320 MR. H. SAUNDERS ON THE STERCORARIIN^E. [Mar. 21, 



become the filamentous feathers of the neck. The under icing- 

 coverts and the axillaries are always sooty, with, at most, but very 

 few and ill-defined russet markings. I have examined the in- 

 teresting melanism belonging to Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., figured by 

 Mr. Dresser in his ' Birds of Europe ;' it was obtained in October, 

 and the first primary on each wing has not yet attained its full 

 length. From the crescentic edges to the dorsal feathers, seen on 

 holding it to a side light, from the absence of acuminate feathers 

 on the neck, and from the weak bill (which is much thinner than in 

 Mr. Dresser's plate), I have little doubt of this example being a 

 bird of the year ; this impression is confirmed by the satin-like ap- 

 pearance of the primaries and upper parts, which is very different 

 from any thing I have ever observed in birds whose plumage has 

 undergone any wear. 



The range of this species is the most restricted of any member of 

 the family which breeds in the northern hemisphere. It has not 

 been observed in Spitzbergen ; and its most northern breeding-place 

 within the Arctic circle is at the Lofoten Islands, off the coast of 

 Norway; thence it is found nesting west and southwards to Iceland, 

 the Faroes and the Shetland Islands. It is not recorded from the 

 Baltic, or from the White Sea. Seebohm and Harvie Brown did 

 not observe it in their recent expedition to the mouth of the 

 Petchora ; nor did Middendorf find it in N. Siberia, where the other 

 three European species breed. Von Baer's identification of this 

 bird in Novaya Zemlya may well be doubted, as none of the many 

 subsequent explorers have observed it there. Pallas (Z. Ros.-As. ii. 

 p. 309) supposed that this might have been the bird recorded by 

 Steller, as observed in 58° N. lat., on the Pacific coast, feeding on 

 the carcass of a whale; but as it had a "yellowish bill" it was 

 more probably a Fulmar Petrel. It has not been recorded as yet 

 from the Pribilov Islands, the Aleutians, or Alaska; but it probably 

 occurs along that coast, as a single specimen is described by Mr. 

 Lawrence as having been obtained off Monterey, in California. Mr. 

 Bernard Ross found it at the mouth of the Mackenzie river, 

 and about Great Slave Lake, north of which it is very rare ; it 

 also appears to range throughout the Hudson's-Bay territory, and 

 is clearly, as far as dimensions go, the " L. keeask" of Latham, 

 mixed up with the Pomatorhine Skua, as shown by the description 

 of the particoloured feet ; the Esquimaux name of the latter species 

 also happens to be " Keeask," according to Richardson, who does 

 not mention <S". cafarrhactes. There is no authentic record of its 

 occurrence on the Atlantic sea-board of the United States ; and in 

 South Greenland it was only twice observed by Holboll. From its 

 breeding-stations it passes southwards in autumn along the western 

 shores of Europe as far as the Straits of Gibraltar and N. Morocco, 

 beyond which there is, as yet, no trace of it. As a mere straggler, 

 of course, it has been found in Germany ; and it was recorded by 

 Mr. C. A. Wright as having been obtained at Malta (Ibis, 1864, 

 p. 150) ; but the specimen has subsequently proved to be S. poma- 

 torhinus. Mr. Godmau does not enumerate it amongst the birds of 

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