THE LITTLE AUK. m 



Shetlands late enough in spring to acquire the black on the front of the neck; 

 and as late as the end of May, Saxby obtained examples about twenty miles 

 north-east of Unst ; these were in various states of plumage, for as this excellent 

 observer remarks, it is irregular in its changes of plumage, the old birds changing 

 first. Specimens in summer plumage have also been obtained in Norfolk. 



In some winters the Little Auk is more than usually common on our coasts, 

 and several memorable invasions have taken place. One of the latest, and perhaps 

 one of the greatest, took place during the very severe weather which was experienced 

 in January 1895 ; a great number of Little Auks perished on our and near our 

 coasts in the bitter gales which prevailed in that month. Towards the 

 close of the month numbers were seen passing south, in small flocks, down the 

 east coast, and many were washed ashore in an exhausted condition. On the coast 

 of Norfolk, Mr. Gurney records that, on the 2ist, the poor half-starved little 

 voyagers were seen in small flocks, flying a few yards above the sea, near enough 

 to the beach for an observer to estimate that one flock contained a hundred. 

 About two hundred and fifty were recorded from Redcar, and numbers from 

 Scarborough ; while in Norfolk, Mr. Gurney accounted for nearly three hundred, 

 picked up or otherwise obtained. At the same time many Little Auks were blown 

 far inland ; five examples were picked up in various parts of Oxfordshire for 

 instance, and it is highly probable that others were overlooked. A good many 

 were recorded from the west of Scotland at the same time. Mr. J. E. Harting 

 wrote of the Little Auks : " They have indeed had a rough time of it, not only 

 buffeted to death by wind and wave, or shot by the coast gunners, but seized upon 

 in their helpless condition by the larger Gulls, and promptly devoured." He 

 mentions crushed but entire examples found in the stomachs of Great Black-backed 

 and Glaucous Gulls, and gives the weight of a Little Auk sent to him as 4*5 

 ounces (" Zoologist," 1895, p. 68). Mr. Gurney remarks that very few of the 

 Little Auks procured in Norfolk were in full winter plumage, and that one from 

 Cromer had the sides and lower part of the neck nearly black ; and he quotes 

 evidence to the effect that females preponderated in that invasion, while almost all 

 the earlier ones sent to one taxidermist were females, and nearly all the later 

 comers males (" Zoologist," 1896, p. 171). A small invasion of this species on the 

 east coast was noticed in the early part of 1897. 



The Little Auk inhabits the North Atlantic and the Greenland and Barents 

 Seas, and breeds in the Arctic Regions. It breeds on Griuisey Island to the 

 north-west of Iceland, Jan Mayen Island, Spitsbergen and Novaya Zemlya; on 

 the shores of Greenland, north of the Arctic circle and as far up as Smith Sound,, 

 where Colonel Feilden observed it as far as 79 N. latitude ; it breeds abundantly 



