LITTLE AUK. 273 



Little Auk. AHe alk (Linn.). 



The summer home of the Little Auk (Plate 120) is on Arctic 

 islands and in the seas around them, the nearest of these to 

 Britain is off the coast of Iceland ; its winter pelagic wanderings 

 take it at least so far south as the Canary Islands and Azores, 

 and almost annually a few are met with on our coasts during 

 the colder months. Exceptionally birds in summer dress have 

 been recorded as late as June. From time to time blizzards or 

 fierce gales hurl hundreds upon our shores or whisk them far 

 inland, even, during a north-easterly gale, across England from 

 the east to the west coast ; there are fejv counties which cannot 

 record some of these unfortunates. 



On the water the Rotche, another name of the bird, swims 

 well but deeply, " by the stern," Mr. Abel Chapman calls it. 

 It looks short-necked and stumpy, but neat and compact ; 

 its small size and short, conical bill prevent confusion with 

 its congeners. It flies fast and straight, its wings whirring 

 rapidly, and seems always in a hurry ; if alarmed when swim- 

 ming, it scutters along the surface and dives headlong into 

 an advancing wave. I have only once seen it diving, in the 

 tank at Regent's Park in 1883, where for a short time one was 

 kept alive on fish. It easily overhauled its prey, swimming with 

 its short wings like a penguin, and steering as it turned with the 

 spread webbed feet. Like other auks it swallowed its food 

 under water. Crustaceans and not fish seem to be the chief 

 food of the Little Auk ; at the breeding stations, its pouch-like 

 cheeks are often loaded with small planktonic Crustacea— 

 Euphaicsia in particular. Mysids, shrimps, prawns, and small 

 crabs are also captured, and the bird has been known to feed 

 on offal thrown overboard from whalers and deep-sea trawlers. 

 In its breeding colonies, where it congregates in immense 

 numbers, the loud chorus of chattering cries has been com- 

 mented upon, but the note heard off our shores is variously 

 Series II. T 



