RAZOR-BILL. 551 



and can easily escape from place to place. The bite of the 

 old bird, like that of the Puffin, is very severe. The fish- 

 ermen of this region call them the Hawk-Billed Murre. 

 Their flesh is quite palatable, although very dark, and much 

 employed by the Greenlanders, according to Crantz, form- 

 ing their chief subsistence during the months of February 

 and March. They are killed with missiles, chased and 

 driven ashore in canoes, or taken in nets made of split 

 whalebone. They also use their skins for clothing. The 

 eggs are everywhere accounted a delicacy ; and the feathers 

 of the breast are extremely fine, warm and elastic. For 

 the sake of this handful of feathers, according to Audubon, 

 thousands of these birds are killed in Labrador and their 

 bodies strewed on the shore. The islands between the small 

 port of Little Macatine and Brador, abound with these and 

 other allied marine birds, whose eggs are collected by the 

 inhabitants of Nova Scotia. For this purpose, they com- 

 mence by trampling on all they find laid, and the following 

 day begin to collect those which are newly dropped ; and 

 such is the abundance of the eggs, that Mr. A. fell in with 

 a party of three men, who, in the course of six weeks, had 

 collected 30,000 dozen, of the estimated value of 400 pounds 

 sterling ! Beyond Brador the Murres and Puffins were no 

 longer found. 



The length of the Razor-Bill is about 15 inches according to Tem- 

 minck, and 18 by Pennant and Montagu ! In the winter plumage 

 of the adults, the summit of the head, nape, sides of the neck and all 

 the other upper parts are of a deep black. A longitudinal band of 

 white divided by brown spots, extends from the middle of the bill to 

 the eyes. Quills blackish-brown. The secondaries tipped with 

 white. Throat, forepart of the neck, breast, and all the lower parts 

 pure white. A space of white spotted with ash occupies the sides 

 of the occiput, and there is a narrow black stripe behind the eyes. 

 The bill black, marked with 3 or 4 grooves, of which the middle one 



