MARBLED GUILLEMOT^LITTLE AUK—RAZORBILL 



28 



Marbled 

 Guillemot. 



The short-beaked guillemots are distinguished by their small size 

 as well as by the short beak, which is strongly compressed at the 

 sides. One species, the marbled guillemot (Brachyrhamphus marmoratus), inhabits 

 the north-western coast of North America, and is blackish brown barred with 

 rufous above, and white below. 



Ltti Auk. ^ ne °^ the smallest °f au sea-birds is the little auk, or rotche 



(Alle nigricans), which breeds within the Arctic Circle nearly up to 

 79° N. latitude, and occasionally wanders as far south in winter as the Azores and 

 Canaries. This bird appears during May in its breeding-places, of which it takes 

 possession with much clamour, such breeding-places being always situated on low 

 shores and never on cliffs. In June, when the snow has melted, the female lavs 

 her one greenish white egg, which is about the size of that of a dove, and thus 

 comparatively large for so small a bird. The parents sit on the egg alternatelv 

 with much assiduity ; and, when sufficiently strong, the young are conducted by 

 them to the sea. These birds remain on shore only during the breeding-season 



LITTLE AUK. 



and never resort to fresh w r ater from choice, being essentially sea-birds ; they are, 

 however, often driven inland by winter storms. 



The last incursion of little auks into the British Isles occurred in January 

 1912, and was due to the stormy weather which prevailed in the early part of that 

 month. The birds seem to have struck the coast in greatest numbers between 

 Norfolk and the Firth o£ Forth, those reported from the western and midland 

 counties having probably travelled from the east. Although the number of birds 

 appears to have been fewer than in the visitation of 1895, they seem to have 

 spread over a w r ider area of country. 



An allied bird breeding within the Arctic Circle, and likewise 

 largely to the south of the same, is the razorbill (Alca torda),- the 

 breeding-area of this species including countries as remote from one another as 

 Jan Mayen, Brittany, Greenland, and Maine. Young razorbills leave the cliffs on 

 which they were hatched at the tender age of less than three weeks, when only 

 half-fledged. Encouraged by the screaming and expressive gestures of the old 

 birds, they leap dow r n in the same manner as young guillemots, many of them 

 falling on rocks instead of into the water, and thus perishing miserably. Normally 



Razorbill. 



