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564 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
Famity ALCID. 
Bill without lamellz along the edges; usually shorter than the head, compressed, 
and pointed; anterior toes connected fully by a continuous membrane; hind toe 
often entirely wanting; the outer as large as the middle; the claws higher than 
broad; legs inserted far back; wings short, concave. 
The Alcide are readily distinguished from the Colymbide by the absence of hind 
toe, the continuous webbing of the toes, the compressed claws, and other characters. 
The species are all exclusively marine, usually arctic, only coming southward in 
winter. Owing to their boreal residence, they are little known; and several species 
doubtless yet remain to be discovered. 
Sub-Family Auctnx.—The Auks. 
ALCA, Linn us. 
Alca, Linn xus, Syst. Nat. (1758). 
General form short, broad, and strong; wings short; tail short; bill about as 
long as the head, feathered at base, much flattened laterally, wider, and somewhat 
hooked at the end; upper mandible with oblique transverse grooves; wings short 
and feeble; tail short, pointed; legs and feet short and strong; toes fully webbed. 
ALCA TORDA, — Linneus. 
The Razor-billed Auk. 
Alca torda, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (1758) 180. Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 
112; V. 428. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Much smaller than the preceding; general form short and heavy; bill rather 
long, densely feathered at base, flattened laterally; upper mandible with three to five 
curved transverse grooves; under mandible with three or four transverse grooves; 
feathers on side of upper jaw reaching far beyond the middle of the commissure, and 
nearly as far as those of the lower jaw; wing moderate, pointed; tail short, gradu- 
ated, with the middle feathers longest and pointed; legs short, strong; a narrow 
but very distinct line of white on each side from the base of the upper mandible to 
the eye; head and entire upper parts brownish-black, more clearly brown on the 
throat and neck in front, and darker on the back; secondary quills narrowly tipped 
with white; entire under parts white; bill black, with a single transverse band of 
white on both mandibles; feet black. 
Total length, about seventeen inches; wing, eight to eight and a half; tail, three 
and a half; bill to gape, two and a half inches. 
Hab. —North-eastern coast of America; Newfoundland, Labrador, and south in 
winter to New Jersey; also, arctic regions of Old World. 
