io AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



Unlike its larger relatives, the Little Auk is a 

 frequenter of the deeper waters, and seldom 

 approaches the shore unless driven towards it by 

 stress of weather; and it seems to me that it is 

 during the period of migration that local casualties 

 are most to be noted. From the following " notes " the 

 reader may form his own conclusions on this subject : 



" The north-east gales of March-end (1900) were 

 fatal to many rock-birds. On the 2nd and 3rd of 

 April, between Yarmouth and Winterton, several 

 Puffins and Little Auks were found stranded. The 

 numbers noted were : 30 Little Auks, 2 Razorbills, 

 1 Great Northern Diver, 2 Guillemots, 20 Puffins." l 

 Fifty dead Puffins, mostly immature, were counted 

 in a three-mile walk late in previous February. 



" After a week's heavy easterly winds (in March 

 1901), I went to Ormesby, walking home by the 

 beach. ... At the base of the cliffs, in places, 

 a great deal of drift had been blown, and amongst 

 it a number of unfortunate rock-birds. I found 

 several Guillemots, Puffins, and Little Auks; only 

 two or three of the former being in a state fit to 

 bring away, their rather rapid decomposition, and 



1 The author's "notes" in Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich 

 Naturalists 1 Society. 



