The young of the year is by the best authorities supposed to be the Alca Pica of Gmelin.
The Razor-Bill is little more than 15 inches long. The egg (for they lay but one) is very large in proportion to the bird, being about the size of that of a turkey, hut of a longer shape, pointed towards the smaller end, white or sometimes yellowish, blotched, and streaked with dark brown, chiefly towards the larger cud.
Fratercula.
LeAving the true Auks we come to the genus Fratercula, Briss. (Mormon, llliger), of which the Labrador Auk, Common Puffin, or Coulter-Neb (Fratcrcula Arctica, Mormon fratercula, Temm., Alec Arctica, Linn.), may be taken as an example.
Selby gives the following account of the habits of this bird, and is corroborated by others who have written on the subject :—" Although the Puffin is found in very high latitudes, and its distribution through -the Arctic Circle is extensive, it is only known to us as a summer visitant, and that from the south, making its first appearance in the vicinity of its breeding stations about the middle of April, and regu larly departing between the 10th and 20th of August for the southern coasts of France, Spain, and other parts of Europe, where it passes the remainder of the year. It breeds in great numbers upon Priest holm Island, off the coast of Anglesey, on the Isle of Man, and most of the islands indeed of the English and Scottish coasts. Many resort to the Faroe Islands, selecting such as are covered with a stratum of vegetable mould ; and here they dig their own burrows, from there not being any rabbits to dispossess upon the particular islets they frequent. They commence this operation about the first week in May, and the hole is generally excavated to the depth of three feet, often in a curving direction, and occasionally with two entrances. When engaged in digging, which is principally performed by the males, they are sometime. so intent upon their work as to admit of being taken by hand, and the same may also be done during incubation. At this period I have frequently obtained specimens by thrusting my arm into the burrow, though at the risk of receiving a severe bite from the powerful and sharp-edged bill of the old bini. At the farther end of this hole the single egg is deposited, which in size nearly equals that of a pullet., and, as Petulant observes, varies in form ; in some instances one end being acute, and in others both equally obtuse. its colour
when first laid is white, but it soon becomes soiled and dirty from its immediate contact with the earth, no materials being collected for a neat at the end of the burrow. The young are hatched after a month's incubation, and are then covered with a long blackish down above, which gradually givoi place to the feathered plumage; so that at the end of a month or five weeks they are able to quit the burrow, and follow their parents to the open sea. Soon after this time, or about the second week in August, the whole leave our coasts, commencing their equatorial migration. At an early age the bill of this bird is small and narrow, scarcely exceeding that of the young Itazor-Bill at the same period of life ; and not till after the second year does this member acquire its full development, both as to depth, colour, and its transverse furrows." In rocky places (Dover cliffs for instance) they deposit their single egg, as Montagu observes, in the holes and crevices. The length of the bird is about 12 inches. The half of the bill nearest the head is bluish ; the rest red. The corners of the month are puckered into a kind of star. The legs and feet are orange. The plumage is black and white, with the exception of the cheeks and chin, which are sometimes gray. The young pickled with spices are by some con sidered dainties ; they are also occasionally potted in the north.
Sprats are supposed to be the principal food of the Puffin, but there is little doubt that other fishes and crustaceans are acceptable to the bird.
Mergulus.
The Little Auk, Common Rotehe, or Sea-Dove (.lfcrgulus Inclano teams of Ray, Uric Alle of Temminck, and Alca Alle, Liauxus), is an example of the genus Mergulus of our countryman Ray.
which the artless birds, mistaking the sleeves aforesaid for their own retreats, creep and are taken.
About midsmniner they lay one largo egg nearly of the size of a hen's, with brown or dusky spots ou a whitish or yellowish ground. The Perroquet Auk is about 11 inches in length. From behind the eye a tuft of white feathers, which hang on either side of the neck, shoots forth. The head, neck, and upper parts are black, blending into ash-colour on the fore part of the neck; the under parts from the breast are white ; the legs are yellowish. In the old bird the bill is red, while the young one has it of a yellowish or dusky colour.
(Yarrell, British Birds.)