Plate CCXIV. Male and Female.
Bill rather shorter than the head, with its dorsal line very convex,
upper mandible with five, lower with four grooves, black with a white
band across each mandible; feet black; head, neck, and upper parts
black, the head, hind neck, and back glossed with olive-green, the
throat and sides of the neck tinged with chocolate, the wings with
brown; lower part of neck below and all the lower parts white, as are
a line from the eye to the bill on each side, and the tips of the
secondaries. Female similar. Young, in the winter, with the colours
similar, but the back duller, the wings more brown, the throat and
sides of the head mottled with white, and the bill much smaller,
without furrows or white line. Old birds, in winter, with the throat
and sides of the neck mottled with white, but in other respects the
colouring as in summer.
_Male_, 17, 29-1/2.
Rare on the eastern coast of the United States, and only during
winter. Breeds in great numbers on the Gannet Rock in the Gulf of St
Lawrence, on the shores of Newfoundland, and the western coast of
Labrador, chiefly in the fissures of rocks.
Alca Torda, Bonap. Syn. p. 431.
Razor-bill, Alca Torda, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 547.
Razor-billed Auk, Alca Torda, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p. 112;
v. v. p. 628.
GENUS III. PHALERIS, Temm. PHALERIS.
Bill shorter than the head, stout, straightish, broad at the base,
compressed toward the end; upper mandible with a prominent basal rim
as in the puffin, its dorsal line convex and declinate, the sides
sloping, the edges sharp, with a deep sinus close to the narrow,
declinate, blunt tip; lower mandible with the angle rather long and
wide, the dorsal line ascending and a little convex, the sides sloping
outwards, the edges sharp, the tip ascending, obliquely truncate.
Nostrils linear-oblong, direct, near the margin, in the horny part of
the bill. Head rather large, ovate; neck short and thick; body full
and compact. Feet short, placed far behind; tibia bare below; tarsus
very short, much compressed, anteriorly scutellate; toes three,
connected by emarginate webs; middle and outer toes of the same
length. Claws rather stout, moderately arched, compressed, rather
obtuse. Plumage dense, blended, soft. Wings of moderate length, very
narrow, pointed. Tail very short, rounded, of fourteen feathers.