478 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



of the eye, and the front of the neck, pitch-black. Tips of the secondaries and the under 

 plumage white ; the white indenting the black of the base of the neck in an acute angular 

 form. Bill bluish-black, paler at the base. Rictus bright yellow. 



Form. — Bill wider at the base, shorter, and less compressed than in U. troile. Under 

 mandible higher, with a much shorter and more prominent gonys ; commissure more curved. 

 A suture on the plumage behind the eye, as in U. troile. 



There is no difference of plumage in the sexes. On the approach of winter a change of colour 

 takes place similar to that which Uria grylle undergoes, and continues until the following 

 June. Specimens killed in the beginning of that month, on Melville Island, have the throat 

 and neck white, but early in July, the summer plumage above described is complete. Some 

 individuals change later than others, a few having still a sprinkling of white on the throat 

 in August. In the young the bill is more slender, and though shorter bears more resem- 

 blance to that of U. troile. The bills of the American specimens, which we have seen, are 

 straighter and less stout than those of Spitzbergen birds, probably owing to their inferior age. 









Dimensions. 













Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. Lin, 



Length, total . , 



18 







Length of bill above . 



1 



2 



Length of tarsus 



. 1 4 



„ of tail 



2 



9 



„ of bill to rictus 



. 2 







,, of middle toe . 



• 1 7 



„ of wing 



8 



3 



„ of its gonys 







10* 



,, n of its nail . 



5 



— R. 



[237.] 3. Uria grylle. (Lath.) Black Guillemot. 



Genus, Uria, Brisson. 



Black Greenland Dove. Edwards, pi. 50, small figure. 



Spotted Greenland Dove. Idem, front figure. 



Black Guillemot. Pens. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 516, No. 437- 



Guillemot a miroir blanc {Uria grylle). Tejim., ii , p. 925. 



Uria grylle {Black Guillemot). Sab. Oreenl. Birds, p. 540, No. 15 ; Suppl. Parry's First 



Voy., p. ccix., No. 31 . Richakds. Append. Parry's Second Voy., p. 377> No. 38. 



Bonap. Syn., No. 371. 

 Sesekesewuck. Cree Indians. 



This, like the other Guillemots, is entirely a sea bird, never going inland, and 

 seldom on shore for any other purpose than incubation, which is performed in 

 holes of the rocks, from whence it can easily throw itself into the water. It 

 abounds in the Arctic seas and straits, from Melville Island down to Hudson's 

 Bay, and remains, though in diminished numbers, all the winter in the pools of 

 open water, which occur, even in high latitudes, among the floes of ice. Small 

 flocks extend their migrations, in that season, as far south as the United 

 States. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a male, killed, July 22, 1822, off Tern Island. 



Colour. — Greenish-black above, reddish-black beneath ; border of the wing and quills 



