loS Allen's naturallst's library. 



Seebohm says tliat, after the first spring moult, the adult 

 nuptial plumage is almost completely assumed, but the bill, 

 although presenting the white transverse stripe, has only two, 

 instead of the three, transverse grooves which characterise the 

 old bird. 



Range in Great Britain. — An inhabitant of the rocky coasts, 

 nesting in such locahties from Cornwall to the Shetlands. It 

 also breeds on the Channel Islands. With regard to Ireland, 

 Mr. Ussher remarks that it "breeds usually in great numbers 

 on cliffs off the coasts and islands of Donegal, Antrim, Dublin, 

 Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Clare, Galway, Mayo, and 

 Sligo." In winter it is found in the British seas, and is occa- 

 sionally driven far inland during stormy weather. 



Range outside the British Islands. — The Razor-bill is an inhabi- 

 tant of the Atlantic Ocean, occurring on the shores of North 

 America on the Atlantic, but not on the Pacific, shores. It 

 breeds in Norway up to 69° N. Lat., as well as in the Faeroes 

 and Iceland, probably in Jan Mayen Island, but not, so far as is 

 known, in Spitsbergen. Its most southern breeding range, 

 according to Saunders, is the coast of Brittany ; though in 

 winter it is seen in the Mediterranean, and even as far as the 

 Canaries. It is found in Eastern North America, breeding in 

 Greenland up to about 70^ N. Lat., and on the coasts of 

 Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, wintering some- 

 what to the south of these countries, when it occurs off the 

 New England coast. 



Habits. — Very similar to those of the Puffin and Guillemot, 

 the species being equally gregarious both in summer and 

 winter. It is met with on the Fame Islands, where, however, it 

 is not very plentiful. My friend, the late Henry Seebohm, has 

 written some interesting accounts of the birds observed by 

 him in the last-named islands, and I quote the following from 

 his " History of British Birds " : — 



" Like the Guillemot and the Puffin, the Razor-bill is a resi- 

 dent in the British seas, but appears to be less numerous in 

 winter than in summer, because it is spread over a much wider 

 area, and lives for the most part out at sea. In its habits it 

 very closely resembles the Guillemot, but is easily distinguished 

 from that bird, even at a considerable distance, by its deeper 



