157 



ROTCHE. 



LITTLE AUK. ICE BIED. SMALL BLACK AND WHITE DIVEE. 

 COMMOI^ EOTCHE. 



XJria minor, Brisson. 



Alca alle, Pennant. Montagu. 



" " Bewick. 



Uria alle, Temminck. 



Mergulus melanoleueos, Fleming. Selby. 



•' " Jenyns. 



Uria— A. bird supposed to be the Guillemot. Jfi^or— 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 Eodge Hill, from the myriads of birds, 

 the Eotche, 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.* 



