Plate CCCCXXX. Male and Female.
Bill shorter than the head, straight, slender, much compressed, acute,
black; feet yellow, claws black; plumage very soft, close, blended, as
in the other species; wings small, very narrow, convex, falcate; first
quill longest; secondaries incurved, obliquely rounded; tail extremely
short, narrow, rounded, of twelve weak, rounded feathers. Upper parts
brownish-black, the feathers of the back terminally margined with
light grey; lower parts, cheeks, a transverse band on the nape, both
eyelids, and a longitudinal band on each side, formed by some of the
scapulars, white, some dusky streaks on the hind part of the sides,
and the lower wing-coverts greyish-brown, some of them whitish. Young
in autumn with the upper parts brownish-black, the feathers terminally
margined with brown; the occipital band merely indicated by some
lighter feathers, and the scapular band brownish or chestnut-red;
lower parts of a curious mottled appearance, the feathers being
brownish-grey at the end, but in the rest of their extent white, that
colour appearing more or less on all the parts, and shewing a patch on
the hind part of the sides.
_Adult_, 10; wing 5-2/12. _Young_, in autumn, 9-3/4; wing 5-1/12.
Abundant on the north-west coast of America, not far from the Columbia
River.
Slender-billed Guillemot, Uria Townsendii, Aud. Orn. Biog. v.
v. p. 251.