3 
or lesser interval they extend in an irregular series from the out- 
most extremities of the Lofotens—Ver6 and Rost, up along the 
coast of Troms6 to Fugl6 and Loppen; thence they make their 
appearance to the eastward in Stappen near North Cape; in 
Sverholtklubben in Porsanger; and in several crags on the 
Varanger peninsula to Horné by Vard6; and on the south side 
of Varangerfjord near the Russian frontier. 
What an inexhaustible field for observations, these bird rocks 
would be, if we could only pay longer visits to them. 
It is well-known that among the rock-fowl both the Razor-bill 
(Alca torda), and the common Guillemot (Lomuia troile)* lay their 
single,—and in proportion to the size of the bird—colossal egg, 
on a projecting ledge in the precipitous face of the cliff; either 
quite in the open, or under a projecting slab of stone. The Puffin 
(Fratercula arctica) on the contrary, digs with its sharp claws, a 
long horizontal passage in the soft stratum of earth on the slopes 
of the cliff, between the luxuriant clumps of Cochlearia (scurvy- 
grass) and other coast plants: showing a considerable difference 
in the choice of a nesting-place between two so closely allied 
forms. 
But the difference is even greater, if one looks at the young 
which issue from these eggs. The Razor-bill produces an 
almost entirely naked thing, which, when the mother is away 
from it, is obliged to balance itself, as best it can, upon the narrow 
ledge of cliff, exposed to the icy north wind, and frequently 
drenched by a snow squall or acoldrain. From the Puffin’s egg, 
which lies some yard-and-a-half deep down in the close and 
sheltered tunnel, there comes a chick, clad in a downy covering 
so loose and fluffy, that it resembles a living ball of down, from 
which a beak and feet project. 
The reason for this difference between the young of the two 
species is hard to understand. It is one of the many unanswered 
questions, to which the economy of nature can give rise so 
abundantly. 
Where the space is scanty, the Razor-bills and Guillemots 
* These two birds are respectively known in Norwegian as the Broad- 
billed-, and the Pointed-billed-, Alke; the latter is also called the Lomvi.— 
Transl. 
