RAZOR-BILLED AUK 207 



Although the razor-billed auk is said to be of a quarrelsome dis- 

 position, I saw no evidence of it on Bird Rock, where it associates 

 on friendly terms with the murres and puffins, sitting in little mixed 

 groups close together on their favorite rocks. It has few enemies, 

 though it is preyed upon by the large falcons to some extent. Its 

 habit of nesting in inaccessible crevices on high cliffs has protected 

 its eggs from the gulls and has saved it from total extermination by 

 egg hunters. Its eggs were gathered in large quantities, with the 

 eggs of the murres, when it was abundant, but now the eggs of the 

 razorbill are too scarce and too hard to get to make it pay to collect 

 them. Nuttall (1834) refers to this as follows: 



Its flesh is quite palatable, although very dark, and much eaten by the Green- 

 landers, according to Cranz, forming their chief subsistence during the months 

 of February and March. These birds are killed with missiles, chased, and 

 driven ashore in canoes, or taken in nets made of split whalebone. Their skins 

 are also used for clothing. The eggs are everywhere accounted a delicacy, 

 and the feathers of the breast are extremely fine, warm, and elastic. For the 

 sake of this handful of feathers, according to Audubon, thousands of these 

 birds are killed in Labrador, and their bodies strewed on the shore. 



Winter. The razor-billed auk is a hardy bird, pushing north 

 through the ice in early spring and being driven south again only 

 by the advent of cold weather. Late in the fall large numbers are 

 seen migrating around Nova Scotia to their winter haunts on the 

 New England coasts, following in the wake of the last of the flight 

 of scoters and brant. They fly well off shore as a rule and spend 

 most of their time on the open sea; consequently they are seldom 

 seen and they are probably more abundant than we realize. Long 

 Island probably marks about the southern limit of the normal winter 

 range of this species, where it is known as the "sea crow." Dr. 

 William C. Braislin (1907) says that they 



occur on the beach chiefly by reason of their being driven in by winds and surf. 

 It is doubtful whether even a few survive this experience. They do not will- 

 ingly approach the sands in mild weather and in the fury of a gale, exhausted 

 with their struggles and beaten by the surf, they probably nearly all succumb. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. Coasts and islands of the north Atlantic and 

 Arctic Oceans. From New Brunswick (Grand Manan), Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence (Bird Rock), and Newfoundland, and north along the Lab- 

 rador coast to Greenland (west coast to Tasiusak). Also from Ice- 

 land, Faroe Islands, and British Isles (south to Channel Islands) ; 

 east to coast of Norway and Lapland. Recorded as far north as 

 Mallemukfjeldet, northeast Greenland, latitude 81 12', but not 

 breeding. May possibly have bred in Maine many years ago. 



Winter range. South along the Atlantic coasts. From southern 



