157 
ROTCHE. : 
LITTLE AUK. ICE BIRD. SMALL BLACK AND WHITE DIVER. 
COMMON ROTCHE. 
Uria minor, BRISSoN. 
Alca alle, PENNANT. MonrtTacu. 
& ee BewiIck. 
Uria alle, TEMMINCK. 
Mergulus melanoleucos, FLEMING. SELBY. 
= “a JENYNS. 
Uria—A bird supposed to be the Guillemot. Minor—Lesser. 
THESE birds are of true oceanic habits, although, as will 
be seen, they have in many numerous instances occurred far 
inland. 
They are abundant in Greenland, where they breed, and in 
different parts of North America, Baffin’s Bay, Davis’ Straits, 
and on other parts of the continent, on to New Jersey, and 
several parts of the United States; also in Europe, at Iceland, 
in the Island of Grimsey. So, too, in Nova Zembla and 
Spitzbergen. Captain Beechy, R.N., in the account of his 
voyage to the North Pole, writes thus of them, in describing 
the scenery of Magdalen Bay, on the west of the island.— 
‘At the head of the Bay there is a high pyramidal mountain 
of granite, termed Rodge Hill, from the myriads of birds, 
the Rotche, that frequent its base, and which appeared to 
prefer its environs to any part of the harbour.’ He adds, 
‘they are so numerous, that we have often seen an uninterrupted 
line of them extending full half way over the Bay, or to a 
distance of more than three miles. This column, on the 
average, might have been about six yards broad, and as many 
deep. There must have been nearly four millions of birds on 
the wing at one time.’ 
