RAZOR-BILL. 10? 



lay two eggs each instead of one, in holes or crevices of pre- 

 cipitous rocks, and at some distance from the aperture ; sometimes, 

 where no such nest-sites are available, on the bare ground, 

 under or between fragments of rock or large stones. They 

 are most commonly white more or less tinged with bkie, speckled, 

 spotted and blotched or marbled with chestnut brown, very dark 

 brown and a kind of neutral tint. Fig. 3, plate X. 



283. LITTLE AUK(Jf*ry/tf melanolencos). 

 I have rarely seen any bird, much more a very small bird like 

 this, whose whole air and deportment conveyed to me more com- 

 pletely the idea of entire independence. Only under the pressure 

 of severe storms or long continued hard weather do they leave 

 the deep sea in order to seek the comparative shelter of some 

 land-sheltered bav or reach. It breeds on the Faroe Isles and in 

 Iceland, but not in Britain. 



284. PUFFIN (Fratercula arcticci). 



Sea Parrot, Coulterneb, Tammy Norie. This is, one may safely 

 say, the quaintest-looking of all the host of our English birds. 

 The young Owl is grotesque enough, but more by reason of its 

 deliberate solemn-seeming and yet laughable movements; but 

 the Puffin, with its upright attitude and huge ribbed and painted 

 beak reminding one somewhat strongly of the highly-coloured 

 pasteboard noses of preposterous shape and dimensions which 

 decorate the windows of the toy-shop strikes us as more laugh- 

 ably singular yet. They breed abundantly about many of our 

 rocky coasts in all parts of the kingdom, depositing their one egg 

 a large one, again, in proportion to the size of the bird some- 

 times in crannies or rifts in the surface of the cliff, often verjr far 

 back ; at other times in rabbit-burrows where such excavations 

 are to be met with sufficiently near the coast and otherwise suit- 

 able to the wants of the bird. It does not follow that because 

 the Puffin occupies the hole, that the rabbit had forsaken it or 

 even given it up " for a consideration." On the contrary the 

 Puffin is quite ready and equally able to seize on and continue to 

 occupy the desired home by force of arms. In other cases they 

 dig their own holes, and often excavate them to the depth of two 

 or three feet. The eggs are nearly white before they become 

 soiled that is spotted and marbled with a tinge of ash colour. 



285. RAZOR-BILL (Alca torda). 



Razor-bill Auk, Black-billed Auk, Murre, Marrot. It may 

 almost be said that wherever the Guillemot is met with the 

 Razor-Bill is sure not to be far distant. They have their habits, 

 their food, their haunts, even to a great degree their general ap- 



