470 ALCAD^. 



sex, Kent, and Sussex. On the other side of the Channel, 

 on the coasts of Holland and France, the Little Auk is 

 taken in severe winters. During the early part of No- 

 vember, 1841, a few of these birds were sent for sale to the 

 London markets. Some were taken at unusual distances 

 inland. Mr. Thrale, a collector in Hertfordshire, sent me 

 notice of one, now in his possession, that was obtained on 

 the mill-head at Wheathamstead. Another was picked up 

 alive between Baldock and Royston, and is now preserved 

 in the Museum at Saffron "Walden. I heard of others 

 taken near Birmingham. Mr. Strickland recorded nine 

 taken in Worcestershire ; three in Shropshire ; some at 

 Bristol, and other parts near the Severn. The Little Auk 

 is, however, a rare bird in the counties of Devon and 

 Cornwall. Mr. W. Thompson has noticed its occurrence 

 in Ireland at "Wexford, and at Kerry ; at the latter it is 

 suspected that it may breed in the same locality as 

 Brunnich's Guillemot. It has been shot in winter in 

 Cumberland. 



North of Shetland it is found in different parts of Scan- 

 dinavia. It breeds on the most northern of the Faroe 

 Islands ; and Mr. Proctor tells me that it breeds also at 

 Iceland ; he found the eggs laid under stones on Grimsey 

 island. Some writers say this little bird lays but one egg; 

 others say two ; they are very rarely to be seen in collec- 

 tions ; the length is one inch seven lines, the breadth one 

 inch one line, and the colour a uniform pale blue, not un- 

 like in colour the eggs of our Common Starling. 



The Little Auk goes as far north as Nova Zembla, 

 Spitzbergen, and Greenland. Sir Edward Parry, while 

 accompanied by Captain James C. Ross, obtained one 

 specimen as far north as latitude 81, with the Common 

 Guillemot that has already been referred to, and these 

 were the only two species of birds seen in that high 



