre 

 (V. lomvia) is also found upon the coasts and islands of the north 

 Atlantic and eastern Arctic oceans, while in similar localities 

 of the north Pacific and western Arctic oceans, these two species 

 are represented by the California murre (!'. t. caltfomica) and 

 Pallas's murre (V. 1. arra). 



Finally in the suborder Alcw belong the puffins, and these are 

 placed in two genera, viz., l/anda and Fratercula. They are re- 

 markable, big-billed auks of grotesque appearance, very differ- 

 ent from any of the other members of the group. When on the 

 land they stand well on their feet and do not squat down as other 

 auks do. The Tufted puffin (Lunda cirrhata) and the Horned 

 puffin (Fratercula comiculata) are found in the north Pacific; 

 only stragglers of the former having been occasionally taken on 

 the coasts of Maine. From Spitzbergen to Baffin's Bay we find 

 the Large-billed puffin (F. a. glacialis), while the Common puf- 

 fin (F. arctica) is the north Atlantic representative of this sub- 

 family. 



Among their structural peculiarities the puffins are noted for 

 their remarkable bills, for naked and skinny rosettes at the an- 

 gles of the mouth, and for curious appendages over and below 

 the eyes. As a rule the bill is about as long as the head, trian- 

 gular on lateral aspect, greatly compressed from side to side, 



