s:, 



THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 



[oh AT. 



inconsiderable, for the thriving of this little bird. But on 

 Spitzbergen it occurs in incredible numbers, and breeds in the 

 talus, 100 to 200 metres high, which frost and weathering have 

 formed at several places on the steep slopes of the coast mountain 

 sides ; for instance, at Horn Sound, at Magdalena Bay, on the 

 Norways (near 80° N.L.), and other places. These stone heaps 

 form the palace of the rotge, richer in rooms and halls than any 

 other in the wide round world. If one climbs np among the 

 stolies, he sees at intervals actual clouds of fovvl suddenly emerge 

 from the ground either to swarm round in the air or else to Hy 

 out to sea, and at the same time those that remain make their 

 presence underground kuown by an unceasing cackling and din, 

 resembling, according to Friedrich Martens, the noise of a 

 crowd of quarrelling women. Should this sound be stilled for 

 a few moments, one need only attempt in some opening among 



the stones to imitate their cry 

 (according to Martens : roU-tct- 

 iet-tet-tct') to get immediately 

 eager and sustained replies from 

 all sides. The fowl circling in 

 the air soon settle again on the 

 stones of the mountain slopes, 

 where, squabbling and fighting, 

 they pack themselves so close 

 together that from fifteen to thirty 

 of them may be killed by a single 

 shot. A portion of the flock now 

 flies up again, others seek their 

 safety like rats in concealment 

 among the blocks of stone. But 

 they soon creep out again, in 

 to fly out to sea and search for 

 of Crustacea and vermes. The 

 single blueish-white egg is laid on 



THE LITTLE AUK, OK RoTUE. 



Swedish, Alkekung. {Mergiilus AUc, L.) 



order, as if by agreement, 

 their food, which consists 

 rotge dives with ease. Its 

 the bare ground withoufa nest, so deep down among the stones 

 that it is only with difficulty that it can be got at. In the 

 talus of the mountains north of Horn Sound I found on the 

 18th June, 1858, two eggs of this bird lying directly on the 

 layer of ice between the stones. Probably the hatching season 

 had not then begun. Where the main body of these flocks of 

 birds passes the winter, is unknown,^ but they return to the 

 north early — sometimes too early. Thus in 1873 at the end 

 of April I saw a large number of rotges frozen to death on 



' It deserves to be investigated whether some little auks do not, like the 

 Spitzbergen ptarmigan, pass the winter in their stone mounds, flying out 

 to sea only at pretty long intervals in order to collect their food. 



