. Nests and eggs of North American birds. Birds; Birds. NORTB AMERICAN BIRDS. 19 Like all of the Auks, Murres and Puflans, this species is eminently gregarious, particularly in the breeding season. It is found In great numhers throughout the Arctic Ocean and on nearly all the islands north of Asia, Europe and America. On this side of the Atlantic it breeds from Nova Scotia northward. Tens of thousands of these birds congregate to breed on the rocky islands, depositing and incubating their single egg close to one another on the shelves of th^ cliffs. The birds sit side by side, and although cro
. Nests and eggs of North American birds. Birds; Birds. NORTB AMERICAN BIRDS. 19 Like all of the Auks, Murres and Puflans, this species is eminently gregarious, particularly in the breeding season. It is found In great numhers throughout the Arctic Ocean and on nearly all the islands north of Asia, Europe and America. On this side of the Atlantic it breeds from Nova Scotia northward. Tens of thousands of these birds congregate to breed on the rocky islands, depositing and incubating their single egg close to one another on the shelves of th^ cliffs. The birds sit side by side, and although crowded together, never make the least attempt to quarrel. Clouds of birds may be seen circling in the air over some huge, rugged bastion, form- ing a picture which would seem to belong to the imagination rather than the realis- tic. They utter a syllable which sounds exactly like murre. The eggs are so numer- ous as to have commercial value, and they are noted for their variation in ground color and markings. They vary -from white to bluish or dark emerald-green in ground color; occasionally immarked specimens are found, but they .are usually handsomely spotted, blotched, lined in various patterns of lilac, brown and black over the surface. In some the markings are confused zigzag lines that look like hieroglyphics. The eggs are large for the size of the bird, measuring from 3. to long by to broad; pyri-form in shape. 30a. CALIFORNIA Oria troile californica (Bryant.) Geog. Dist.— Coasts and islands of the North Pacific, breeding from California north to the Pry- bilof Islands. Mr. Emerson says that the California Murre is the most common sea fowl on the Farallon Islands, and they do not seem to diminish in number, notwithstanding. 30a. California Murres os the Farallohs, (From The Nidctogist.) the wholesale destruction of their eggs for commercial purposes. The birds begin to lay by the middle or latter part of May. Fresh eggs can be found as late as Aur
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