tion by Briinnich Murres was general throughout the eastern States and records 

 were made as far south as South CaroHna. 



The Briinnich Murres are birds which have a decidedly northern range 

 which is very limited within the United States, where it is only a winter visitor. 

 Their range is well known and may be given as the coasts and islands of the 

 North Atlantic and eastern Arctic Oceans, southward to the lakes of northern 

 New York and the coast of New Jersey. Their nesting range extends from the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence northward. During the winter season of some years they 

 have been observed quite a distance west of their usual range. 



This memorable inundation by Briinnich's Murres was general throughout 

 the eastern states and records were made as far south as South Carolina. Dur- 

 ing the winter, however, the Briinnich's Murres frequent the open sea and 

 keep quite far from land. They are very expert in the water, and when disturbed 

 by the approach of man they will suddenly dive, and using their wings as well 

 as their feet, they will swim for long distances under water. 



In his "Birds of Indiana," Mr, Amos W. Butler saw them during the 

 month of December, 1896. This was the same month and year that they 

 appeared in Ohio. Mr. Butler writes as follows : "Briinnich's Murre has, as I 

 have been informed, been reported the present winter from other interior local- 

 ities. It has, I believe, however, never before been authentically reported far 

 from the ocean. Mr. Robert Ridgway informs me that they have this winter 

 ranged down the Atlantic Coast as far as South Carolina. It would seem prob- 

 able that some storm had driven them far out of their usual range. Evidently 

 those mentioned herein were carried inland and dispersed about the same time, 

 perhaps by the same storm. They were all taken within a few days. Only 

 twenty-one days elapsed from the date when the first was obtained until the last 

 was in the hands of a naturalist." These are the only Indiana records which 

 are verified by specimens taken. 



The Briinnich's Murres nest in groups, frequently very large communities, 

 almost touching each other as they -sit upon their single eggs, for but one is ever 

 laid by a Murre, upon the bare ledges of rocky cHffs. The single eggs are laid 

 upon the rocky surface and no attempt is made to build a nest. General Greely 

 in his "Three Years of Arctic Service" says of the Briinnich's Murres on the 

 bird cliffs of Arveprins Island (Northern Greenland) : "For over a thousand 

 feet out of the sea these cliffs rise perpendicularly, broken only by narrow 

 ledges, in general inaccessible to man or other enemy, which afford certain kinds 

 of sea- fowl secure and convenient breeding-places. On the face of these sea- 

 ledges of Arveprins Island, Briinnich's Guillemots, or Loons, gather in the 

 breeding season, not by thousands, but by tens of thousands. Each lays but a 

 single gray egg, speckled with brown; yet so numerous are the birds that ever)' 

 available spot is covered with eggs." He also calls attention to the fact that each 

 bird knows its own egg. The eggs are said to be very fine food, and the flesh of 

 these Murres is highly praised by all who have partaken of it. 



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