The Brunnich Murre (Uria lomvia) 



By W. Leon Dawson 



Description. — Adult in summer: Upper parts sooty black, the secondaries 

 narrowly tipped with white ; chin, throat, fore-neck, and sides of head and neck 

 snuffy brown; remaining under parts pure white; bill black, the "basal portion of 

 cutting- edge of upper mandible thickened and conspicuously light-colored." 

 Adult in zmnter and im^nature : Similar, but entire under parts, including chin, 

 throat, fore-neck, and sides of head and neck, white. Length 16.50 (41.9) ; 

 wing 8.25 (209.6) ; tail 1.85 (47.) : bill 1.45 (36.8) ; depth at angle .55 (14.) ; 

 tarsus 1.40 (35.6). 



Recognition Marks. — Duck size ; black above, white below ; small wings and 

 tail; upright posture on land or water; rapid flight. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in Ohio. "Nests in communities, side by side 

 on the bare ledges of rocky cliffs." Eggs, one, subpyriform, varying from dull 

 white or buffy to bluish, bluish-green and emerald-green, strikingly spotted, 

 blotched and scrawled with deep chocolate, and obscurely with lilac. Av. size, 

 3.15x2.00 (80.X50.8). 



General Range. — Coasts and islands of the North Atlantic and eastern 

 Arctic Oceans; south to the lakes of northern New York and the coast of new 

 Arctic Oceans ; south to the lakes of northern New York and the coast of New 

 Jersey. Breeding from the Gulf of St. LawTence northward. 



Those of us who experience poignant regret upon hearing the tales of 

 Wild Pigeons which "darkened the sun" — thinking that we were perhaps born 

 a generation too late — would probably have our longing for the "tumultuous 

 rushing of myriad wings" thoroughly satisfied could w^e visit the breeding haunts 

 of the Guillemots in Spitzbergen or off the coast of Alaska. Sober observers 

 tell us that in some places during the breeding season, the roar of a Guillemot 

 rookery will drown the sound of the thundering sea in time of storm ; and a 

 gentleman who once visited St. George Island, one of the Pribylov group, 

 affirmed that the flying males of this species at certain hours of the day "form 

 a dark girdle of birds more than a quarter of a mile broad and thirty miles 

 long, whirling round and round the island." 



In the winter of '96-7 a driving storm from the Labrador coast caught 

 up a considerable number of these multitudinous sea-fowl and swept them far 

 inland. When the storm had spent its fury the Murres were found promiscu- 

 ously stranded in the lakes and water-ways, or wandering about dazed and help- 

 less in the fields of Ohio, Indiana, and neighboring states. Many specimens 

 were taken by the hand and others shot at scattered localities; and the village 

 oracles were often sorely put to it to tell what this strange fowl might be. The 

 first published record for Ohio was of the one taken by Rev. J. M. Keck, of 

 Mentor, on December 19, 1896. A score of others have since come to light, 

 all taken at about the same time or a few days later. This memorable inunda- 



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