30 BLACK-AND-WHITE BIRDS. 



sometimes four, large blotched eggs on the bare rock, 

 or among the shingle a short distance above high- 

 water mark, or in holes in the turf inshore. The 

 Oyster-Catcher is the only shore-bird combining with 

 bold black-and-white plumage bright-red legs and a 

 long, bright-red, straight bill. 



RAZORBILL. Plate 16. Length, 17 inches. 

 General colour of upper parts and throat black, the 

 former with a greenish cast, the latter brownish ; 

 a narrow white transverse bar on the wings ; under 

 parts white ; bill massive, black, shaped like a razor- 

 head, and crossed centrally by a thin, white, curving 

 line ; a white line extending from the base of the 

 upper mandible to the eye ; legs and webbed feet 

 blackish-brown. Resident. 



Egg. 1, cream-white, blotched and spotted, and 

 sometimes zoned, with blackish-brown and reddish- 

 brown markings, underlying paler ones seeming to 

 show up from beneath the dull, chalky surface ; 

 2-9x1-9 inches (plate 123). 



Nest. None, the egg being placed in a crevice, or 

 in a hollow of a ledge of a sea-cliff, or in a burrow 

 in the turf -cap above the cliff. 



Distribution. Throughout the British Islands ; 

 found on the cliffs during the breeding season, on the 

 open sea at other times. 



The Razorbill breeds in colonies in the company of 

 the Common Guillemot, depositing its one egg in a 

 cranny or hollow on the cliff-face. Though generally 

 less numerous than the Guillemots, the Razorbills 



