AVES PELECANOID^. 1 63 



complete auk in its habits, although from its structure it must be classed 

 with the Petrels. To the latter Mr. Gould informs me, its affinity is 

 clearly shown by the form of its beak and nostrils, length of foot, and 

 even by the general color of its plumage. To the auks it is related in 

 the general form of its body, its short wings, shape of tail, and absence 

 of hind-toe to the foot. When seen from a distance and undisturbed, it 

 would almost certainly be mistaken, from its manner of swimming and 

 frequent diving, for a grebe. When approached in a boat, it generally 

 dives to a distance, and on coming to the surface, with the same move- 

 ment takes flight ; having flown some way, it drops like a stone on the 

 water, as if struck dead, and instantaneously dives again. No one seeing 

 this bird for the first time, thus diving like a grebe and flying in a straight 

 line by the rapid movement of its short wings like an auk, would be will- 

 ing to believe that it was a member of the family of Petrels, the greater 

 number of which are eminently pelagic in their habits, do not dive, and 

 whose flight is usually most graceful and continuous. I observed at Port 

 Famine, that these birds, in the evening, sometimes flew in straight lines 

 from one part of the sound to another ; but during the day, they scarcely 

 ever, I believe, take wing, if undisturbed. They are not very wild ; if they 

 had been so, from their habit of diving and flying, it would have been 

 extremely difficult to have procured a specimen. The legs of this bird 

 are of a ' flax-flower blue.' " 



Also from Coppinger, Cruise of the "Alert," page 105, 1883: 

 " One night a small petrel flew on board, into one of the hoisted-up 

 boats, where it was found by one of the seamen in the usual apparently 

 helpless state. It is odd that some species of the family of petrels should 

 find such difficulty about rising on the wing from a ship's deck. A freshly 

 caught Cape pigeon, placed on its legs on the deck, seems to forget 

 utterly that it possesses the power of flight, and does not even attempt to 

 use its wings, but waddles about like an old farm-yard duck. The petrel 

 above referred to was the little diver [Pelecanoides ityiiiafrix), a bird not 

 uncommon in the channels, but yet very difficult to obtain. During the 

 previous season on the surveying ground. Sir George Nares, who was the 

 first to notice it, reported one day, that he had seen one of his old arctic 

 friends, the "little auk," which indeed in its habits it strongly resembles. 

 It usually (at all events during the day time) sits on the surface of the 

 water, and on the least sign of danger takes a long dive like a grebe, and 



