PYGOPODES. ( 295 ) ALCIDJE. 



THE RAZOR-BILL. 



COMMON AUK, MAREOT, SCOUT, SEA CROW. 



Alca tor da. 

 %\)z Coulter ^z\s. 



The billows burst, in ceaseless flow, 

 Upon the precipice below. 



The steepy rock, and frantic tide, 

 Approach of human step denied. 



Sir Walter Scott. 



Selby, writing on the birds observed at St. Abb's Head on 

 the 18th of July 1832, says: "Upon the ledges of the 

 rocks the Guillemots {Uria troile) and Eazor-bills (Alca 

 torda) were seen in great numbers, ranged in order, tier 

 above tier, and looking at a distance like armies of pigmies ; 

 these upon the least alarm utter their peculiar curring kind 

 of note, which, when mixed with the screams of the Sea 

 Gull and Kittiwake, and heard from a distance, or softened 

 by the murmurs of the waves, produces a wild though not 

 disagreeable species of concert well according with the 

 nature of the scenery which surrounds them." ^ Mr. 

 Archibald Hepburn, in his "Account of the Birds found at 

 St. Abb's Head on the 20th of June 1851," remarks that: 

 " The Eazor-bill (Alca torda) is pretty common, but not 

 nearly so abundant as I had anticipated from the numbers 

 found on the Bass ; indeed, they did not appear to be so 

 numerous as the Herring Gulls. They generally frequented 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. i. p. 19. 



