LITTLE AUK. 381 



with its head tucked under its wing, and in rough weather is often tossed 

 from wave to wave without apparent injury. It is a very expert diver, and 

 can fly with great rapidity, though it is obliged to move its short wings 

 almost as quickly as a hmnming-bird or a hawk-moth. Its flight is 

 without undulations, but it turns Avith great ease. It is one of the most 

 gregarious of birds, and Arctic travellers have sometimes estimated the 

 flocks to consist of millions. It docs not appear to be very active on 

 the land. It is said to sit on the tarsus as well as on the foot, but only 

 rests on its feet when running. At all seasons of the year flocks of these 

 little birds may be observed in the open Polar seas, diving in search of 

 food or perching on the masses of ice. Unlike the Guillemot and 

 Razorbill it is a very noisy bird, and its notes are constantly uttered both 

 when on the wing and when at rest, either on the rocks or on the ice- 

 floes, or even when sitting on its egg. Its specific name of alle is said to 

 bear a slight resemblance to its note. 



The Little Auk appears at its breeding-places early in May, pairing 

 having already taken place ; but the eggs are not laid until tlie middle of 

 June. It rarely breeds at any high elevation, but lays its single egg in 

 some crevice, or under the loose stones that have fallen from the cliffs, 

 occasionally at some distance from the coast. Both parents take their 

 share of the duties of incubation. The egg is pale greenish blue, occasion- 

 ally indistinctly streaked round the large end with yellowish brown, and 

 varies in length from r9 to 1*8 inch, and in breadth from 1*35 to 1*2 inch. 



Soon after the young are hatched their parents convey them to the sea, 

 where they may often be seen long before they are able to fly. The 

 breeding-places are now deserted, and the little birds wander about the 

 open ocean in search of their favourite food. In rough weather they are 

 said to come nearer to the shore, and to frequent the land-locked bays and 

 quiet fjords. They seem but poorly adapted to withstand any violent 

 storm, and are soon driven exhausted ashore, often for some considerable 

 distance inland. The Little Auk only rears one nestling in the year, but 

 it probably lays again if its first egg is taken. 



The food of the Little Auk is principally composed of minute crustaceans, 

 and probably small fish and marine insects. When engaged in rearing its 

 young, it appears to store a great quantity of these small crustaceans in 

 its mouth, visibly puffing out its cheeks, as Swallows and other insect- 

 feeding birds do, so that it may convey a large amount of food to its 

 distant nestling at once. 



Dr. Hayes (^The Open Polar Sea,-" p. 390) very graphically describes 

 his visit to a great breeding-place of the Little Awk near Foulke fjord on 

 the Greenland coast of Smithes Sound (about lat. 78 j°). He describes 

 the slopes on both sides of the valley as about a mile wide, and consisting 

 of piles of loose rocks, stretching for five hundred feet at an angle of 



