AUKS AND ALLIED SPECIES. 309 



seek their food as well on the open sea as along the shores. 

 Their short firm wings, while they enable them to fly to great 

 distances, are also the principal instruments by which they 

 pursue under water the small fishes and Crustacea on which 

 they feed. In summer, vast multitudes betake themselves to 

 the most northern regions, while others of the same species 

 occupy suitable places in the northern temperate and inter- 

 mediate zones. Thus, the Razor-bill, Guillemot, and Auk, 

 are to be found, in June and July, equally in Scotland, Feroe, 

 Iceland, and Spitzbergen, It is on the shelves or in the 

 crevices of precipitous rocks that they breed, few or none of 

 them forming a nest, though some of them conceal them- 

 selves in burrows. In most of the species only a single very 

 larse ess is laid. The young soon betake themselves to the 

 sea, and toward the middle of autumn they and the old birds 

 remove southward, few of them, however, proceeding so far 

 as the Mediterranean. They are seldom seen on shore, unless 

 at their breeding places, the position and form of their feet 

 being very unfavourable to walking, and on the rocks they 

 stand in a much inclined position. Eight species rank as 

 British. 



SYJSrOPSIS OF TEE BRITISH GENERA AND SPECIES. 



GENUS I. l^RIA. GUILLEMOT. 



Bill of moderate length, nearly straight, stovit, compressed, 

 tapering, acute ; nostrils sub-basal, longitudinal, linear ; 

 tarsus short, stout, compressed ; toes of moderate length, the 

 middle toe longest ; claws rather small, arched, compressed, 

 acute ; wings rather small, narrow, acute, the primary quills 

 incurvate ; tail very short, rounded, of twelve or fourteen 

 feathers. 



1. Uria Brunnichii. BrimnicKs Guillemot. Bill stout, 

 considerably decurved at the end, black, with the basal mar- 

 gin of the upper mandible whitish, the angle of the lower 

 prominent, its sides concave ; tail of fourteen feathers. 



