Bill with three curved grooves on each of the mandibles toward the end, a compressed addition to the ridge about three-quarters of an inch long, its colour, and that of the feet, orange-yellow; on the upper eyelid an oblong, tapering, horny body, directed upwards and backwards, on the lower an adherent linear body of the same nature; sides of the head, and the lower parts, white; upper part of head light brownish-grey, tinged with lilac; a broad collar extending to the lower mandible; of a dark greyish-brown tint below, gradually passing into the colour of the upper parts, which is brownish-black, glossed with blue; primary quills and their coverts blackish-brown; part of the sides and under wing-coverts greyish-brown.
Male, 13, 241/2.
Very rare, and in winter only, off the Bay of Fundy.
Mormon glacialis, Bonap. Syn. p. 430.
Large-billed Puffin, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 541.
Large-billed Puffin, Mormon glacialis, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p. 599.
472. 3. Mormon Arcticus, Linn. Common or Arctic Puffin.
Plate CCXIII. Male and Female.
Bill with three curved grooves on both mandibles toward the end, a very slight addition to the ridge at the base only a quarter of an inch long; the basal rim and first ridge of both mandibles dull yellow, the intervening space greyish-blue, the rest bright red; on the upper eyelid a flattened triangular nearly erect horny body, and along the lower an adherent elongated body of the same nature; feet vermilion; throat and sides of the head greyish-white; upper parts of the head greyish-black, tinged with blue; the middle of the neck all round, and all the upper parts deep black, glossed with blue, the quills tinged with brown; under parts white, except the upper part of the sides, which are dusky, and the lower wing-coverts, which are brownish-grey.
Male, 113/4, 23.
Ranges southward along the coast in winter, at times as far as Georgia. Less rare from Long Island eastward, and becomes plentiful in the Bay of Fundy. Breeds in vast numbers in burrows, on the islands off Labrador.