PHALERIS. 



533 



ing places the most inaccessible impending cliffs which pro- 

 ject into the ocean, and in their clefts, without any artificial 

 nest, deposit their single egg, which is of a pale bluish- 

 green, commonly without spots, but sometimes scattered with 

 a few small touches of blackish. At this time probably, 

 they are heard to utter their uncouth and monotonous call 

 of rottet, by which as a name, they are known to the Dutch 

 navigators who have penetrated to their dreary and remote 

 haunts. 



Captain Ross's party met with these birds in great num- 

 bers on the west coast of Greenland, where they were shot 

 daily, and supplied to the ship's company, who found them 

 very palatable, and free from any fishy taste, though their 

 food consists chiefly of a small species of crab (Cancer) 

 with which the Arctic seas abound. 



The length of the Little Guillemot or Auk is about 9^ inches ; 

 the tail 1 inch 9 lines; the wing 5 inches ; the bill above, half an 

 inch ; from the rictus 11 lines : the tarsus 9 lines ; the middle and 

 outer toes 11 lines. The top of the head, dorsal plumage, tail, wings, 

 and the sides under them, velvet-black. Under surface of the head, 

 throat, upper part of the breast, and thighs, pitch-black ; the rest of 

 the under plumage, the tips of the secondaries, and lateral edges of 

 the scapulars, white ; that color joining the black of the breast in 

 an even line. Bill black. Legs brownish. 



In winter, the front of the neck is whitish ; the change taking 

 place towards the end of September. It is said sometimes to vary to 

 quite white, and is seen occasionally with a reddish breast. 



PHALERIS. Temm, (Alca, Li?in.) 



With the bill shorter than the head, dilated on the margins, 

 almost quadrangular, notched near the tip ; upper mandible depress- 

 ed on the sides, convex above ; curved at the point : lower some- 

 what compressed, angular beneath, truncated at tip. Nostrils me- 

 dial, marginal, linear, pervious, half closed by a naked membrane. 



45* 



