38 THE AUKS 



cry is, for the most part, a weak, twittering sound, but occasionally 

 rises into a very feeble little wail or scream. All the while the bird 

 is uttering it, he keeps raising and again depressing his head and 

 opening his beak so as to show conspicuously the inside of his mouth, 

 which is of a very pretty rose or blush-red hue, almost as vivid as that 

 of the feet." 1 



Whether the cock feeds the hen is not recorded. Both share in 

 the incubation of the eggs, 2 which are laid on the ground, no nest 

 being built. Both, again, share in feeding the young. " They bring, 

 each time, a single fish a sand-eel, often of a fair size and disappear 

 with it into the hole, reappearing shortly afterwards. . . . What I 

 particularly noticed was that when the bird that had taken a fish in 

 had come out again, the other, even though it had nothing, would 

 always go in too, as though to pay the chick a little visit. It stayed 

 about the same time less than a minute that is to say." 3 



From this account, and Naumann's, 4 it appears that the young 

 are fed on fish. The diet of the parents, as already noted, is said to 

 consist chiefly of crabs. In their method of pursuing their prey the 

 species does not seem to differ from the guillemot and other Auks, 

 unless it be that they make more use of the legs, which appears to 

 have been the opinion of Saxby. He states that after diving beneath 

 the surface, they move "quickly from rock to rock by the help 

 of feet and wings, turning aside the long weeds with their bills, and 

 after each capture of fish or crustacean, coming to the surface to 

 complete the process, seldom making another dive without half-rising 

 from the water, and flapping the wings to free them from superfluous 

 moisture." 5 According to Mr. E. Selous, the wings only are used. 

 Saxby may have meant that the feet are used in turning, and this may 

 be true of the other Auks. 



Saxby goes on to mention that " for some time after the descent 



1 Bird Watcher in the Shetland*, p. 128. 



3 Saxby, Birds of Shetland, p. 297 ; Naumann, op. tit., p. 240. See also " Classified Notes." 



3 E. Selous, Bird Watcher in the Sfietlanda, p. 72. 



4 Op. tit., p. 240. 6 Birds of Shetland, p. 297. 



