LIST OK ANI.MALS OF SlML'ZHKUCiKN. 155 



*' dark-coloured, tastes, according to Dr. Scorcsby, a little 

 i like the liver of some animals, and is not unpleasant eating. 

 I (1. c. 532.) 



Rotge. Page 68. 

 AacTiCA AiiLE — the Little Auk or Common Rotche. 



, This species is very abundant in Spitzbergen, and' was 

 '\ seen and heard as far north as Sir Edward Parry and his 

 party travelled. Admiral Beechey, in his narrative, speaks 

 { of a high pyramidal mountain of granite in ]\Iagdalena Bay, 

 " termed Rotge Hill, from the myriads of small birds of that 

 name which frequent its base, and which appear to prefer its 

 environs to every other part of the harbour. They are so 

 numerous, that we have frequently seen an uninterrupted 

 line of them extending full half way over the bay, or to a 

 distance of more than three miles, and so close together that 

 thirty have fallen at one shot. This living column, on an 

 average, might have been about six yards broad and as many 

 deep ; so that, allowing sixteen birds to a cubic yard, there 

 must have been nearly four millions of birds on the wing at 

 one time. . . When it is told that the little rotges rise in such 

 numbers as completely to darken the air, and that their 

 chorus is distinctly audible at a distance of four miles, the 

 estimate will not be thought to bear any deduction." — V^oy- 

 age of Dorothea and Trent, pp. 46, 47. Dr. Scoresby says 

 they feed on shrimps, and are found in greatest numbers in 

 the turbid dark-green coloured sea. On the approach of 

 thick weather, he remarks, they are particularly noisy (1. c. 

 p. 528). 



Mallemucke. Page 75. 

 Procellauia GiiAciALis — the Fulmar Petrel. 



Abundant around Spitzbergen. Sir J. C. Ross {A^jp. to 

 Parn/s Nar., p. 196) says it was one of the few birds which 

 were found at the northernmost latitude attained by the ex- 

 pedition. This bird is the constant companion of the whale- 



