92 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



on the coast of Norway. It doubtless made no nest and laid only 

 one egg, which is said to have been deposited during the first half 

 of June. As in the allied species, the egg is large in proportion 

 to the size of the bird, varying from 5'1 to 4" 7 inches in length, 

 and from 3"1 to 2 - 8 inches in breadth. The ground-colour is a 

 creamy-white, with black or dark brown surface-markings and 

 grey underlying spots. Most of the eggs still remaining in 

 collections resemble the common type of eggs of the Razor-bill, 

 and are somewhat sparingly spotted, the markings being largest 

 and most irregular in shape round the large end. The specimens 

 figured are in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and 

 I have to acknowledge the kindness of Professor Stewart in 

 allowing them to be drawn, as illustrations of these eggs have 

 not been given before. Mr. E. Bidwell, who drew my atten- 

 tion to this fact, considers them to be exceptionally good types 

 of the variation shewn in eggs of this species. 



THE RAZOR-BILL. 



(A lea tor da.) 

 Plate 24, Fig. 1 — 4. 



The Razor-bill is a very common bird on almost all parts of the 

 British coasts that are sufficiently rocky to afford it a suitable 

 place for its nesting-colonies. It is found breeding more or less 

 abundantly on all sea-rocks from Cornwall to Shetland, round the 

 Irish coast, the Channel Islands, and St. Kilda. 



The Razor-bill is probably an exclusively North Atlantic species. 

 It breeds on the coasts of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and 

 Labrador, but does not enter Hudson's Bay or Davis Straits. Its 

 range extends eastwards along the coast of Greenland as far north 

 as lat. 70°, to Iceland, the Faroes, the British Islands, and the 

 north coast of France. Thence its breeding-grounds are to be 

 found wherever the coast is rocky on the shores of the North Sea 

 and the Baltic, the coasts of Norway and the White Sea, where 

 it was found breeding by Henke on the island of Onega. 



If the locality be well suited to them, great numbers of birds 

 breed together on the same range of cliffs, but in less eligible 

 districts the pairs are scattered. The great attraction is the 

 presence of suitable crannies amongst the cliffs where the bird 



