LITTLE AUK. 731 



at sea, while several were washed ashore at Redcar and 

 Scarborough. In the early months of 1894 a few were seen 

 at various places on the coast from the Tees to Holderness, 

 but in the winter following there occurred the most remarkable 

 invasion of these northern sea-fowl which has been recorded 

 within the memory of living man. The weather during the 

 latter part of 1894, and in the opening days of January 1895, 

 was of a very stormy character, wiih on-shore gales, and 

 during the first fortnight of the new year immense companies 

 of Little Auks passed along the coast, many being shot, while 

 more were driven in by stress of weather and cast up on the 

 sands in a dead, or exhausted and dying, condition. The 

 gales and rough seas continued, with scarcely any intermission, 

 until the middle of February ; consequently the poor little 

 ocean wanderers, being unable to procure food, perished 

 wholesale, and some hundreds were taken to the bird-stuffers ; 

 on 2ist January I picked up seven examples on the sands 

 in the course of a mile's walk. Similar reports were received 

 from other places on the coast ; at Whitby, Scarborough, 

 Filey, and Bridlington the taxidermists had a busy time ; 

 at Beverley no fewer than eighty-four specimens were brought 

 in in one day, and it was estimated that many thousands 

 were observed close in shore between Scarborough and Spurn. 



Individuals were reported in places far removed from salt 

 water ; one was caught alive on a pond at Hutton Rudby ; 

 three were found at Thirsk ; others at Swainby, Teeming Lane, 

 Leeds, Bradford, and even in the high dales, and on the moors 

 of the north-west, instances were recorded of the capture of 

 these " rare sea birds " {Field, 9th February 1895 ; Nat. 

 1895, pp. 94, 106, 117 ; and Zool. 1895, p. 68). In the year 

 1897 another visitation took place, but not in such quantities 

 as that of two years previously, yet many occurred at all 

 the coast stations. 



On 13th November 1899 a flock of about sixty was seen 

 off Redcar ; in 1900, in the last week of February, during a 

 north-east gale that lasted for a week, some fifty examples 

 were cast on shore, several of which had partially black throats, 

 and in Holderness eighteen were picked up in one day ; at 



