NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 17 



32. Alca torda LINN. [742.] 



Razor-billed Auk. 



Hab. Coasts and islands of the North Atlantic, south in winter on the North American coast to 

 Southern New England. 



The Razor-billed Auk is abundant on the coasts and islands of the 

 North Atlantic and some parts of the Polar seas. The Razor- 

 billed Auk is about eighteen inches long, with a pointed tail and 

 flatly compressed bill; the plumage is brownish-black above and 

 white beneath, the black bill having a white curved line and 

 the back part of the wing is edged with white. It breeds from the 

 northeastern coast of Maine northward. Mr. Frazar found it common 

 everywhere in Labrador, more so even than the Murre, Una troile, 

 owing to its habit of breeding in less frequented places concealing 

 its eggs in the cracks and crevices among the rocks, where it was not 

 apt to be disturbed. It frequents the rocky shores, and deposits its 

 eggs in June and July, often in deep fissures of the rocks and in 

 caverns. It very frequently lays its eggs at the entrance of inhabited 

 puffin's burrows. Generally one egg is laid, but in about twenty in- 

 stances Mr. Frazar found two. These are white with a creamy or 

 bluish tint, spotted and blotched with dark brown or black, the spots 

 often becoming confluent and generally forming a circle toward the 

 large end; pyriform to oval in shape; size about 3.00x2.00. The 

 eggs exhibit a great variety in the distribution and style of markings. 

 In shape they are not distinguishable from some types of the common 

 Guillemot, but are generally more or less ovate or elongated pear- 

 shaped. The Razor-billed Auk breeds sparingly on the outlying rocky 

 islands of Nova Scotia, as on Devil's Limb and Gannet rock. 



The bird is about eighteen inches long. In life it is said to have 

 a particularly trim and elegant form, and its feathers are always kept 

 perfectly clean, smooth and glossy. This Auk is said to be of quarrel- 

 some disposition, seldom allowing a puffin or murre to alight near 

 it without opening its bill at the intruder and disclosing a bright 

 orange mouth. The Razor-bill rides lightly on the water and dives 

 well. 



33. Plautus impennis (LINN.) [741.] 



Great Auk. 



Hab. Formerly the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic, from Massachusetts and Ireland north- 

 ward nearly to the Arctic Circle. Believed to be now extinct. 



Ornithologists generally agree that the Great Auk has disap- 

 peared from the face of the earth. Within the present generation it is 

 one of the birds that has doubtless become extinct through the agency 

 of man. Like the penguin, which it much resembles in general form, 



