LITTLE AUK 495 
subsequently noticed that the parents had their cheeks 
distended with a reddish substance, consisting of immense 
numbers of minute crustaceans, which were evidently in- 
tended as food for the young”’ (Saunders). 
Nest.—In the spring season, as our cliffs are becoming 
tenanted by great throngs of allied species (Razorbills, 
Puftins, and Guillemots), the Little Auk deserts us for 
higher latitudes. 
The single egg is usually laid in the recess of a sloping 
cliff (sometimes quite low down), in holes, and under stones ; 
in other cases it 1s deposited on a headland hundreds of feet 
above the level of the sea. The egg is pale sea-blue in 
colour; in some examples indistinct reddish-brown spots 
and streaks are to be seen. 
Incubation does not appear to become general until about 
the middle of June. : 
Geographical distribution—This species ranges in the 
breeding-season 1n many countries of Arctic Europe, from 
Iceland eastward to Novaya Zemlya. In Spitzbergen, and 
as far as the drift ice at lat. 82° N., astonishing numbers 
assemble. Off Franz Josef Land Dr. Nansen observed it 
as early as February 25th, 1896 (Saunders). Westward 
the breeding-range extends from Greenland to the eastern 
side of Arctic Canada, where the bird abounds, though west 
of Baffin Bay, in Behring Sea, the Arctic regions of the 
Asiatic Continent, and in the Pacific Ocean, it would appear 
that it has not been traced. 
In autumn and winter the Little Auk is distributed 
over the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean and North 
Sea, migrating south to about lat. 35° N. 
Considering the enormous numbers of colonies and the 
countless throngs which compose them, it seems evident 
that the birds must scatter themselves over a vast area 
of oceanic water during their southern peregrinations in 
autumn and winter, for at such times they are never seen 
in anything like the numbers in which they congregate to 
breed. 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult maie nuptial. — Top of head, hind- 
neck, back, scapulars, wings, rump, and upper tail-coverts, 
glossy greyish-black ; rest of head, sides and front of neck, 
chin, and throat, sooty-black ; scapulars margined with 
