MURRE. 399 



favorite cliffs, is another singular and common inhabitant of 

 the high northern latitudes of both continents. In Europe 

 these birds extend their swarming colonies as far as the ever 

 wintry coast of Spitzbergen ; they are also seen in Lapmarck, 

 and along the White and Icy Sea as far as Kamtschatka. Along 

 the whole coast of Hudson Bay, Labrador, and Newfoundland, 

 they congregate in swarms. They also breed in the Orkneys 

 and in more temperate climates, when the local situation hap- 

 pens to suit their particular habits and instinct ; thus, they are 

 extremely numerous in the desert Isle of Priestholm, contiguous 

 to the Island of Anglesey, on the Godreve rocks, not far from 

 St. Ives, in Cornwall, the Fame Isles, off the coast of Northum- 

 berland, and the cliffs of the Isle of Wight, and of Scarborough 

 in Yorkshire. Occasionally the young are seen along the 

 coasts of the United States ; but the great body of the species 

 in America, according to Audubon, winter in the Bay of Fundy, 

 where they find an open sea, congenial rocks, and a cool 

 temperature. 



These birds begin to assemble on their customary cliffs in 

 England early in May, and crowd together in such numbers that 

 it is not uncommon to see hundreds sitting upon their eggs on 

 the ledge of a rock, all in a line, and nearly touching each 

 other. They lay but a single egg, on the flat and bare rock, 

 without any precaution to protect it or the progeny arising 

 from it by any shelter or convenience at all like a nest. It is 

 of a palish green, blotched and marked with black and deep 

 umber brown. They rarely quit their eggs unless disturbed, 

 and are fed during the time, chiefly with small fish or other 

 marine productions, by the male. In inaccessible places, or 

 where seldom disturbed, it is with difficulty that they are roused 

 to flight, and may then sometimes be taken by the hand ; 

 others flutter into the water below the cliffs on which they 

 nestle, and seem, in fact, to try every expedient but that of 

 flight. They are at all times extremely expert in diving, using 

 their pinions as oars instead of the feet, thus flying as it were 

 in the water, as well as in the air. After the young are hatched 

 and capable of migrating, by the close of August, they all dis- 



