2308 TUBE-NOSED BIRDS, DIVING BIRDS, PENGUINS 



KNOB-BII.LED AUKS. 



lower parts, a spot over the eye, the tips of the secondaries, and the margins of 

 the scapulars are white. In the winter plumage, on the other hand, the white 



area includes the throat, chin, and 

 sides of the head. 



The little auk ranges in the Arctic 

 regions from Nova Zembla and Spitz- 

 bergen to Greenland, migrating south- 

 ward in winter as far as New Jersey on 

 the one side of the Atlantic, and to the 

 Canaries on the other. In its breeding 

 places, where it appears in May, it con- 

 gregates in countless thousands, if not 

 in millions. The single bluish-white 

 egg is laid so deep among the loose 

 fragments of rock that it can only be 

 reached with difficulty, and the young 

 leave the breeding places for the open 

 sea before they can fly. An expert 

 diver and a strong swimmer, the rotche 

 feeds chiefly on crustaceans and ma- 

 rine worms. In spite, however, of its 

 oceanic habits, it appears to be ill 

 adapted to fight against the storms of 



winter, during the prevalence of which it is frequently driven far inland, and in the 

 severe winter of 1894-95 hundreds were thus driven into England. 



Related to 

 Pacific Pygmy ., t . 



. , J ''the rotche are 

 Auks 



a number of 

 small auk-like birds from 

 the Northern Pacific, all of 

 which differ from that spe- 

 cies in having the chin 

 angle nearer to the nostril 

 than to the base of the beak. 

 Among these are the tufted 

 auk (Simorhynchus crista- 

 tellus), remarkable for the 

 forwardly curving tufts oi 

 feathers at the root of the 

 beak; the knob-billed auk 

 (5*. pusillus}, taking its 



name from the presence in summer of a knob at the base of the beak which dis- 

 appears in winter; and the parrot auk (S. psittaculus}. Still more remarkable is 

 the horn-billed auk (Cerorhyncha monocerata] , in which the compressed and curved 

 beak is longer than in the preceding forms, and is provided at the base with a 



HEAD OF WHISKERED PUFFIN. 

 (From Guillemard's Cruise of the "Marchesa.") 



