284 SEA-BIRDS 



carry in cheek-pouches. Razorbills bring their young somewhat smaller 

 fish than the guillemot as a rule, and puffins carry home still smaller 

 fry and sand-eels. Razorbills usually hold the fish across the bill, and 

 may carry any number firom one to seven or eight in a beak-load. 

 Puffins, with their enormous parrot bills, carry many more; we have 

 counted 28 small fish dropped in one load from, the bill of a frightened 

 individual. This division of fish sizes between the three larger auks, 

 varying according to the shape of the bill, is interesting, and suggests 

 that the three species have their ecological share — a different food 

 spectrum — in the harvest of the sea (see p. 122), just as they have 

 their separate territorial niches on land ; competition is thereby reduced 

 and the species are able to live as neighbours harmoniously through- 

 out the year. 



We may complete the story of the young guillemots and razorbills 

 born on the cliffs. The chicks have grown rapidly, but at a fortnight 

 old are still only half the size and weight of the adults. Yet during 

 these two weeks they have acquired their first coat of feathers at a 

 remarkable speed. In the period that it takes the smallest of birds, 

 such as the wren, to acquire its first plumage, the comparatively large 

 young guillemot or razorbill has grown a thick cushion of feathers 

 over the natal down. The flight feathers alone are incomplete; 

 the rectrices or tail feathers have in fact not even sprouted. But the 

 wings have the appearance of being complete (in relation to the small 

 body) because, although the primaries are missing, the primary- 

 coverts and greater coverts are well grown. And it is with the aid 

 of these, and quite lacking quill feathers, that the young bird flutters 

 down to the sea. 



Earlier observers, some of whom obtained the evidence second- 

 hand from fishermen and lighthouse-keepers, have asserted that the 

 young auks are aided in their flight from the cliff to the sea by one 

 or both parents, which were said to support the chick by holding one 

 wing (just the thing to upset a flying bird completely); also that the 

 parents sometimes pushed a reluctant chick over the edge. It is possible 

 that an adult may accidentally jostle a chick which is hesitating on the 

 edge of an overcrowded platform, but we do not believe that eviction 

 is ever premeditated. Recent observations by Perry (1940), Kay 

 (1947) and Keighley & Lockley (1948), have proved that the fledgeling 

 takes off on its own account. What happens is at last quite clear: 

 the young razorbill or guillemot begins to exercise its wings freely 

 as soon as the coverts are sufficiently grown, and the body is well 



