306 



THE LITTLE AUK. 



example was caught near Duns in November 1875 ;^ and 

 the gardener at Abbey St. Bathans lately showed me a 

 specimen which he had picked up dead near the Saw-Mill 

 there in winter, about 1881. This bird was more than 

 usually numerous on the coast in the autumn and winter 

 of 1878.2 



The Little Auk measures only about eight inches in 

 length. It breeds within the Arctic Circle.^ 



1 Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. vii. p. 517. - Fbld. vol. viii. p. 502. 



3 It is stated iu TurnbuU's Birds of East-Lothian, p. 32, that the Little Auk 

 breeds at St. Abb's Head, but this is a mistake. 



