RAZOR-BILL. 477 



feathers, grooved towards the point, the superior mandible hooked, the 

 under one forming with it a salient angle. Nostrils lateral, marginal, 

 linear, near the middle of the beak, the aperture almost entirely closed 

 by a membrane covered with feathers. Legs short, abdominal ; only three 

 toes, all in front, entirely united by membrane ; claws but slightly curved. 

 Wings short, tail pointed. 



THE RAZOR-BILL so closely resembles the Common 

 Guillemot in the localities it frequents ; in the time of its 

 movements ; in its manners, habits, and food ; in its gene- 

 ral colours and appearance, and the seasonal changes of its 

 plumage ; that the history of the one species before given 

 is the history of the other, and repetition would be useless. 

 The egg of the Razor-bill, however, differs in size, form, 

 and colour ; it wants the lengthened pear shape of that of 

 the Guillemot, as well as its agreeable green colour ; it 

 measures only two inches and three-quarters in length, by 

 one inch and ten lines in breadth ; the ground colour is 

 white, blotched and spotted with red-brown, and blackish- 

 brown. The bird is found in Greenland, and on most of 

 the islands of the Arctic Seas, and the Zoological Society 

 have received a young bird in its first winter dress from 

 Tangiers; it also appears occasionally in winter on the 

 shores of Italy and Sicily, but this is the furthest southern 

 range I am able to quote for it. 



Both sexes are alike in plumage, and in summer the beak 

 is black, with three transverse grooves, and one white line 

 on the upper mandible, two transverse grooves and a white 

 line on the lower mandible ; from the top of the beak to 

 each eye there is a well-defined streak of pure white; 

 irides dark brown ; the whole of the head, chin, throat, 

 hind neck, back, wings, and tail black ; the tips of the 

 secondary quill -feathers, the breast, and all the under sur- 

 face of the body pure white : legs, toes, and their mem- 

 branes brownish-black ; whole length about seventeen 

 inches ; wing, from the wrist seven inches and a half. 



