260 AVES NATATORES. [FRATERCULA. 



yellowish brown; membranes greenish brown. (Summer plumage.) 

 Head, cheeks, throat, and neck, deep sooty black ; a small white spot 

 above the eyes: the rest as in winter. (Young of the year.) Distin- 

 guished by their shorter and smaller bill: plumage similar to that of 

 the adult in winter. (Egg.) Of a uniform pale blue : long. diam. one 

 inch seven lines ; trans, diam. one inch one line. 



Very abundant in the Arctic Regions, where it breeds. Met with occa- 

 sionally on the British coasts during the winter season. Lays two eggs, 

 which are deposited in the holes and crevices of the steepest rocks. Food, 

 marine insects and Crustacea. 



GEN. 104. FRATERCULA, Briss. 



275. F. arctica, Steph. (Puffing Crown, collar and 

 back, black; cheeks, throat, breast and belly, white. 



Mormon Fratercula, Temm. Man. cTOrn. torn. n. p. 933. Puffin, 

 Mont. Orn. Diet. $ Supp. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. 11. p. 404. 

 Selb. Illust. vol. ii. p. 439. pi. 83*. 



DIMENS. Entire length thirteen inches six lines : length of the bill 

 (from the forehead) one inch eleven lines, (from the gape) one inch six 

 lines ; height of the bill at the base one inch seven lines ; length of the 

 tarsus one inch one line; of the tail two inches two lines; from the carpus 

 to the end of the wing six inches six lines. 



DESCRIPT. (Adult at all seasons.) Crown of the head, a broad collar 

 surrounding the neck, and all the upper parts of the body, deep glossy 

 black : quills dusky brown : cheeks, throat, and a broad band above the 

 eyes, grayish white; breast, belly, and rest of the under parts, pure 

 white : bill bluish gray at the base, orange-yellow in the middle, bright 

 red at the tip ; upper mandible with three obliquely transverse furrows ; 

 lower mandible with two : irides, and horny appendages to the eyelids, 

 grayish white: orbits red: legs orange-red ; claws black. (Young of the 

 year.) Bill much smaller and narrower; the sides smooth, with the trans- 

 verse furrows very indistinctly marked; colour yellowish brown: space 

 between the eye and the bill dusky ash ; cheeks and throat of a deeper 

 gray than in the adult bird; collar inclining to dusky gray: legs dull 

 red. (Egg.) White; indistinctly spotted with ash-gray : long. diam. two 

 inches three lines ; trans, diam. one inch seven lines. 



Found in great abundance on many parts of the British coast during 

 the spring and summer months. First seen about the middle of April. 

 Breeds in the crevices of rocks, and, in some places, in holes in the ground 

 burrowed out for the purpose. Deposits a single egg about the middle of 

 May. Towards the end of August or beginning of September, leaves the 

 British kingdom, and retires southward for the Winter. Food, small fish, 

 particularly sprats, marine Crustacea and insects, occasionally sea-weed. 



GEN. 105. ALCA, Linn. 



276. A. Torda, Linn. (Razor-Bill.) Wings reach- 

 ing to the rump : bill black, with a transverse white band : 

 a narrow white line in advance of the eye. 



