264 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



Mallard, Teal, Widgeons, Didappers,* Gravyes (which 

 are larger than Ducks, and build in hollow trees) and 

 many others." There are few large sheets of water in 

 Lancashire where, in winter, the Little Grebe has not 

 occasionally occurred, sometimes pretty numerously, and 

 it may be that these in part are migrants, though there 

 are never such numbers as to preclude the possibility of 

 their all having been bred within the county limits. 



FAMILY ALCID^.— GENUS ALCA. 



RAZOEBILL. 



Alca torda, Limiffius. 



The Eazorbill is essentially a pelagic species on the 

 Lancashire coast, and — except in heavy weather, when 

 many are washed up dead — is only to be seen a mile or 

 two away from the land. It is plentiful from early autumn 

 until May, and odd birds remain throughout the sum- 

 mer. There are a few rocky scarps on the Furness coast 

 not unsuitable as nesting situations, but only in one 

 case, where Mr. H. Miller found an unfledged young one 

 on the sands in the first week of August 1880, is there 

 any evidence of its breeding. 



GENUS LOMVIA. 



COMMON GUILLEMOT. 



LoMviA TRoiLE (LimiaBus). 



The Guillemot, like the Razorbill, is seldom seen 

 except at some distance from the shore ; dead or half- 



* Willughby, and Bewick after him, gives didajij^er as a name 

 for the Little Grebe, but what a gravy e is I can't imagine. Mr. J. 

 Kirby, of Ulverston, tells me that the Eed-throated Diver is often 

 called gravvyner in that neighbom-hood. 



