LITTLE AUK. 281 



MERGULUS ALLE (Linnaeus). 

 LITTLE AUK. 



Mr. Stevenson has left a note on this species appa- 

 rently written in 1863, which, though long, I have no 

 hesitation in quoting in full : " This curious little sea- 

 bird has hitherto been described as only an occasional 

 and storm-driven wanderer to our coasts, but I think I 

 shall be able to prove, from my own notes on the species, 

 that it has undoubted claims to be considered an annual 

 visitant, though in small numbers. I find that since 

 1852 I have, seen in the hands of our Norwich bird- 

 stuffers from one to six or eight specimens in each suc- 

 ceeding year, the total number amounting to between 

 thirty-five and forty examples, of which at least half 

 have been picked up in a dead or dying state far inland. 

 Nearly all have appeared with singular regularity 

 between the first week in November and the end of 

 December, two or three chance specimens only being 

 obtained in February or as late as the 18th March.* 



"Judging, therefore, from these statistics of many 

 successive writers, I believe that the little auk appears 



* In confirmation of Mr. Stevenson's conclusions, I append 

 the following list of the recorded occurrence of the little auk 

 in Norfolk, with dates. Hunt (" British Ornithology ") mentions 

 one of these birds having been taken at North Walsham, on 

 4th or 5th November, 1821, the only precise date given by him. 

 Messrs. Gurney and Fisher, as referred to further on, men- 

 tion the occurrence of great numbers in October, 1841. In Mr. 

 Dowell's notes he gives December 1st and 9th, 1846 ; November 

 24th, 1849 ; November, 1850 ; " early part of winter," 1849-50 ; 

 November llth, 1853 ; and he also mentions that Lord Leicester 

 procured one at Holkham or Wells during the hard weather in 

 February and March, 1853. Mr. Norgate has notes of one 

 November 9th, 1861 ; and another November 18th, 1874 ;. others 

 occurred in October, 1867, and on the llth and 16th of November, 

 1870 (both in the Keswick collection) ; one was found dead on 4th 

 December, 1872 ; and many were obtained between the 5th and 

 9th November, and the 3rd and 18th December, 1878 ; also one 

 on the 15th January, 1886, at Cromer. Mr. Pashley, of Cley, had 

 one killed on the 4th and another on the 25th February, 1889. It 

 will thus be seen that Mr. Stevenson's observations with regard 

 to the frequent occurrence of this species in the last two months 

 of the year are fully borne out. 

 2 N 



