RAZOR-BILLED AUK. 4II 



into the most dreary hyperboreal climates throughout the 

 whole of the northern hemisphere. They abound in the north 

 of Europe as far as Iceland and Greenland, and in x\merica 

 swarm on the bleak and barren coasts of Labrador. Small 

 groups of from ten to twelve proceed along the coasts of the 

 United States as far as New York, in severe winters remaining 

 in deep water ; but they are by no means common, and scarcely 

 ever seen in Massachusetts Bay. 



Like most of the birds of this family, they have a steady pre- 

 dilection for their ancient eyry. From time immemorial they 

 resort to the same rocks and coasts, and there are but few places 

 sufficiently desert, rocky, and inaccessible suited to their furtive 

 habits and marine food. One of their great resorts in England 

 is on and about the Needle-rocks and other precipitous chffs, so 

 dangerous to the shipwrecked mariner, which flank the romantic 

 Isle of Wight. As curious and striking works of Nature and 

 instinct, these, and the birds which frequent them, afford an 

 interesting spectacle in May and June. The Razor-bills are 

 here in such numbers that a boatful might be killed in a day ; 

 and the eggs being esteemed a delicacy, particularly for salads, 

 the fishermen and other indigent and adventurous inhabitants 

 traverse the precipices in search of the pickle samphire and 

 the eggs of the Murre. Some of these stupendous cliffs are 

 six hundred feet above the yawning deep, which lashes and 

 frets them into gloomy caverns. Seaward they present rugged 

 and deeply indented cliffs, on whose rude shelvings and ledges 

 the birds arrange themselves by thousands, and without further 

 preparation lay their eggs, which lie as it were strewed without 

 precaution by hundreds in a row, in no way attached to or de- 

 fended by the rocks, so that in a gale of wind whole ranks of 

 them are swept into the sea. To these otherwise inaccessible 

 deposits the dauntless fowlers ascend, and passing intrepidly 

 from rock to rock, collect the eggs and descend with the same 

 indifference. In most places, however, the attempt is made 

 from above. The adventurer is let down from the slope con- 

 tiguous to the brink of the cliff by a rope sustained by a single 

 assistant, who, lowering his companion, depends on his per- 



