THE RAZOR-BILL: 551 



distance the birds can only be distinguished by a practised 

 eye; but on a close inspection they cannot be possibly 

 confounded. 



Eazor-bills are common on many parts of our coast 

 during the later summer months. They are more fre- 

 quently seen swimming than flying, and if pursued by a 

 boat are little disposed to take alarm until they are 

 approached to within twenty or thirty yards, when they 

 dive, but soon reappear not very far off. If two birds 

 be in company and one be killed by a shot from a gun, its 

 companion, instead of taking measures to insure its own 

 safety, seems to lose the power of self-preservation. It 

 paddles round its companion as if unable to comprehend 

 the reason why it neither dives nor flies, and if pursued 

 suffers itself to be overtaken and knocked down by an oar. 

 This sympathetic feeling is not confined to birds which 

 have paired, or to members of the same family ; for in an 

 instance which came under my own notice, both birds were 

 only a few months old, and, as the Eazor-bill lays but one 

 egg, the birds could not possibly have grown up together. 

 Towards winter, Razor-bills migrate southwards, either to 

 avoid cold or to find waters where their prey swims nearer 

 to the surface than in our climate. In spring they return 

 northwards, and repair, like Puffins, to places of habitual 

 resort for the purpose of breeding. At this season, also, 

 they are eminently social, laying each an egg in close 

 proximity on a ledge in the rocks, lower down than the 

 Puffins, but above the Guillemots, all of which birds flock 

 to the same portion of coast, often in countless multitudes. 

 The egg differs from that, of the Guillemot not only in 

 colour but in shape, being less decidedly pear-shaped. 

 It is much sought after as an article of food, and is said 

 to be very palatable. 



The "Auk" of Arctic voyagers is this bird. 



