MURRE

any of certain black and white seabirds comprising the genus Uria of the auk family, Alcidae. In British usage the two species of Uria are called guillemots, along with Cepphus species. Murres are about 40 cm (16 inches) long. They nest in vast numbers on sheer cliffs, each pair laying a single egg. The chick matures rapidly; when half-grown it enters the sea, in parental company, to escape marauding gulls and skuas. In autumn the birds travel south by swimming. The common murre (U. aalge) breeds from the Arctic Circle south to Nova Scotia, California, Portugal, and Korea. Atlantic populations include the so-called bridled, or ringed, murre, a mutation that shows, in breeding season, a ring around the eye and a thin, white stripe behind the eye. This characteristic is nearly absent in murres of Portugal but increases toward the northwest and is seen in 70 percent of Icelandic murres. Beyond Iceland, bridling is uncommon, and it does not occur in Pacific populations. The thick-billed, or Brnnich's, murre (U. lomvia), with a somewhat heavier beak, often nests farther north, to Ellesmere Island and other islands within the Arctic Circle, where the common murre is absent. There is some overlap in breeding grounds, however, and the two species nest in common on some islands.