146 The Little Auk. [Sess. 



of the ' Annals of Scottish Natural History ' by one of the 

 Editors. 1 



In the Firth of Forth the first one I noticed was on Sunday 

 the 13 th January, when the easterly gale was at its height. 

 It was sitting alive among the bent that fringes the Dalmeny 

 shore at Long Green Bay. Next morning another one was 

 got alive and ten dead ones were picked up. On Saturday 

 the 2d February, while on the Drum Sands at low water, I 

 observed a little auk flying along the edge of the tide, and 

 shortly afterwards at the Buchan Bocks I had the good fortune 

 to see one disporting itself in its native element. It came 

 drifting in with the tide to within a few feet of where I was 

 hidden. Floating very lightly on the water, it pecked away 

 every now and then at, to me, some invisible substance that 

 floated on the surface. It made no attempt to dive. After 

 resting some time in the calm water in the shelter of the rock 

 it sat up after the manner of a duck, and, flapping its wings 

 at a great rate, it rose and took flight across the Firth, never 

 rising much above the surface of the water. Next clay, the 

 3d February, I was somewhat surprised to find other six little 

 auks lying dead on the beach. I thought at first that some 

 fresh disaster had overtaken these birds, but it is more prob- 

 able that those of their number that had found shelter in the 

 Forth after the gale of 13th January had not all been able to 

 find sufficient food in those waters to support life. On the 

 9th February a number of others were found dead between 

 Queen sferr3 r and Barnbougle Castle. 



Although almost every writer on natural history quotes 

 instances of the occurrence of the little auk in unusual num- 

 bers, the present wreck of the species is perhaps the most 

 widespread we have any record of. White of Selborne, in a 

 letter to Thomas Bennant, dated 9th November 1773, men- 

 tions finding a little auk near Alresford. M'Gillivray describes 

 it as of rare occurrence in Britain. Morris mentions it as 

 being taken at Brestonpans in 1852, another in the Forth 

 off Dalmeny Bark in the same year, and a third at Cramond 

 in 1853. Morris also mentions the large numbers that 

 occurred all down the East Coast in 1846, which is likewise 

 noticed by several other writers. Yarrell also gives an account 



1 See 'Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist.,' April 1895. 



