ALCID.E — THE AUKS — ALCA. 475 



are taken in the hand. The old birds, when wounded, throw themselves on their 

 backs, in the manner of Hawks, and tight desperately with their bills and claws. 

 They walk on the rocks with considerable celerity and apparent ease ; when intruded 

 upon, they take to wing as soon as possible, and fly around the spot several times 

 before they will again descend ; or alight on the water and aAvait the departure of 

 the intruder before they venture to return. 



Most writers speak of the Kazor-bill as having but a single egg at a time ; but 

 Audubon thinks it occasionally lays two. The eggs are said to average 3.12 inches 

 in length by 2.13 in breadth. They are generally of a pure white color, much blotched 

 with dark reddish brown or blackish spots, Avhich are usually confluent about the 

 larger end. The yolk is orange-yellow, and the white tinged with a pale blue. Owing 

 to the difliculty of procuring these eggs — most of them being secreted in deep crev- 

 ices — these birds are rarely disturbed by the eggers, who plunder the Guillemots 

 much more successfully. 



This species feeds on the roe of fish, on shrimps, on various small marine animals, 

 and on the smaller fishes. Its flesh is dark, and not prepossessing in appearance ; 

 l)ut it is considered good by the fishermen, and according to Audubon was found 

 tolerable when cooked in a stew. The bird is said to be two years in acquiring its 

 full size and the mature form of its bill. When full grown its weight is about a 

 pound and a half. After breeding the birds moult, and are then unable to fly before 

 the beginning of October, when they move southward or into the open sea. 



According to Yarrell, this bird has occasionally appeared on the shores of Italy 

 and Sicily ; and the London Zoological Society has received an immature specimen 

 from Tangier. 



Dr. Henry Bryant found it breeding on the northern shores of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence. Though abundant, it was less numerous than the Foolish Guillemot, but 

 much more generally distributed, breeding in greater or less numbers on almost all 

 the rocky islands, even on those at some distance from the open waters of the Gulf ; 

 this the Uria never does. 



Generally its eggs can be easily distinguished from those of the Guillemot ; but it 

 occasionally happens that an egg of the latter is so much like that of the Razor-bill 

 that a mistake may be made. Dr. Bryant doubts the correctness of Naumann's state- 

 ment that the egg of this species may be distinguished by the spots being always 

 shaded on their edges with reddish brown, as he has found eggs of the Guillemot 

 similarly shaded. In regard to the number of the eggs of the Razor-bill, Dr. Bryant 

 states that though he has found hundreds of them, he never knew more than one to 

 be laid by the same bird, and in no instance did he ever find anything like a nest. 

 Four eggs selected by Dr. Bryant as average representatives of size and shape varied 

 from 2.80 to 3.29 inches in length, and from 1.71 to 1.93 in breadth. The following 

 are the measurements of each : 2.80 by 1.71 inches ; 2.97 by 1.93 ; 3.29 by 1.87 ; 3.17 

 by 1.93. About 3.00 inches appears to be their average length, and about 2.00 the 

 average breadth. 



Dr. Coues, who visited Labrador in 1860, sent me, on his return, September 20, 

 some interesting notes in regard to this species. He found it breeding at the first 

 place at which he landed — Sloop Harbor — and procured its eggs at Eskimo Bay, 

 the farthest point north visited. They were called " Backalaw birds," from their 

 having formerly bred on the island of that name ; but are more commonly known as 

 '•'Trikers." They do not form such large colonies as the Murres and Puffins, but 

 breed in greater or less numbers wherever there is a suitable island — often together 

 with other birds. At Pufiin Island they were in great abundance, laying in deserted 



