ALCIDJS — THE AUKS — FRATERCULA. 527 



the soil is of a kind in which the birds can easily dig. The holes were just about 

 deep enough to be reached with the arm, and generally straight, though some were 

 quite tortuous. The entrances were worn perfectly smooth and slippery. Many of 

 the holes were only passages from one nest to another. The nest itself consisted of 

 only a few dried grasses laid at the end of the hole. Only one egg is laid ; and this 

 is obscurely and often almost imperceptibly blotched with light bluish ash. He 

 heard not the slightest sound from one of these birds ; but as he climbed the side of 

 the island they started out from their holes all around him. Each bird would gener- 

 ally stop for a moment at the mouth of its hole to see what was going on, and then 

 scramble and flutter down to the water, diving immediately. When taken in the 

 hand it struggles and bites furiously, at the same time uttering a hoarse croaking 

 cry. Its inner nail is very strong, sharp, and curved. When the bird is standing, 

 this lies flat ; but when scratching or digging, it is held upright. There was no evi- 

 dence of any sympathy between the survivors and those wounded or dead, who were 

 not noticed in any way by those which had escaped injury. The flight of this bird, 

 when once on the wing, is well sustained and firm, and is performed with short, 

 quick beats. When it throws itself into the air from a rock it launches out with 

 ease ; but it rises from the water with difficulty, flapping along over its surface before 

 it can rise well on the wing. When standing at the entrance of its burrow it presents 

 a peculiarly grotesque appearance, its short, thick-set body, enormous head and bill, 

 with its contrast of colors, giving it an air. the comicality of which its upright position 

 and its odd movements contribute not a little to enhance. 



This species was observed by .Mr. Kumlien in abundance from the Gulf of .St. 

 Lawrence to Hudson's Straits. It was unknown in Cumberland, but was common on 

 the Greenland coast as far north as 70°. They breed abundantly on the islands in 

 Disco Bay. 



M. Bureau has recently published ('-mill. Soc. Zool. France," 1878) a very in- 

 teresting account of the moulting of portions of the beak of this species after their 



br ling-season. Certain portions of its beak at the base of the maxilla and of the 



mandible, as well as the horny excrescences above and below the eye, are regularly 

 shed every year, and as regularly assumed as the breeding-season approaches. The 

 number of deciduous pieces is thirteen. It is quite probable that similar changes 

 take place in the other species of this genus. 



Eggs of this species in the Smithsonian Collection, collected in Labrador, have 

 a ground of a dull chalky white, with faint shell-markings about the larger end of a, 

 lavender-gray. Four specimens present the following variations in their respective 

 measurements: 2.40 by 1.85 inches; 2.55 by 1.75; 2.60 by 1.05; 2.G5 by 1.70. 



Fratercula arctica glacialis. 



THE LARGE-BILLED FT/FFIN. 



Mormon glacialis, "Leach." Natjm. Isis, 1821, 782, pi. 7. fig. 2. — Cass, in Baird'a B. X. Am. 



185S, 903. — Batrd, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 714. 

 Fratercula glacialis, Leach, Stcph. Cm. Zool. XIII. 1825, 40, pi. 4, fig. 2. — Coues, Pr. Phikd. 



Acad. 1868, 23. —Bureau, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1878, pi. v. fis*. 1, 2. 

 Fratercula arctica, var. glacialis, Cori'.s, Key, 1872, 340 ; Check List. 1873, no. 618 a. 

 Fratercula arctica glacialis, RlDGW. Num. X. Am. B. 18Sl,no. 743 a. — CoUES, 2d Check List, 1S82, 



no. 855. 



Hab. Coasts and islands of the Arctic Ocean, from Spitsbergen to Northern and Western 

 Greenland ; also probably west shores of Baffin's Bay and Northern Labrador. 



