Western Bird Guide: Birds of the Rockies and West to the Pacific

by Charles K. Reed

XANTHUS MURRELET.

25. Brachyramphus hypoleucus.

This bird is a dull black above, and entirely white below, including the sides of the head below the eye. The under-surface of the wing is also white.

Nest.—The single egg is laid at the end of burrows or under the rocks in dark places similar to the other Murrelets. It is a pale buffy white, and thickly but finely dotted with brown over the entire surface, heaviest on the larger end (2.05 × 1.40).

Range.—Resident along the coast of southern and Lower California, where it breeds on many of the islands.